RIP Joe Frazier

Lovely tribute by Stephen Brunt on Frazier.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/more/2011/11/08/brunt_frazier/

 

Frazier gets a huge chapter in Brunt's terrific book, Facing Ali. Definitely worth looking for for anyone who thought they had read everything there was to read about Ali.

 

A champion boxer overshadowed by Ali. RIP Smokin' Joe.

 

And James Taylor and his band got tickets because MSG had to reschedule their concert, according to a documentary I saw. Taylor laughed about how bad the tickets were that they got.

 

One thing I've learned over the years is to never question Huggy's knowledge of boxing and porn history.

He doesn't know jack-shit about junior hockey, however.

RIP Smokin' Joe. Another childhood icon down.

 

Smokin' Joe was lots of things: great heavyweight champ, trainer, song and dance man, commercial pitchman etc. What he wasn't was a swimmer. Here are the swimming heats from the 1973 Superstars, some memories here for those of us of a certain vintage.

 

I don't remember Joe partying.
As for Futch throwing in the towel, he did the right thing. He just threw it in BEFORE Ali quit.

 

Overlooked is the fact that Ali had been inactive from the ring for three and a half years leading up to the first Frazier fight. A full four years had elapsed since Ali had last fought for the heavyweight title due to his suspension from boxing. Drafted into the Army nine months shy of this 26th birthday, Ali was at the time, in the prime of his boxing life and just beginning to reach the pinnacle of his athletic prowess. After dominating the seemingly invincible Sonny Liston a second time, many fight fans claimed Ali was the greatest heavyweight ever. The quickness and speed that were Ali's hallmarks ("he couldn't have been hit with a bucket of birdseed.") were severally compromised by the layoff. I don't think it is a stretch to say that had Ali been allowed to continue his career uninterrupted, that Joe Frazier wouldn't have stood a chance against him.

 

Yeah, that's a shame.

That Ted Williams guy might have put up some numbers too if not for his military service.

 

Coulda, woulda and shoulda isn't in the dictionary. Fact is the Ali-Frazier triology was classic.

 

Best possible response.

 

Read Kram, Brunt, Liebling, Remnick, Sugar, whoever.

This is the final word:

http://www.boxinginsider.com/headlines/classic-biofile-remembering-smokin-joe-frazier-1944-2011/