Rest in Peace, Smokin' Joe

Last night, the sporting world lost one of its all-time greats with the passing of Joe Frazier, who had been suffering with liver cancer.  Joe fought in the golden age of heavyweights, which was the late 1960s through the 1970s.  It sounds like he was able to have peace late in his life, which is good to know.

Joe lived most of his retirement as an angry and bitter man who was unable to let certain parts of his past go.  Specifically, he couldn’t let go of the way he was shamefully treated by Muhammad Ali.  After Ali was stripped of his titles for dodging the draft, it was Frazier who came to his defense to convince the boxing world that Ali deserved another chance.  After Ali (foolishly) squandered his fortune away, it was Joe that loaned “the Greatest” enough to get by until he got back on his feet.

And then when the fight was finally made, Ali turned to the most ruthless and personal forms of insults to promote the fight, and it was completely unnecessary.  Everyone wanted to see the fight anyway—half the country wanted to see the draft dodger knocked out, and the other half cheered him as a hero of the hippie causes and black power.  But he verbally reduced Joe to the role of the “Uncle Tom,” and the uneducated backwoods N-word. 

It initially backfired.  Joe took it to heart and unleashed all of his fury on Ali in their first epic battle in 1971, which he won by unanimous decision, nearly knocking Ali out in the 15th.  But the fight nearly killed both men, and Joe was the worse for wear of the two.  He truly was never the same.  He was beaten to a pulp by a young George Foreman in 1973, and lost his rematch to Ali not long after.

1975 saw the third installment of the Ali-Frazier rivalry, and it was easily the most brutal of the three fights.  Joe was very much in it till the end, but both men were near the point of death.  Ali was clearly inflicting the most punishment in the later rounds, and Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to let his man fight the 15^th and final round.

I CONTEND TO THIS DAY that Futch should have let him continue.  Ali had demeaned him and reduced him to garbage in the eyes of many, when all he ever did was try to help his friend out.  Frazier should have been allowed to have that last round to go out there and knock Ali out, or die trying.  He deserved that right as a warrior.

But the stoppage stayed with him for the rest of his life, and bitterness consumed him.  In 1996, Joe commented on watching a shaking and quivering Ali light the Olympic torch for the Atlanta games.  Frazier said that if he had been there, he would have just pushed Ali into the fire.

But from what I understand, within the last year or so, he forgave Ali.  I only hope he died in peace.

God bless you, Joe.