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Did anyone see it? I only saw a few secs. of it on the news, the guy he was fighting was his same age, Joe looked really old, he was all slouched over. I think he was fighting the mayor or something, he was really skinny. It was for some charity event or something like that. Pretty weird though.
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Mayor faces Joe Frazier for charity
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Associated Press
Posted: 6 hours ago
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - For a fight, Mayor Willie Herenton's exhibition boxing match with former heavyweight champ Joe Frazier was down right polite.
Neither fighter launched a serious punch over the three one-minute rounds Thursday night and the only threat of injury came in the third when Frazier stumbled and fell into the ropes.
The 62-year-old Smokin' Joe needed a little push from his handlers to get into the ring to start with, while the 66-year-old Herenton showed a bit of dance throughout the bout.
The mayor, a 6-foot-6 former amateur boxing champion, tapped Frazier occasionally on the chest or forehead, as if to show where a punch might land if one was actually thrown.
The fighters hugged and grinned after the final bell and received a standing ovation from the crowd in a ballroom of the Peabody Hotel, a downtown Memphis landmark.
The fight was a fundraiser for the city's drug court, which is funded by a nonprofit group and offers rehabilitation services to drug abusers as an alternative to jail.
Herenton played up his entrance. Sporting a blue robe with "The Duke" across the back, he skipped to the ring following a male rapper and three young women carrying a banner with his picture on it.
The ring was surrounded by tables, with sparkling red and black trim, where spectators in evening attire were served a pre-fight dinner of filet mignon with port wine sauce. The tables, each with seating for 10, went for $3,500 to $10,000 each.
"Hopefully, nobody gets hurt," Herenton said Wednesday night at a pre-fight party. "I've not considered getting hurt, nor have I considered hurting Mr. Frazier."
Frazier said he wasn't planning an all-out assault, either, and noted that the deadly left hook that made him one of boxing's power hitters isn't what it once was.
"I'm not sure if I've got that left hook anymore," he said.
Frazier held the heavyweight title from 1968 to 1973 and retired from boxing in 1976. He now runs a gym in Philadelphia and stages occasional exhibition bouts.
Herenton, weighed in at 201 pounds, while Frazier had an announced weight of 215.
Herenton took up boxing before he was a teenager and won several regional amateur boxing titles by the end of high school.
He grew up in poverty in Memphis and credits boxing with helping build the self-confidence that led him to earn a Ph.D. in education and to become the city's first black mayor. -
lol, in that pic. of Joe and the mayor, the mayor looks like Paul Williams from the side.Comment
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