Joe Frazier competed from 1965 to 1981 and is known for his strength, durability, formidable left hand, and relentless pressure fighting style and was the first boxer to defeat Muhammad Ali.
111 Facts About Joe Frazier
2.
Joe Frazier emerged as the top contender in the late 1960s, becoming undisputed heavyweight champion in 1970.
3.
Two years later, Joe Frazier lost his title to George Foreman.
4.
Joe Frazier retired in 1976 after a second loss to Foreman but made a comeback in 1981, before retiring for good with a record of 32 wins, 4 losses, and 1 draw.
5.
Joe Frazier is an inductee of both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame, having been a part of the inaugural induction class of 1990 for the IBHF.
6.
Joe Frazier's style was often compared with that of Henry Armstrong and occasionally Rocky Marciano and was dependent on bobbing, weaving, and relentless pressure to wear down his opponents.
7.
Joe Frazier's best-known punch was a powerful left hook, which accounted for most of his knockouts.
8.
Joe Frazier continued to train fighters in his gym in Philadelphia.
9.
Joe Frazier was born January 12,1944, the twelfth child of Dolly Alston-Frazier and Rubin in Beaufort, South Carolina.
10.
Joe Frazier was raised in a rural community of Beaufort called Laurel Bay.
11.
Rubin Joe Frazier had his left hand burned and part of his forearm amputated in a tractor accident the year that his son was born.
12.
Joe Frazier's parents worked their farm with two mules: Buck and Jenny.
13.
Joe Frazier's mother sold drinks for a quarter as they watched boxers like Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Willie Pep, and Rocky Graziano.
14.
Joe Frazier hung the makeshift heavybag from an oak tree in the backyard.
15.
Not long after Joe Frazier started working, his left arm was seriously injured while he was running from the family's 300-pound hog.
16.
One day, Joe Frazier poked the hog with a stick and ran away.
17.
Joe Frazier's arm was torn badly, but as the family could not afford a doctor, the arm had to heal on its own.
18.
Joe Frazier was never able to keep it fully straight again.
19.
When Joe Frazier was 15 years old, he had been working on a farm for a family named Bellamy.
20.
Joe Frazier saw the event and went back to the packing house on the farm and told his black friends what he had seen.
21.
Soon, Jim saw Joe Frazier and asked him why he told others what he had witnessed.
22.
Joe Frazier then told Bellamy he did not know what he was talking about.
23.
Joe Frazier told him to keep his pants up because he was not going to use his belt on him.
24.
Joe Frazier had a brother, Tommy, in New York and was told that he could stay with Tommy and his family.
25.
Joe Frazier had to save up a bit before he could make the bus trip to New York and still have some money in his pocket, and so he first went to work at the local Coca-Cola plant.
26.
Joe Frazier remarked that the white guy would drive the truck and that he would do the real work stacking and unloading the crates.
27.
Joe Frazier stayed with Coca-Cola until the government began building houses for the Marines stationed at Parris Island, when he was hired on a work crew.
28.
One day, with no fanfare and no tearful goodbyes, Joe Frazier packed quickly and got the first bus heading northward.
29.
Joe Frazier was eager to get back at Mathis for his only amateur loss and knocked out two opponents to get to the finals.
30.
Mathis had worn his trunks very high so that when Joe Frazier hit Mathis with legitimate body shots, the referee took a dim view of them.
31.
Joe Frazier then returned to Philadelphia and felt as low as he had ever been and even thought of giving up boxing.
32.
Duke Dugent and his trainer, Yank Durham, were able to talk him out of his doldrums and even suggested that Joe Frazier make the trip to Tokyo as an alternate in case something happened to Mathis.
33.
Joe Frazier agreed and was a workhorse there, sparring with any of the Olympic boxers who wanted some action.
34.
In 1964, heavyweight representative Buster Mathis qualified but was injured, and so Joe Frazier was sent as a replacement.
35.
At the heavyweight boxing event, Joe Frazier knocked out George Oywello of Uganda in the round of 16, then knocked out Athol McQueen of Australia 40 seconds into the quarter-finals.
36.
Joe Frazier knew immediately the thumb of his left hand was damaged, but he was unsure as to the extent.
37.
Now that Joe Frazier was into the final, he mentioned his broken thumb to no one.
38.
Joe Frazier went back to his room and soaked his thumb in hot water and Epsom salts.
39.
Joe Frazier went on to fight German Hans Huber, eight years his senior.
