Joe Frazier was born in South Carolina in 1944. In his autobiography, he says he got into boxing when his uncle took a look at his nephew’s build, and said “that boy is going to be another Joe Louis” Frazier built his own heavy bag, out of a burlap sack filled with rags, corncobs, and bricks, and hung it from a tree on his back yard. He wrapped his hands in his mother’s stockings.
Frazier won a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics. But Smokin’ Joe’s real victory came when he found himself the first man to defeat Muhammad Ali in 1971, in the Fight of the Century. Fraizer became the Heavyweight Champion of the World. Watch for Frazier’s left hook. It’s legendary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMv8CgVnEOo&feature=related
That didn’t last. Ali came back, and defeated him — twice, most notably, in the epic Thrilla in Manilla in 1975, considered by boxing junkies to be one of the best matches of all time. At 5:23, Witness Frazier’s agony. It is not physical. It is is in eyes, as he learns he’s lost.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRth-5w0Lt8
Frazier retired for good in 1981. He opened his own boxing gym in Philadelphia. He died of liver cancer. He was sixty-seven.
