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On this date, fifty-five years ago at the New York City famous Madison Square Garden, Joe Frazier of Philadelphia, PA brutally stopped WBA World Heavyweight Champion Jimmy Ellis of Louisville, KY.

The heavyweight division was a circus ever since the great Muhammad Ali was stripped from his crown in 1967.

In 1968, a heavyweight championship tournament started to see who will replace Ali as world champion. Frazier, the NY World Heavyweight Champion met Ellis to unify the crown once and for all.

Frazier brutally gave Ellis a terrific beating. The last blow in the fourth round before the bell was a brutally timed left hook that until this day, I don't know how Ellis got up from that shot. It was right on the money!

Ellis trainer, Angelo Dundee, said that it was enough and Frazier jumped into his manager and trainer Yank Durham's arms with excilirating joy. At 26, after winning the Olympic Gold medal in 1964, Frazier achieves his long lasting dream of becoming the Heavyweight Champion of the World!

Your comments of this fight.

What a left hook it was! When I think left hook, I picture that one. Right there with Bob foster stretching Mike Quarry and Patterson doing the same to Ingo.

The fight was on February 16, 1970. Fifty five years ago!

Expug wrote: ↑16 Feb 2025, 16:17 What a left hook it was! When I think left hook, I picture that one. Right there with Bob foster stretching Mike Quarry and Patterson doing the same to Ingo.

Don't forget the left hook that Joe Frazier gave Bob Foster. Right on the button!

Ya, almost forgot about that one. Devastating. Sugar Ray stretching Gene Fullmer too. Not as dramatic, but perfect shot.

Frazier destroyed Ellis brutally.

DrDuke wrote: ↑17 Feb 2025, 23:30 Frazier destroyed Ellis brutally.

It was like every punch Smokin' Joe threw was brutal! Especially that left hook to the body. Frazier was like the great Julio Cesar Chavez. Once they got warmed up like a motor car engine, they are hard to stop. As the fight goes, the warmer and stoppable they become.

Great performance by Frazier. It was amazing that Ellis got up after that knockdown. Ellis was not on Frazier's level. However, he many have been more competitive had he not been out of the ring for so long. He had other fights fall through before this one.

In fairness, Jimmy Ellis wasn't a true heavyweight. He started his career as a middleweight.

Smokin' Joe Frazier would smoke him every day of the week and twice on Sunday. He was too strong for Ellis.