Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Smokin' Joe
























One of my favorite fighters of all time passed away - Joe Frazier. He had one of the best left hooks in the business and was heavyweight champion at a time when there were a lot of great fighters in that division, including Ali. I was in a restaurant a couple of years ago and they had the television tuned to ESPN Classics. They were showing the third Ali - Frazier fight. I had forgotten what a war that was. I watched all of those fights back in the 70's. There were some great ones. Frazier was small in stature for a heavyweight, but he had the heart of a giant.

3 comments:

tvi said...

HEY "BOB",

THAT DUDE WAS AS MEAN AS THEY COME. THE ONLY GUY I THINK THAT WAS MEANER WAS MARVIN HAGLER. I READ JOE'S BOOK A FEW YEARS AGO AND IT LEFT ME KIND OF PISSED AT HIM. HE WAS STILL BITCHIN' ABOUT ALI AND HOW HE FELT HE GOT SCREWED. THOSE FIGHTS WERE THE THREE BEST HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHTS I HAVE EVER SEEN, AND PROBABLY EVER WILL.

TALK TO YOU SOON,

TVI

Grumpyunk said...

Yep, "Joe was one baaaad Mother.. 'Hush your mouth!' I'm talking 'bout, Joe."

Shit. How many times have we watched those fights?

Shop Teacher Bob said...

I read the book and came away with some of that as well. It's too bad. Real boxing fans had a whole lot of respect for Frazier even though Ali got most of the glory. That time period was probably the best ever for heavyweight fighters - Ali, Norton, Foreman, Shavers, and more - but Frazier was the toughest of them all.

Yea Unk, he was a bad dude. If you're a student of the art, you don't watch Rocky, you watch Smokin' Joe.