your opinion on Marvis Frazier?

[AntonioMartin]

go ahead...

[margaret thatcher]

I don't know much about him

One thing though, is a lot of what I've read makes him seem like a total joke, but he actually has some decent wins and was world amateur champ, so he must've been fairly handy.

[oogiebe]

Underrated fighter, I think. But came up short when he came up the two best fighters of his era - Holmes and Tyson, both of whom wiped him out in devastating style.

Pity really, because that's what people seem to remember Marvis for. He was good though, he had excellent work rate and decent skills, just couldn't hang with the very best.

Marvis Frazier was a 'small' heavyweight, he could probably have done the old crusierweight limit of 190 but obviously the rich pickings were up at heavyweight and then there was that thing about wanting to follow in his father's footsteps. Which was a mistake.

Exactly that.

[Woldemar]

Good heavyweight but in cruiserweight division he would be more successful.

[cfang]

Yes exactly that. Why on earth did they put him in with tyson though? Was crazy,

Underrated fighter, I think. But came up short when he came up the two best fighters of his era - Holmes and Tyson, both of whom wiped him out in devastating style.

Pity really, because that's what people seem to remember Marvis for. He was good though, he had excellent work rate and decent skills, just couldn't hang with the very best.

Marvis Frazier was a 'small' heavyweight, he could probably have done the old crusierweight limit of 190 but obviously the rich pickings were up at heavyweight and then there was that thing about wanting to follow in his father's footsteps. Which was a mistake.

Exactly that.

[oogiebe]

Yes exactly that. Why on earth did they put him in with tyson though? Was crazy,

Exactly that.

I remember thinking that exact thing when the match was made. Papa Joe was punch drunk. The kid went into a slaughterhouse.

[Controversial]

As others have said the CW division would have been better for him but he was a decent fighter. He was thrown in with Holmes far too quickly too, he only had 10 fights at that point and Holmes was 44-0

[orbtastic]

Weight and matchmaking with Holmes/Tyson aside (although it is covered well in this article from '86):

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/21/spor ... -best.html

I think the main issue was one of style - Marvis was not a brawler and definitely not a Philly style fighter (much like Meldrick) but [as the article points out] he went from being a pure boxer under Benton to a brawler almost in the mould of Joe himself when he took over training duties (in addition to being his manager).

I don't know how much of that was down to Joe and how much was Marvis but I can imagine that being in Joe's gym and being told on a daily basis how he should box or fight would be more pressure than most would handle. Meldrick was more driven by his own desire to be a more typical Philly fighter than rely on handspeed and boxing ability, obviously we know where his propensity for a brawl ended up.

[Petu v.d. Pajm]

I don't know much about him

One thing though, is a lot of what I've read makes him seem like a total joke, but he actually has some decent wins and was world amateur champ, so he must've been fairly handy.

He was NOT an amateur world champion!

He did win heavyweight gold in the 1st-ever World Junior Championships, but that was a pretty minor tournament. Heavyweights had just 6 participants (although a win over Alexander Yagubkin was retrospectively a solid one).

[Ambling Alp II]

I remember him beat tony Tubbs on national TV as an amateur. The knockout loss to Broad in the Olympic trials was pretty scary.

His fights with Bugner and Broad as a young pro were on national TV as well. He did have some boxing skills but not much power.

[Nile4000]

Good fighter, but not good enough to be heavyweight champ. Should have gone to cruiserweight.

[margaret thatcher]

I don't know much about him

One thing though, is a lot of what I've read makes him seem like a total joke, but he actually has some decent wins and was world amateur champ, so he must've been fairly handy.

He was NOT an amateur world champion!

He did win heavyweight gold in the 1st-ever World Junior Championships, but that was a pretty minor tournament. Heavyweights had just 6 participants (although a win over Alexander Yagubkin was retrospectively a solid one).

Yep, an amateur world champ

[oogiebe]

He was NOT an amateur world champion!

He did win heavyweight gold in the 1st-ever World Junior Championships, but that was a pretty minor tournament. Heavyweights had just 6 participants (although a win over Alexander Yagubkin was retrospectively a solid one).

Yep, an amateur world champ

That counts.

[margaret thatcher]

[Ambling Alp II]

It may have been interesting to have seen how well he would have done against the WBA champions; Dokes, Coetzee, Page, Tubbs etc.

[gilgamesh]

Underrated fighter, I think. But came up short when he came up the two best fighters of his era - Holmes and Tyson, both of whom wiped him out in devastating style.

Pity really, because that's what people seem to remember Marvis for. He was good though, he had excellent work rate and decent skills, just couldn't hang with the very best.

Marvis Frazier was a 'small' heavyweight, he could probably have done the old crusierweight limit of 190 but obviously the rich pickings were up at heavyweight and then there was that thing about wanting to follow in his father's footsteps. Which was a mistake.

This guy nailed it ^

[drunkenpiper36]

I loved watching replays of his old fights. Good boxer and super talented. His chin was his biggest weakness

[Nile4000]

It may have been interesting to have seen how well he would have done against the WBA champions; Dokes, Coetzee, Page, Tubbs etc.

All of them would have beaten him, especially considering the 15 round distance.

[hhaehre]

It may have been interesting to have seen how well he would have done against the WBA champions; Dokes, Coetzee, Page, Tubbs etc.

All of them would have beaten him, especially considering the 15 round distance.

It depends, Marvis always came prepared and performed consistently while those four were all over the place. Frazier could just as well beat all of them on a given night.

[Nile4000]

All of them would have beaten him, especially considering the 15 round distance.

It depends, Marvis always came prepared and performed consistently while those four were all over the place. Frazier could just as well beat all of them on a given night.

I will give you that he had a small possibility.

[funso banjo baby]

pretty much it
too small but a lovely boxer

he was thrown in with Holmes way to rearly

id personally have loved to see Holmes v Bugner but big Joe was no match for Marvis speed.