Heavyweight legend “Smokin’” Joe Frazier should today be celebrating his birthday. Born on this day 78 years ago, Frazier, like his one-time bitter rivals Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, came into the world in the cold month of January.
If Joe Frazier was still alive, if he had not sadly succumbed to liver cancer on November 7, 2011, the former heavyweight king who added so much to that golden era that was the 1970s would be 77 now.
October 1st, 1975 – Manila.
You know the rest.
It was 46 years ago today when titans, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier settled their brutal, thrilling, never-to-be-forgotten rivalry.
The Olympic Games are upon us: Tokyo 2021 (postponed as they were, for one of the very few times in history, last year).
90 year old Jerry Izenberg covered boxing in the golden era, during which all the greats – Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Larry Holmes and so many more – were boxing.
Individually, heavyweight legends Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier gave the boxing world some of the greatest fights ever seen.
Together, these two men, who dueled over the right to call themselves the best fighter in the world three times, might have given us THE two greatest heavyweight fights ever.
The biggest, some say the greatest fight of them all, took place 50 years ago today: a Monday night in New York.
There are certain fights, certain great fights, that never get old. In terms of retaining the ability to thrill, to make a fight fan feel like giving thanks for being a fight fan – for making us feel special, these fights deliver like no others can.
As Muhammad Ali fans know, as Joe Frazier fans know, and as fight historians everywhere know, this year marks the 50th anniversary of “The Fight Of The Century,” the epic first meeting between Ali and Frazier.
JOE FRAZIER-MUHAMMAD ALI I – 50TH ANNIVERSARY: “THE BIBLE OF BOXING”, RING MAGAZINE, PAYS HOMAGE TO THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY WITH THE ULTIMATE SPECIAL EDITION.