Now it's time to overview Smokin' Joe Frazier's career. He had always been a one of the very best boxers in every all-time rating. An extremely skilled offensive fighter with an exceptional style, an outstanding stamina, heart and punching power. He was a slow-starter in the ring, as he was gradually breaking and mauling his opponents down, but in a more global sense he emerged fast on the boxing scene and similar to other fighters of such explosive style had made a short, but a loud statement: his career wasn't prolonged, yet through it Smokin' Joe scored a quite some amount of big victories.
Stay tuned for the FBF Edition featuring a true boxing legend Smokin' Joe Frazier.
Re: Fight by Fight: Joe Frazier
Posted: 23 Nov 2018, 14:22
by DrDuke
Frazier's amateur career by different sources was 38-2, 38-1, 38-3 and 38-4 with 37 knockouts. Smokin' Joe was knocking everyone out even in the amateurs, he won Middle Atlantic Golden Gloves Heavyweight Championship in 1962, 1963, 1964, as well as National Amateur Athletic Union Tournament in 1963 and New Jersey Golden Gloves Tournamentbut in 1964, but on May 20, 1964 he lost the Olympic Trials to Buster Mathis in a close and a one of the most entertaining amateur fights ever.
However, Mathis withdrew from the Olympics due to an unjury and Smokin' Joe replaced him eventually taking the Gold. His Olympic campaign looked like that:
October 15: George Oywello (Uganda) KO 1
October 19: Athol McQueen (Australia) KO 1
October 21: Vadim Yemelyanov (Soviet Union) KO 2 (Frazier broke his left thumb against Yemelyanov.)
October 23: Hans Huber (Germany) W 3 (3-2)
Here's the footage of his dominant performance in the semi-final:
Re: Fight by Fight: Joe Frazier
Posted: 23 Nov 2018, 14:39
by DrDuke
Frazier's pro-career had started on August 16, 1965, when Joe knocked out Woody Goss right in the first round. During the first year of the career Smokin' Joe had a regular program of breaking through the rankings by defeating journeymen, where the toughest one, Dick Wipperman with a record of 30-5-1, was stopped in five.
Next year Joe stepped up in the opposition level and began collecting notable scalps. Then he had the first full distance bout, a tough battle against Oscar Bonavena with the fact of split decision and Bonavena knocking Joe down twice in the 2nd.
Next Frazier outfought then top competitor Eddie Machen.
Later Joe was able to batter and stop a one of the best chins ever - George Chuvalo.
On March 4, 1968 Frazier avanged the loss to Buster Mathis and thus scored his first title in the pros, World Championship recognition by NYSAC and other sanctioning bodies including IL, PA, ME, and MA.
Re: Fight by Fight: Joe Frazier
Posted: 23 Nov 2018, 14:57
by DrDuke
Frazier's reign over Heavyweight division had begun. He had an impressive streak of title defences, where only one bout went the distance. The list of conquered challengers included Manuel Ramos, Oscar Bonavena (the rematch, it went the distance), Dave Zyglewicz, Jerry Quarry.
On Feb 16, 1970 Joe knocked out Jimmy Ellis adding the recognition of WBA and WBC to his possessions.
Then Joe stopped Light Heavyweight dominant champion Bob Foser in two.
After that Frazier faced the former undefeated and undisputed Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali in a Fight of the Century, the first bout in the history between undefeated Heavyweight champions, in a battle for the rank of a true champion. Smokin' Joe won that convincingly.
Re: Fight by Fight: Joe Frazier
Posted: 23 Nov 2018, 15:33
by DrDuke
Frazier continued his dominant reign and had a couple more of title defences. Terry Daniels and Ron Stander were both stopped.
On 22 Jan, 1973 Joe faced Big George Foreman. Frazier's reign was finally over in two rounds.
Then Frazier won Joe Bugner on points.
After that Ali rematch took place. This time the fight wasn't for the championship, but formally it was for NABF Heavyweight Title. Ali won that in a pretty controversial fashion, with arguable actions by the ref, who was doing nothing against Ali's holdings. The rivalry couldn't have been finished after such fight.
Then Smokin' Joe repeated stoppages against Jerry Quarry and Jimmy Ellis.
Those victories earned a title shot for Frazier against Ali, who had defeated Foreman meanwhile in the shocking upset. The bout took place in Philippines and was labelled as Thrilla in Manila eventually justifying the label with its rivalry nature, level of competitiveness and grueling process. Ali won after the 14th due to Frazier's inability to continue because of the eye swelling, which covered the vision of his only good-seeing eye.
Next Frazier faced Foreman for the second time. Despite being shot after tough battles, overweighted and bald Joe tried to box more rationally, yet eventually he was stopped by Big George again. Frazier announced the retirement afterwards.
5 years later Frazier tried a comeback against the journeyman Floyd Cummings and drawn against him without continuing the comeback after that.
In 1990 Smokin' Joe Frazier was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Re: Fight by Fight: Joe Frazier
Posted: 23 Nov 2018, 19:46
by HomicideHenry
Bravo! Very good breakdown analysis of Frazier's career. I might mention a few factoids on some of the fights. The Foster fight had an interesting backstory in which Murray Woroner, fresh off the successes of the NCR-315 computer tournament & the Ali/Marciano SuperFight, decided to use the computer to determine the outcomes of upcoming fights.
One of which was Frazier vs Foster, and the computer said that Foster would win via 6th round kayo. After Frazier flattened Foster he ran towards the direction of Woroner and shouted, "The computer was wrong!", and unfortunately Woroner went out of business.
Re: Fight by Fight: Joe Frazier
Posted: 24 Nov 2018, 04:04
by DrDuke
HomicideHenry wrote: ↑23 Nov 2018, 19:46
Bravo! Very good breakdown analysis of Frazier's career. I might mention a few factoids on some of the fights. The Foster fight had an interesting backstory in which Murray Woroner, fresh off the successes of the NCR-315 computer tournament & the Ali/Marciano SuperFight, decided to use the computer to determine the outcomes of upcoming fights.
One of which was Frazier vs Foster, and the computer said that Foster would win via 6th round kayo. After Frazier flattened Foster he ran towards the direction of Woroner and shouted, "The computer was wrong!", and unfortunately Woroner went out of business.
Huh, never heard of such thing. Well, that sounds hilarious.
Very good breakdown analysis of Frazier's career. I might mention a few factoids on some of the fights. The Foster fight had an interesting backstory in which Murray Woroner, fresh off the successes of the NCR-315 computer tournament & the Ali/Marciano SuperFight, decided to use the computer to determine the outcomes of upcoming fights.