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Joe Frazier

1944-

American boxer

Holder of the unified World Heavyweight Champion title from 1970 to 1973, Joe Frazier is best remembered for the title fight that he lost to Muhammad Ali in the "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975. Yet his matches with Ali were only part of the rags-to-riches story of Frazier's life. Growing up in the rural community of Laurel Bay, South Carolina, Frazier endured poverty as his parents struggled to support a family of twelve children. After dropping out of school and working as a farm laborer at the age of fourteen, Frazier left South Carolina after his boss threatened to give him a beating. Moving to Philadelphia, the teenager worked at a meat packing plant and began training as a boxer while he raised his own family. He found early success with a Gold Medal in heavyweight boxing at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964, but it was another four years before he got a shot at the world title in a match sponsored by the New York State Athletic Commission. Unifying the title with another victory in a World Boxing Association bout in 1970, Frazier reigned as the undisputed heavyweight champion. He kept the title for three years before losing it to George Foreman in 1973. Although his attempt to reclaim the championship against Ali in 1975 failed, it became the most famous fight of his career.

South Carolina Childhood

Joseph William Frazier, or "Billy Boy" as he was called during his childhood, was born on January 12, 1944 in Beaufort, South Carolina. His parents, Rubin and Dolly Frazier, worked as farm laborers and raised their twelve surviving children in the rural hamlet of Laurel Bay. Part of the Gullah community of South Carolina, Frazier's family was part of extended kinship network of the descendants of former slaves. The mutual support of the community's residents helped Frazier build his self-esteem despite the poverty and racism that he experienced in the rural South. His status as his father's favorite in the family also helped Frazier to have a happy childhood. Frazier was often at his father's side helping him manufacture and distribute illegal moonshine; the elder Frazier had lost one of his arms in a lover's quarrel some years before.

Frazier dropped out of school in the tenth grade and began to work on a nearby farm as a laborer. After he spoke out against the beating of a fellow worker by the farm's owner, Frazier came under threat himself. He was fired from his job and felt compelled to leave the region altogether. After saving enough money for a Greyhound Bus ticket, Frazier joined his older brother, Tommy, in New York City in 1959. Unable to find steady work, Frazier sometimes resorted to stealing cars to make some money. He subsequently moved to Philadelphia, where some of his relatives lived, and found employment at the Cross Brothers kosher slaughterhouse. Although he was regularly cheated out of his wages by the company, Frazier worked in the meat packing plant from 1961 to 1963. He sent part of his wages back home to support the children he had with two of his girlfriends, Florence Smith and a woman he later identified only as "Rosetta." He had two children with Rosetta in the early 1960s, but married Smith in September 1963. The couple divorced in 1985 after raising seven children together.

Olympic Gold Medalist

Inspired by watching boxing matches on his family's television set in the early 1950s, Frazier had created his own training regimen as a child, which included punching a burlap bag filled with rags, corncobs, and Spanish moss surrounding a brick in the middle. He resumed training in 1961 when he visited a local gym and trainer Yancey "Yank" Durham noticed his impressive left hook. Durham coached Frazier to a victory as the novice champion of the Philadelphia Golden Gloves tournament in 1962. That same year Frazier began a three-year run as the heavyweight champion of the Middle Atlantic Golden Gloves league. As an alternate delegate in the heavyweight squad of the U.S. boxing team, Frazier was chosen to compete in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games when Buster Mathis broke his thumb. Frazier returned from the games with a Gold Medal in heavyweight boxing. Despite the celebrity status that he earned from the victory, it would be another four years before he earned his first championship title as a professional fighter.

Monumental Fights Against Ali and Foreman

After turning pro in 1965, Frazier earned the nickname "Smokin' Joe" for his rapid-fire delivery of punches and seeming ability to absorb the most ferocious blows of his opponents. With then-heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali suspended for refusing to report for the military draft in 1967, a number of fighters scrambled to claim the title. Frazier won the New York State Heavyweight title against Buster Mathis on March 4, 1968 with a knockout punch in the eleventh round. He went on to defend his New York title six times before earning the chance to spar for the title sponsored by the World Boxing Association (WBA) two years later. After winning the WBA bout with a technical knockout against Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round on February 16, 1970, Frazier could claim the undisputed title of World Heavyweight Champion.

After Ali was reinstated to the sport, fans clamored for a match between the former and current title holders. The match took place on March 8, 1971 in Madison Square Garden in New York; both fighters were guaranteed a payout of $2.5 million. The bout went the entire fifteen rounds, with Frazier winning a unanimous decision by the judges at its conclusion. Although Frazier's victory was clear, Ali immediately claimed to have been robbed of the title and demanded a rematch. In addition to his poor sportsmanship, Ali made a number of humiliating remarks at Frazier's expense, including his infamous labeling of his opponent as an "Uncle Tom." Adding to Frazier's bitterness over the remark, media coverage of Ali often glamorized him as a principled rebel while Frazier was criticized as the establishment's boxer. The fact that Frazier had outboxed Ali in their first match was a secondary issue to many critics.

Frazier retained his title through two fights in 1972 before encountering George Foreman in a Kingston, Jamaica ring on January 22, 1973. Foreman battered Frazier so brutally that the bout had to be declared a technical knockout in the challenger's favor in just the second round. Frazier also encountered a setback in his second meeting with Ali in a non-title match in New York on January 28, 1974, where he lost in a twelve-round decision. After Ali took the world title from Foreman, he met Frazier in their third match for another title bout. Publicized as "The Thrilla in Manila," the match took place in the Philippines on September 30, 1975. The action continued over fourteen rounds with Frazier appearing to lead; after sustaining serious damage to his eyes, however, his coach, Eddie Futch, asked for the fight to be stopped. Ali retained his title in a technical knockout.

Retirement

In 1976 Frazier fought against George Foreman; after suffering a knockout in the fifth round, he announced his retirement. He returned to the ring for a 1981 match against Floyd Cummings, which led to a ten-round defeat by decision. Disabled by hepatitis and problems with his vision, it was Frazier's last match. His professional record stood at thirty-two wins, four losses, and one draw. Frazier won twenty-seven of his fights by knockouts. A careful manager of his finances, Frazier avoided the fate of many of his colleagues and enjoyed a successful post-boxing career as the manager of Smokin' Joe's Gym in Philadelphia and as a singer with his own band, the Knockouts. He also helped steer his son, Marvis Frazier, to a successful boxing career with over __BODY__ million in winnings in the 1980s.

Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, Frazier's reputation as a boxer has grown since his professional career ended. Ali finally offered an apology for his earlier criticism of Frazier, explaining in a 2001 interview with the New York Times, "I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him names I shouldn't have called him. I apologize for that. I'm sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight." Frazier, forever linked with Ali for their Manila fight—which many observers ranked as one of the sport's greatest matches—accepted the apology. "We have to embrace each other," Frazier told the New York Times, "It's time to talk and get together. Life's too short."

SELECTED WRITINGS BY FRAZIER:

(With Phil Berger) Smokin' Joe: The Autobiography of a Heavyweight Champion of the World, Macmillan, 1996.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Frazier, Joe, with Phil Berger. Smokin' Joe: The Autobiography of a Heavyweight Champion of the World. New York: Macmillan, 1996.

Kram, Mark. Ghosts of Manila: The Fateful Blood Feud Between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.

Roberts, James B., and Alexander G. Skutt. The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book, 2nd Edition. Ithaca, NY: McBooks Press, 1999.

Periodicals

Sandomir, Richard. "No Floating, No Stinging: Ali Extends Hand to Frazier." New York Times (March 15, 2001).

Sketch by Timothy Borden