Joe Frazier is often best remembered as one of Muhammed Ali’s greatest rivals. They battled it out on three occasions, creating one of the sport’s most well-known trilogies. Still, there was much more to Smokin’ Joe’s life than just that rivalry.
Frazier’s Early Life and Family Struggles
Joe Frazier’s family, consisting of twelve siblings, was raised in the rural community of Laurel Bay, South Carolina. Frazier’s parents found it hard to support twelve children, and the family endured poverty, leading to drop out of school at fourteen and start working on a farm full-time with his father.
Frazier quickly learned that working on farms had many risks back then. He had an incident once where a hawk was chasing him. While running away from the hawk, he tripped over a rock and fell, breaking his arm. Due to his parents’ financial situation, they couldn’t afford a doctor, so his arm never healed correctly, meaning he could never fully straighten his left arm again.
Frazier’s Relationship with His Father
When Frazier’s father lost an arm the year Frazier was born, they struggled with many jobs on the farm, including pulling a two-man saw. Because his father had only one hand, Frazier pulled it on his own with his crooked left arm, which made his left arm more robust than ever.
After some more time on the farm, Joe Frazier eventually had to leave South Carolina after a run-in with his boss, who threatened to beat him up. Frazier had no option but to settle with relatives in Philadelphia and get a job in a meat packing plant.
Discovering Boxing
As a 15-year-old, Frazier set foot in a boxing gym for the first time in 1961, intending to learn how to defend himself and lose some weight. He was far from the most significant or brutal in the gym, but he was the hardest-working, and no one else in the gym came close to having the work ethic he did.
Joe Frazier had always dreamed of doing something by himself. Many of those dreams focused on boxing, and as a young kid in South Carolina, he dreamed of becoming the next Joe Louis. Frazier took his first step in achieving those dreams when he began boxing as an amateur in 1961, shortly after which he caught the eye of trainer Yank Durham.
Joe Frazier: Training Under Yank Durham
Frazier learned how to add power and technique to his devastating left hook under Durham’s tutelage, which helped him win three straight Middle Atlantic Golden Gloves Championships while raising a family.
Frazier hoped to make the 1964 U.S. Olympic team, but first, he had to fight Buster Mathis, a fighter with a far superior amateur record, in the final Olympic trials. Mathis ultimately defeated Frazier.
A Second Chance at Olympic Glory
However, this wasn’t the end of the line for Frazier’s Olympic dreams. After Mathis broke his thumb while training, he had to pull out of the Olympics, which allowed Frazier to step in as an alternative.
Joe Frazier strongly started the Tokyo Olympic games, winning his two opening bouts by first-round knockout. He made it to the semi-finals without facing any real controversy. However, during his semi-final fight against Soviet boxer Vaid Yemelyanov, Frazier ironically broke his thumb. However, this didn’t stop “Smokin’ Joe,” as he knocked his opponent out in the second round.
Joe Frazier: The Olympic Final
Heading into the final, he knew his hand was in awful condition, but he soaked it in cold water and bravely skipped the X-ray. Frazier favoured his right hand throughout the final and rarely threw his notorious left hand. After five rounds, Frazier defeated Hans Huber of Germany 3-2 to become the Olympic champion.
Joe Frazier said after the fight, “I got what I came to Tokyo for,” although his attitude made it clear that despite winning the U.S. Olympics boxing team’s only gold medal, he still had unfinished business.
He was asked after the fight if he could take Mathis, only to reply, “Could I take Mathis? You bet I could. I could take him tonight or tomorrow”. Winning a gold medal didn’t provide the fame and status back then as it would in current times.
Returning to Philadelphia
Joe Frazier returned to Philadelphia with his gold medal and broken thumb, only to find no one to greet him. Instead of celebrating, he had no natural choice but to return to working in the slaughterhouse.
After talking it over with his coach, Frazier chose to turn professional in 1965. As a pro, he constantly attacked with his powerful left hook and used a bob-and-weave style. This helped him get an impressive 11-0 record in less than a year. He reached a 20-0 record before he faced his old rival, Buster Mathis.
Joe Frazier Fighting Buster Mathis Again
Muhammed Ali refused the military draft during the Vietnam War, which caused him to lose his world heavyweight title and led to this fight. With Ali not fighting, the New York Athletic Commission needed a new champion and said that the winner of this fight would be the “world champion.” This fight was essential to Frazier because it gave him a chance to be officially named the world champion, along with other personal reasons.
Controversy has always surrounded him since he made the Olympic team because of Mathis’s hand injury. Frazier had critics who said he “had no business winning a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics” before becoming professional.
This was a chance at redemption for Smokin’ Joe. Mathis came into the bout with an impressive 23-0 record. He was a big heavyweight then and showed many good skills during the bout. However, he didn’t have the same determination level as Frazier.
Frazier’s Victory Over Mathis
Frazier stopped Mathis in the 11th round with a huge left hook. Frazier defeated his next six opponents before becoming Undisputed Champion after defeating Jimmy Ellis (one of Ali’s main sparring partners) in 1970.
After defending his title once more against Bob Foster, Frazier’s next opponent was Ali. The fight was labelled as “The fight of the century,” Frazier had been pushing for Ali’s reinstatement and even helped Ali with his bills while he was banned from boxing. Frazier wanted this fight.
Joe Frazier: Ali’s Trash Talk
Ali had been trash-talking Frazier since before the fight had even been announced and claimed that his fight with Frazier would be the equivalent of “a good amateur fighting a real professional.” Frazier, however, took the trash-talking deeply personally after all his efforts to get Ali back in the ring.
Ali claimed he was promoting the fight; however, it didn’t need any trash-talking to encourage it. Two undefeated boxers faced off for the heavyweight championship for the first time. The bout also intrigued many Americans who didn’t usually follow boxing because of the controversy surrounding Ali’s title stripping. The media had made Ali an anti-establishment symbol, whereas the pro-war public had adopted Frazier.
The fight lived up to its title. Over 300 million people worldwide tuned in to watch, and what they saw was one of the greatest heavyweight fights of all time. The pace of the fight was ridiculously high from the start, and with both fighters having a huge contrast in style, it was an absolute war from round one.
Frazier’s Determination
Frazier was one of Ali’s first opponents not to show him any respect inside the ring, pressuring him every minute of every round and rarely taking a back step. The fight had just as many words thrown as it had punched; at one point, Ali shouted to Frazier, “Don’t you know you’re in here with God tonight?” only for Frazier to reply, “God picked the wrong night”. Frazier held Ali several times due to the big right-hand bombs he was throwing throughout the bout, shots that would have knocked out 99% of the heavyweight division.
Victory and Legacy
In the final round, Frazier dropped Ali with a huge left hook, helping him win the decision and handing 28-year-old Muhammad Ali his first defeat. This victory cemented Frazier as the best heavyweight in the world, and he put his name in history books as one of the greatest heavyweights to ever live.
