Joe Frazier vs. Floyd Cummings

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Frazier hits Cummings with a left hook

Joe Frazier 229 lbs drew with Floyd Cummings 224 lbs by MD in round 10 of 10

Notes

  • This was Frazier's first fight in 5½ years. It was also his last fight.
  • Frazier's purse was $85,000, and Cummings' was $10,000.
  • There was a crowd of about 6,500.
  • Marvis Frazier served as his father's chief second.
  • The Associated Press reported: "Frazier had a role of fat around his middle—he weighed 229 pounds—and he showed his age and the effects of his long absence from the ring."

Cummings' lawsuit against ESPN Classic

In June 2008, Floyd "Jumbo" Cummings, serving a life sentence for armed robbery at Menard Correctional Center in Illinois, filed a lawsuit in a state court in Randolph County, Illinois, alleging that ESPN Classic violated his rights by re-broadcasting his 1981 fight against Frazier in August and September 2007. Cummings contended that ESPN Classic violated his rights under the Illinois Right of Publicity Act by using his name for commercial purposes without permission. For its part, ESPN denied ever showing a replay of the 1981 bout.

According to Cummings’ complaint, because of the alleged re-broadcast of the bout, “I was and am greatly injured, in that my personality has been violated by being exposed, exhibited and sold to the public; my name has been cheapened and made notorious; I have been subjected to the contempt, ridicule, and inquisitive nature of the general public to the injury of my personality and to the outrage of the finer sentiments of my nature and to the humiliation of my self-respect; my peace of mind has been disturbed and destroyed; my privacy has been invaded and my right to privacy violated.”

In March 2009, U.S. District Judge Michael J. Reagan (the case was removed to federal court) granted ESPN’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Reagan noted in his March 9 opinion in Cummings v. ESPN Classic, Inc. that ESPN denied showing the broadcast in the fall of 2007, but that he “assumes as true” what Cummings alleged.

Even so, Judge Reagan granted ESPN’s motion to dismiss, because “the complaint does not allege a plausible theory of liability against ESPN.” The Illinois Right of Publicity Act contains several exceptions “designed to keep the Act from running afoul of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which ... protects free speech in a variety of forms.”

Reagan pointed out that the Illinois law exempts the use of a person’s identity for non-commercial purposes, which includes “any news, public affairs, or sports broadcast.”

“Plainly, ESPN’s 2007 showing of the Cummings-Frazier fight would qualify as a ‘sports broadcast’ which the Act identifies as a type of non-commercial use,” Reagan said, adding that even though the “broadcasting of the fight may have caused Cummings to suffer embarrassment,” it did not violate Illinois law.

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