Boxer Profile- Smokin' Joe Frazier

When discussing the greatest ever heavyweights everyone mentions Muhammed Ali. A name that doesn't always get mentioned is his greatest rival Joe Frazier, a man who helped make Ali the icon he is. So why is Frazier not regarded as one of the top 5 heavyweights by many? And more over, what did Ali's nemesis do other than the three fights with The Greatest?

Born in Beaufort, North Carolina on January 1944 Joseph Frazier would become an Olympic champion, a World Heavyweight champion, a 2 time Fighter of the Year and he was featured in 4 Fights of the year as well as being one of the most important boxers in modern history.

Joe would first rise to international prominence in 1964 at the Tokyo games following on from the likes of Ed Sanders (1952) and Pete Radamacher (1956) in the heavyweight division (and of course Muhammad Ali taking the light heavyweight gold in 1960). Frazier took the gold beating Hans Huber 3-2 in the final after stopping his opponents in the first 3 rounds on the way to the final. Though what made it more interesting was the fact Frazier had actually lost the fight to decide who was going to the Olympics to Buster Mathis, though Mathis had been injured and Frazier filled in winning gold.

After this he would quickly turn professional in an unusual business model, he was managed by a group of business men that former Cloverlay.inc set up by trainer Yank Durham, this allowed Frazier to concentrate solely on boxing training. The group would earn a percentage of his purse and he'd be treat effectively like a business asset, of course the higher risk fighters would earn more money but be bigger risk, though if he was good enough it would be a good risk and one worth taking.

His debut fight was against Woody Goss in 1965 and Frazier would win by TKO in the first round, in fact his first 11 wins were by stoppage (4 in '65 and 7 in 1966). The stoppage run was ended when he met rugged and tough Argentinian Oscar Bonavena who was the first man to extend Frazier the distance. The Bonavena fight was a controversial split decision win for Frazier, despite being put down twice in the 2nd round. The Bonavena fight was followed with another tough assignment, this time it was Eddie Machen. Going in Machen had been stopped once (first round KO to Ingemar Johansson) but had taken some top fighters the distance such as Zora Folley (twice), Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, Jerry Quarry and Ernie Terrel. Frazier managed to stop him in the 10th round.

Starting 1967 at 13-0 with 12 stoppages Frazier was quickly rising the rankings and facing top contenders on the way there. With 2 seasoning fights both ending early (Doug Jones KO6 and Jefferson Davis KO5) it wasn't until his the third fight of the year that the judges score cards would be needed as George Johnson took Frazier the distance (unanimous decision).

Following the Johnson fight Frazier again stepped up the competition facing Canadian George Chuvalo. As an amateur Chuvalo was unbeaten with 16 wins from 16 starts all ending by KO, as a professional he was tough, rugged and possessed one of the toughest chins in heavyweight history as well as very respectable power. At the time of their fights Frazier was 16-0 with 14 KO's, Chuvalo was 47-13-2 with 40 KO's, Frazier became the first man in history to stop Chuvalo, though it was a referee stoppage and Chuvalo himself never went down and in fact Chuvalo had suffered a fractured left orbital to cause the stoppage.

Two more fights finished early as Frazier ended the year with a record of 19-0 (17KO's) and he was one of the top 2 fighters according to the NYSAC (New York State Athletic Committee) who had long been established as one of the governing bodies as far a boxing titles. With Muhammad Ali being banned NYSAC had stripped him of the title in 1967 and the title had been vacant since, and had lined up a fight between two unbeaten men who had known each other form back in the amateurs.

The man Frazier found himself matched with for the NYSAC title was Buster Mathis the man who's place at the Olympics Frazier had taken. Mathis was 23-0 with 17 KO's (including a streak of 10 straight KO's) and the rematch of the Olympic trial. Frazier would stop Mathis in the 11th round (of a scheduled 15) to earn the NYSAC recognition of the title. Just 31 months after turning professional he had a claim to be regarded the world champion, a claim he defended against Manuel Ramos via TKO in the 2nd round.

After the Ramos match a rematch with Bonavena followed 27 months after their highly disputed first match with the NYSAC title again on the line. Again Frazier would take the victory the extra experience coming in handy as he won the rematch quite handily over 15 rounds. Frazier's first fight of 1969 was against Dave Zyglewicz who had managed to get a record of 28-1, again the world title claim of Frazier's as on the line. Ziggy (as Zyglewicz was known) was stopped in the first round though has the unique claim to fame of being the first fighter in history to have a surname starting with Z and challenging for a world heavyweight title.

