tagged w/ World Champion
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The New York Times...
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November 7, 2011
Joe Frazier, Ex-Heavyweight Champ, Dies at 67
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
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Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion whose furious and intensely personal fights with a taunting Muhammad Ali endure as an epic rivalry in boxing history, died Monday night. He was 67.
His business representative, Leslie Wolff, told The Associated Press in early November that Frazier had liver cancer and that he had entered hospice care.
Known as Smokin’ Joe, Frazier stalked his opponents around the ring with a crouching, relentless attack — his head low and bobbing, his broad, powerful shoulders hunched — as he bore down on them with an onslaught of withering jabs and crushing body blows, setting them up for his devastating left hook.
It was an overpowering modus operandi that led to versions of the heavyweight crown from 1968 to 1973. Frazier won 32 fights in all, 27 by knockouts, losing four times — twice to Ali in furious bouts and twice to George Foreman. He also recorded one draw.
A slugger who weathered repeated blows to the head while he delivered punishment, Frazier proved a formidable figure. But his career was defined by his rivalry with Ali, who ridiculed him as a black man in the guise of a Great White Hope. Frazier detested him.
Ali vs. Frazier was a study in contrasts. Ali: tall and handsome, a wit given to spouting poetry, a magnetic figure who drew adulation and approbation alike, the one for his prowess and outsize personality, the other for his anti-war views and Black Power embrace of Islam. Frazier: a bull-like man of few words with a blue-collar image and a glowering visage who in so many ways could be on an equal footing with his rival only in the ring.
Frazier won the undisputed heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971, in an extravaganza known as the Fight of the Century. Ali scored a 12-round decision at the Garden in a non-title bout in January 1974. Then came the Thrilla in Manila championship bout, in October 1975, regarded as one of the greatest fights in boxing history. It ended when a battered Frazier, one eye swollen shut, did not come out for the 15th round.
The Ali-Frazier battles played out at a time when the heavyweight boxing champion was far more celebrated than he is today, a figure who could stand alone in the spotlight a decade before an alphabet soup of boxing sanctioning bodies arose, making it difficult for the average fan to figure out just who held what title.
The rivalry was also given a political and social cast. Many viewed the Ali-Frazier matches as a snapshot of the struggles of the 1960s. Ali, an adherent of the Nation of Islam, came to represent rising black anger in America and opposition to the Vietnam War. Frazier voiced no political views, but he was nonetheless depicted, to his consternation, as the favorite of the establishment. Ali called him “ignorant,” likened him to a gorilla and said his black supporters were Uncle Toms.
“Frazier had become the white man’s fighter, Mr. Charley was rooting for Frazier, and that meant blacks were boycotting him in their heart,” Norman Mailer wrote in Life magazine following the first Ali-Frazier bout.
Frazier, wrote Mailer, was “twice as black as Clay and half as handsome,” with “the rugged decent life-worked face of a man who had labored in the pits all his life.”
Frazier could never match Ali’s charisma or his gift for the provocative quote. He was essentially a man devoted to a brutal craft, willing to give countless hours to his spartan training-camp routine and unsparing of his body inside the ring.
“The way I fight, it’s not me beatin’ the man: I make the man whip himself,” Frazier told Playboy in 1973. “Because I stay close to him. He can’t get out the way.” He added: “Before he knows it — whew! — he’s tired. And he can’t pick up his second wind because I’m right back on him again.”
In his autobiography, “Smokin’ Joe,” written with Phil Berger, Frazier said his first trainer, Yank Durham, had given him his nickname. It was, he said, “a name that had come from what Yank used to say in the dressing room before sending me out to fight: ‘Go out there, goddammit, and make smoke come from those gloves.’ “
Foreman knocked out Frazier twice but said he had never lost his respect for him. “Joe Frazier would come out smoking,” Foreman told ESPN. “If you hit him, he liked it. If you knocked him down, you only made him mad.”
CONTINUED...
.The New York Times...
