40 years ago, Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali to retain the heavyweight boxing championship. The way Ali has spun it since, you'd swear he actually won the fight, but he would subsequently beat Frazier and settle the score.
Today, Ali and the rest of the world are mourning "Smokin' Joe", who passed away at 67 after a brief bout with liver cancer.
The Ali-Frazier series was part of the Silver Age of Boxing, if you will, an era that also saw the likes of George Foreman, Jerry Quarry, and Earnie Shavers emerge. They were not only athletes, but personalities. Ali made movies, commercials, and even lent his likeness & voice to a Saturday morning cartoon. Frazier decided to moonlight as a cabaret singer, and even recorded for Motown.
Sonnyaveronajr uploaded this video to YouTube, which has Frazier, backed by an orchestra, queueing up a highlight reel of some of his greatest fights, while singing "1st Round Knockout".
It's fair to say that when "Smokin' Joe" came along, they broke the mold. Rest in peace, Joe. You'll be missed.
2 comments:
I remember Frazier a few years ago rather cruelly calling attention to Ali's current condition and asking rhetorically who really won their series of fights. By that standard, with Ali the last man standing, I guess we have a definitive answer.
Ali won the last fight, the "Thrilla in Manila", and won 2 of 3, IIRC. Ali now has Parkinson's Disease, and has had it for some time. We don't know exactly when Frazier was diagnosed with liver cancer; that news only came to light in the last few days. Any way you look at it, the world is poorer for the loss.
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