40.
Joe Frazier was now used to fighting bigger guys, but not with a damaged left hand.
41.
Joe Frazier turned professional in 1965 by defeating Woody Goss by a technical knockout in the first round.
42.
Joe Frazier won three more fights that year, all by knockout and none going past the third round.
43.
Joe Frazier took an "8" count by referee Bob Polis but rallied for a TKO over Bruce in the third round.
44.
In 1966, as Joe Frazier's career was taking off, Durham contacted Los Angeles trainer Eddie Futch.
45.
Joe Frazier was sent to Los Angeles to train before Futch agreed to join Durham as an assistant trainer.
46.
Joe Frazier knocked out Jones and Machen but surprisingly went through 10 rounds with journeyman Johnson to win a unanimous decision.
47.
Under Futch's tutelage, Joe Frazier adopted the bob-and-weave defensive style by making him more difficult for taller opponents to punch and giving Joe Frazier more power with his own punches.
48.
Joe Frazier was training the heavyweight contender Ken Norton, who lost a rematch against Ali less than two weeks before Durham's death.
49.
Now in his second year, in September 1966 and somewhat green, Joe Frazier won a close decision over rugged contender Oscar Bonavena, despite Bonavena flooring him twice in the second round.
50.
Joe Frazier rallied and won a close split decision after 10 rounds.
51.
In 1967, Joe Frazier stormed ahead winning all six of his fights, including a sixth-round knockout of Doug Jones and a brutal fourth round of Canadian George Chuvalo.
52.
Joe Frazier first defended his claim by beating hard-hitting prospect Manuel Ramos of Mexico.
53.
Joe Frazier closed 1968 by again beating Oscar Bonavena via a 15-round decision in a hard-fought rematch.
54.
Bonavena fought somewhat defensively and allowed himself to be often bulled to the ropes, which let Joe Frazier build a wide points margin.
55.
In 1969, Joe Frazier defended his NYSAC title in Texas and beat Dave Zyglewicz, who had lost only once in 29 fights, by a first-round knockout.
56.
Joe Frazier showed he could do a lot more than just slug by using his newly honed defensive skills to slip, bob, and weave a barrage of punches from Quarry despite Quarry's reputation as an excellent counter-punching heavyweight.
57.
On February 16,1970, Joe Frazier faced WBA Champion Jimmy Ellis at Madison Square Garden.
58.
Joe Frazier had declined to participate in the WBA tournament to protest their decision to strip Ali.
59.
Beforehand, Ali had announced his retirement and relinquished the Heavyweight title, allowing Ellis and Joe Frazier to fight for the undisputed title, but both lacked any lineal claim.
60.
Joe Frazier won by a technical knockout when Ellis's trainer Angelo Dundee would not let him come out for the fifth round following two fourth-round knockdowns, the first knockdowns of Ellis's career.
61.
Joe Frazier's decisive win over Ellis was a frightening display of power and tenacity.
62.
Joe Frazier retained his title by twice flooring the hard-punching Foster in the second round.
63.
Joe Frazier was 27 and mentally and physically at his peak.
64.
Joe Frazier had had two good wins in his comeback, including a bruising, fifteen-round technical knockout win over Oscar Bonavena.
65.
Futch instructed Joe Frazier to watch Ali's right hand and, once Ali dropped it, to throw a left hook at the spot that they knew Ali's face would be a second later.
66.
Joe Frazier was known to improve in middle rounds, which was the case with Ali.
67.
Joe Frazier came on strong after the third round by landing hard shots to the body and powerful left hooks to the head.
68.
Joe Frazier spent time in hospital during the ensuing month, the exertions of the fight having been exacerbated by hypertension and a kidney infection.
69.
In 1972, Joe Frazier successfully defended the title twice by knocking out Terry Daniels and Ron Stander in the fourth and fifth rounds, respectively.
70.
Joe Frazier's second fight against Ali took place on January 28,1974, in New York City.
71.
Five months later, Joe Frazier again battled Jerry Quarry in Madison Square Garden by winning the fight in the fifth round with a strong left hook to the ribs.
72.
In March 1975, Joe Frazier fought a rematch with Jimmy Ellis in Melbourne, Australia, and knocked him out in nine rounds.
73.
Ali and Joe Frazier met for the third and final time in Quezon City, on October 1,1975.
74.
Joe Frazier had a closed left eye, an almost-closed right eye, and a cut.
75.