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November 7, 2011
Joe Frazier, Ex-Heavyweight Champ,... more
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Time does fly very fast. And in a few hours, May 7, 2011 to be exact, all eyes will be glued in at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada for one of the greatest sporting event that is about to happen. This Sunday, the “number one” pound-for-pound boxer and eight-division world champion, Congressman Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao will be pitted against one of the United States' best boxers, the former WBA Welterweight Super Champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley. Many have been waiting for this fight to happen. The odds are different this time because Pacman will be slugging it out with a fighter who is stronger, bigger and would probably use a much different strategy unlike Pacman's previous opponents in the ring. This is one fight you sure don't wanna miss out on.
Click on the link to know more...
http://snitchcentral.com/index.php/2011/05/pacquiao-mosley-tale-tape/Time does fly very fast. And in a few hours, May 7, 2011 to be exact, all eyes will be... more
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Hollywood's ace comedian Will Ferrell and seven-division world champion, Congressman Manny Pacquiao, teamed up to sing “Imagine” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”. It was on Monday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, that Pacman showed up to promote his upcoming and very anticipated fight against Antonio Magarito. The fight is scheduled for November 13th in Jerry Jones’ new Cowboys Stadium.
During the show, Manny discussed his new role as a congressman in the Philippines, his new cologne and his upcoming fight with Margarito, The Pacman and comedian Will Ferrell went on to sing a cover of John Lennon’s "Imagine."
I wonder if Pacman would be doing the same if he guested on Adam Carolla's show?Hollywood's ace comedian Will Ferrell and seven-division world champion,... more
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The World Champion Monopoly player won the final game at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas when his opponent landed on Pacific and North Carolina Avenue and could not afford the rent due.The World Champion Monopoly player won the final game at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas... more
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He said his bout in Madison Square Garden against American boxing legend, Roy Jones Jr, was going to be his last fight. But could Joe Calzaghe be persuaded to return to the ring?
Joe's dad, and manager, Enzo Calzaghe said he wants his son to retain his unbeaten record, which after Saturday's points win now stands at 46 - 0!
But he has also hinted that should the right fight, at the right price, come Joe's way quickly, the Welsh champion could try to extend his perfect tally.
What do you think? It always depresses me to see brilliant sports men hang around too long and see their legend diminish.
So my advice to Joe would be; hang up you gloves and bow out at the top of your game!
He said his bout in Madison Square Garden against American boxing legend, Roy Jones... more
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The Briton held a seven-point lead over rival Felipe Massa going into the final race of the season, knowing he only had to finish fifth to win his first drivers' title.
And the 23-year-old McLaren driver drove a mature race to earn the necessary points, despite Massa crossing the line in first.
The start of the race was aborted for 10 minutes as a torrential downpour hit the Interlagos track.
Sunshine had primarily dominated the day in Sao Paulo, although heavy rain had been forecast.
The fact it arrived three minutes before the official start merely added to the drama for title hopefuls Hamilton and Massa.
With the majority of the grid having switched to wet-weather tyres, they eventually filed away for their formation lap, during which it was clear parts of the track were already starting to dry.
It was a clean start at the front but at the rear there was disaster for David Coulthard, whose final grand prix ended after just 300 metres when he was hit from behind by Williams' Nico Rosberg.
With the track drying, it was all a question of when the drivers would start to come in and switch to dry tyres.
Eventually, at the end of lap 10, Massa made his first stop, then it was the turn of Jarno Trulli, Kimi Raikkonen and Hamilton.
Hamilton then found himself held up by Giancarlo Fisichella, although that was not unsurprising as getting past him meant committing to an overtaking manoeuvre off the dry line.
Finally Hamilton went for it at the start of lap 18, taking the Italian on the inside at the entry to the Senna S.
After 40 laps Alonso and Hamilton then took on more fuel and fresh tyres.
After the shake-up of the second stops, Massa had returned to the lead, comfortably so by 8.1secs from Sebastien Vettel, followed by Fernando Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton, the latter 2.8secs behind the Ferrari.
It was a question now of Hamilton keeping his cool, especially after dropping to sixth, and he achieved his aim on the final bend after overtaking Timo Glock at the death. The Briton held a seven-point lead over rival Felipe Massa going into the final race... more
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