BoxRec

When I recently viewed a tape of Joe Frazier stepping into the ring he appeared almost fragile and the folks who put up the clip elected to show next to nothing of what happened in the exhibition bout in which he participated against the Memphis Mayor.

Some of the folks who met Joe before the fight commented that they thought by the looks of things the Mayor was likely to beat the former champion and they felt almost "sorry" for Joe. Joe is at the same weight he was at champion and claims to be in great shape.

Couple of thoughts. Stallone looked pretty good at the same age...indeed Joe's opponent the Mayor looked pretty good in the ring and he is a few years older than Joe. Are looks decieving in this case?

Does the life of a Boxer take so much out of you that your really are no longer a threat at an older age? My guess is that Joe could take your head off today but it just didn't appear that way...and once again Stallone looked much better than Joe at the same age. But with an easy life of an actor maybe that's to be expected.

Comments?

This is a subject I have considered myself. Shame we didn't get to see more of the exhibition to make more of a judgement in Fraziers case.

I really think it is down to the individual fighter really and genetics must also play a huge part surely? Sure there is no doubt that a long bruising Boxing career must take something out of a fighter physically and Frazier was in some tough fights as we all know. Sure that Mayor looked great but maybe he has been a clean living fitness fanatic all his life but not taken the punishment Frazier has.

I have no doubt Fraziers left hook is still savage, but time will have dulled his ability to land it and reduced his ability to resist physical punishment, like any man. But I imagine it's just more noticable when a ex-fighter looks old or frail as opposed to a non-boxer. The Boxer has further to fall in our eyes.

Like I said I think it is all down to the indivdual with factors such as genetics, been lucky or unlucky with there health/injuries etc and how clean they may or may not have lived their life all being a factor.

Some Boxers seem to remain formidable well into old age, others are not so 'lucky'.

ramble over for now.

These champs get older and break down physicaly like anyone else.
Some sooner than others.
But the thing they can take until the end is that fighters heart.
This can be the residual benefit of being a champ.
The real fights can happen after the career is over.
George Chuvalo comes to mind.

Lots of athletes in all sorts of sports seem to age relatively quickly, due to physical duress, injuries etc. Boxers sometimes have neurological damage to add to the equation, which sometimes doesn't show itself for years after retirement.

Does the life of a Boxer take so much out of you that your really are no longer a threat at an older age? My guess is that Joe could take your head off today but it just didn't appear that way...and once again Stallone looked much better than Joe at the same age. But with an easy life of an actor maybe that's to be expected.

Jack Dempsey when he was in his 70's beat the piss out of two twenty year old men who tried to mug him in New York.

-shrugs-

It's hard to tell when it comes to boxers. Some men have the build and are still in shape but are so neurologically impaired that despite their attributes, they couldn't pull off a good attack---it's like a fog is in their head, ya know?

Then there are guys who seem fine in every way shape or form and then years down the road all of a sudden-like don't remember where they are or what their doing, like what happened to Floyd Patterson.

Then there are guys I just can't understand. You know who I mean, guys who took such heavy blows to the head for years and years and still to this day are perfectly normal, not so much as slow speech. Guys like Chuvalo, Wepner, Tex Cobb come to mind.

I guess alot of it is freak luck. In Frazier's case, you have to figure, he hadn't fought in nearly thirty years and he's 60 + and that's not figuring in his slurred speech (cant really judge it cus Frazier never could speak well to begin with).

The brain is the hardest organ to heal and alot of times it is irreversible.

You can really buy a six pack? Well I don't mean budweiser here....you can have "plastic muscles" inserted? You have to be kidding me here. Tell me they are not silicone.

BoxBuzz wrote:You can really buy a six pack? Well I don't mean budweiser here....you can have "plastic muscles" inserted? You have to be kidding me here. Tell me they are not silicone.

I have heard of this operation, being serious here. I don't know the full details but part of it involves lasers burning a 'six pack' effect onto your stomach.