Smokin' Joe Frazier dies

Sad to hear of the death of the legendary Smokin' Joe Frazier. Sporting history has often cast Joe, edgy and slurred of speach, as the bad guy to Mohammed Ali's charismatic hero, but Frazier was a nice guy with the heart of a lion.

I've always thought of Frazier as an old style fighter, small for a heavyweight, but with a ferocious appetite for work. His left hook was one of the single deadliest punches in boxing history.

When talking about the greatest heavyweights of all time, Frazier is rarely mentioned, perhaps because his defeats were so high profile, and some of them (especially the 2 to George Foreman) were very ugly. Perhaps too it was because his peak was relatively short-lived. However, the Frazier that beat Ali in Madison Square Garden in 'The Fight of the Century' was an energetic, powerful force of nature and, on that night, he would have been a nightmare for any heavyweight who ever lived.

A sad loss to the sport of boxing.

Agree TC, this is the death of a legend. Ali's prefight build up antics portrayed Joe as all the things you said when they were the opposite. He falsely characterised Frazier as this "dumb meat-head" and himself as the good guy, again when the opposite were true.

His fights with Ali were simply awesome, you can see that they were indeed the golden generation of boxing. The fact that Ali famously described one of their bouts as "as close to death as you will get" says everything about the heart of the man.

A very sad day for the world of boxing, hopefully the man will be remembered as one of the true greats of boxing.

A legend of the sport.....R.I.P. Joe Frazier.

A great boxer Joe. Memorable fights. Those were the days of boxing at its best . Ai,Frazier, Foreman etc.
They all fought for one title.

Joe Frazier lost his last fight today, succumbing to liver cancer in 2 months, at the age of 67. Joe was a tough nut, possessed of a crunching left hook, and was a true champion in the pantheon of great heavyweights. Hadn't his corner not called off the fight in Manila, (against his wishes) he'd have beaten Ali, who was hardly fit to stand up..
He was a good singer to boot and his band Joe Frazier and the Knockouts played The Cloudland in Rooskey in the early 80's.....

Floyd Mayweather is paying for the funeral so we must assume that Joe was potless.....R.I.P. "Smokin' Joe"...

Here's a taste of him giving his usual full steam ahead approach...

Apologies, didn't see the other thread....