The following fight though was much more meaningful against Jerry Quarry a fighter who had a record of 31-2-4 and had never been stopped. He'd scored notable wins including over Floyd Patterson and Buster Mathis, though had fallen short in a previous title fight (against WBA champion Jimmy Ellis) losing a majority decision. Frazier again scored the stoppage, in between the 7th and 8th round due to cuts around his eyes. This was the first fight of Fraziers to be regarded as fight of the year by Ring Magazine.

Since 1967 the world title had been split into the NYSAC and the WBA title, but at the start of 1970 Jimmy Ellis (27-5) the WBA champion had agreed to meet with Fraizer the NYSAC champion (the vacant WBC title was also on the line) to unify the titles and leave the world with a single champion. The fight ended in the 5th round as Ellis was stopped and Frazier become the unified world champion, though some still regarded Ali as champion he had technically retired early in 1970 to allow the winner of the Ellis-Frazier to be the champion.

Whilst Ali had been banned Frazier had been campaigning for the ban to be lifted, a little known fact was that Frazier had helped Ali financially through the times (this is mentioned in the documentary: The Thrilla in Manilla). At the end of 1970 Ali made his long awaited comeback beating Jerry Quarry in by TKO in the 3rd round in October, in November Frazier stopped Bob Foster (one of great light heavyweights) in the second round. Calls for Ali-Frazier had started up.
Ali had one more fight (against Frazier's old adversary Bonavena, TKO15) in December or 1970 then they were ready.

Dubbed The Fight of the Century the first fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier was the highlight of 1971 in boxing. The peoples champion and the man who many had felt was still the champion had a chance to get his belts back, whilst Frazier finally got the chance to prove he really was the best in the world. The fighters went in with records of 26(23)-0 (Frazier) and 31(26)-0 (Ali) and some ones 0 had to go which added even more to the fight, in fact if ever a fight sold it's self this was it. The fight lived upto the hype as it was a war which saw Ali's 0 go on a close but clear unanimous decision with Frazier going to 27-0 and retaining the belts, and now his claim really was undisputed.

After almost a year out of the ring Frazier returned with 2 much easier fights against Terry Daniels (TKO4) and Ron Stander (TKO5). Defending his titles against both of them, whilst another unbeaten fighter lay in wait, a hard hitting monster from Texas by the name of George Foreman. Frazier was 29-0 whilst Foreman was 37-0 having scored 34 KO's including 21 straight KO's coming into the fight over the previous 3 years. Sadly for Frazier he was abused like he'd never been abused in a boxing ring before as Foreman effectively bounced him off the canvas like a personified yo-yo before the referee stopped the beating. Frazier had lost his titles, his unbeaten record and been decimated all in the same night.

6 months later Frazier would return to take a rather easy fight and a points win over British based fighter Joe Bugner before a rematch with Ali which would see Frazier lose via decision for the only time in his career. By now it was looking like Frazier was done for, the venomous bobbing and weaving fighter with dynamite fists looked like he was on the wane. Though rematches with Jerry Quarry (TKO5) and Jimmy Ellis (TKO9) suggested their was still something there. A third fight with Ali was arranged in 1975, to be fought in Manilla in the Philippines with Ali's WBC and WBA titles on the line, a rubber match between the two dubbed The Thrilla In Manilla. Ali had seemingly under-estimated Frazier and thought he was more gone than he was, either that or Frazier had managed to get it up for one final fight, that really did live up to the billing.

The two stood trading bombs in a none stop battle of heart and guts in a fight many regard as the best heavy weight fight of all time, Frazier rolled back the clock and gave Ali all he could take for 14 rounds. At the end of the 14th round Eddie Futch, Frazier's long term trainer pulled his man out of the contest due to the damage to Frazier's eye. According to the HBO documentary The Thrilla In Manilla Ali was ready to quit but his trainer Angelo Dundee wouldn't let him at the same time Futch stopped the contest. The fight would go on to to be awarded Ring Magazines Fight of the year 1975 and be the final great showing by Frazier.

In his next contest he was again stopped by Foreman (this time making it to the 5th round) before retiring with a record of 32-4. After the retirement he featured in Rocky and became a boxing trainer in the gym he bought in 1973 from his former management consortium.

With Ali still fighting in the early 1980's Frazier returned to the ring in 1981 though he only managed a 10 round draw with Floyd Jumbo Cummings before retiring again, there were rumours that the comeback was an attempt to lure Ali into a fourth fight. The comeback ended either with the draw to Cummings or with Ali's loss to Trevor Berbick 8 days later (depending on the real reason for the comeback.

Despite his final record of 32-4-1, it's unlikely the 5 foot 11 Frazier will ever be remembered as a real top 10 heavyweight, this despite victories over Ali, Quarry (twice), Ellis (twice), Bonavena (twice) and Chuvalo.