In 1977, Ali told the interviewer Reg Gutteridge that he felt this third Joe Frazier fight was his best performance.
76.
In 1976, Joe Frazier fought George Foreman for a second time, shaving his head for the fight.
77.
Joe Frazier was more restrained than usual and avoided walking into big shots like he had done in their first match.
78.
Joe Frazier made a cameo appearance in the movie Rocky later in 1976 and dedicated himself to training local boxers in Philadelphia, where he grew up, including some of his own children.
79.
Joe Frazier drew over 10 rounds with hulking Floyd "Jumbo" Cummings in Chicago, Illinois.
80.
Joe Frazier trained his daughter, Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, who became a WIBA world light-heavyweight champion whose most notable fight was a close majority decision points loss against Laila Ali, the daughter of his rival.
81.
Joe Frazier was a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.
82.
In 1984, Joe Frazier was the special referee for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship match between Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes at Starrcade '84.
83.
Joe Frazier awarded the match to Flair because of Rhodes's excessive bleeding.
84.
In 1986, Joe Frazier appeared as the "cornerman" for Mr T against Roddy Piper at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum as part of WrestleMania 2.
85.
In 1989, Joe Frazier joined Ali, Foreman, Norton, and Holmes for the tribute special Champions Forever.
86.
Joe Frazier was inducted into the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame in 1996.
87.
Joe Frazier's son objected, so Joe Frazier was instead shown beating up Gumble and putting him in a trash can.
88.
Joe Frazier appeared on-screen in the 8th series of The Celebrity Apprentice television show as a guest-attendee at a Silent Auction event held for the season finale.
89.
Joe Frazier appeared as himself in the Academy Award-winning 1976 movie, Rocky.
90.
Since the debut of the Fight Night series of games made by EA Sports, Joe Frazier appeared in Fight Night 2004, Fight Night Round 2, Fight Night Round 3, Fight Night Round 4 and Fight Night Champion.
91.
Joe Frazier promoted the book with a memorable appearance on The Howard Stern Show on January 23,1996.
92.
Joe Frazier's daughter Jacqui Frazier-Lyde is a lawyer and worked on her father's behalf in pursuit of money they claimed he was owed in a Pennsylvania land deal.
93.
In 1973, Joe Frazier purchased 140 acres in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, for $843,000.
94.
Joe Frazier received annual payments from a trust that bought the land with money he had earned in the ring.
95.
Joe Frazier sued his business partners, insisting his signature had been forged on documents and he had no knowledge of the sale.
96.
Ali called him an "Uncle Tom" and a pawn of the white establishment as Joe Frazier called him Clay.
97.
Joe Frazier thought that would weaken me when it came time to face him in that ring.
98.
Joe Frazier noted the hypocrisy of Ali calling him an Uncle Tom when his [Ali's] trainer was of Italian descent.
99.
Ali declared that if Joe Frazier won, he would crawl across the ring and admit that Joe Frazier was the greatest.
100.
For years afterwards, Joe Frazier retained his bitterness towards Ali and suggested that Ali's battle with Parkinson's syndrome was a form of divine retribution for his earlier behavior.
101.
Joe Frazier told Sports Illustrated in May 2009 that he no longer held hard feelings for Ali.
102.
Joe Frazier lived in Philadelphia, where he owned and managed a boxing gym.
103.
Joe Frazier was diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure.
104.
In 1996, when Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, Joe Frazier told a reporter that he would like to throw Ali into the fire and felt that he should have been chosen to light the flame.
105.
Joe Frazier made millions of dollars in the 1970s, but the reported mismanagement of his real estate contributed to some financial difficulties.
106.
Joe Frazier continued to train young fighters, although he needed multiple operations for back injuries sustained in a car accident.
107.
Notably popular for singing "Mustang Sally", Joe Frazier teamed up with Welsh Rock Solo artist Jayce Lewis to release his repertoire in the UK, later visiting the Welshman there to host a string of after-dinner speeches and music developments.
108.
Joe Frazier was diagnosed with liver cancer in late September 2011.
109.
Joe Frazier's body was buried at the Ivy Hill Cemetery, a short drive from the Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church.
110.
Joe Frazier toured widely in the US and Europe including Ireland, where among other places he performed in Donegal and Athy, County Kildare with his band.
111.
Joe Frazier sang at the 1978 Jerry Lewis Telethon and he sang the United States national anthem before the rematch between Ali and Leon Spinks on September 15,1978.