joe frazier underrated?

[sterling]

Anyone else think hes rearly underrated? people make him out to be 1 demsional but he was pretty gd at bobbing and weaving with his style.
Great left hook of course but he also had a nice uppercut and had some gd combinations to.
He had alot of heart no one can say this man has no heart all you gta do is watch thrilla in milna and see how much heart he has he wanted to continue but his corner stopped the fight.
He rematched foreman after being destroyed what fighter in that decade would of rematched foreman except for ali? gta give him creds he was pretty gd but hes never rearly mentioned no more though.
I also dont agree with how he trained his son marvis frazier he wasnt a puncher but a boxer but joe changed his style to what he wanted it to be then tyson demolished him anyways i feel hes underrated.
I would also like to mention his hieght frazier was smaller then mike tyson he was only 5ft 10 rofl he did gd against bigger guys.

[sterling]

thoughts peeps?

[Scott9945]

thoughts peeps?

I don't really think Joe is underrated. He was a force at his best, but his peak didn't last that long. Of course his style of fighting doesn't usually make for longevity. The Ali fights will have made him a boxing legend forever.

[TheGreatA]

Frazier is a top heavyweight and a legend of the sport.

There are some people who underrate him but every fighter is underrated in some way, many people seem to think Frazier was easy to hit and only used his left hook.

That's not really true because in his prime from 68 to 71 he went to the body with both hands (though he obviously favoured the left hand more) and his bobbing & weaving was very effective at avoiding shots.

People also seem to forget he fought half-blind and injured for the last part of his career. No excuse for his losses but he was obviously easier to hit because he couldn't see the punches coming and that's why many seem to think he was a walking punching bag.

Frazier won the olympic gold medal as an amateur,
beat tough, top competition (Bonavena, Machen, Jones, Chuvalo, Mathis, Quarry, Ellis, Foster),
unified the world titles (WBA, WBC & NYSAC)
and had that signature win over the linear world champion Ali in one of the most important fights in the history of boxing.


Frazier in his prime.

[Southpaw Stinger]

Anyone else think hes rearly underrated? people make him out to be 1 demsional but he was pretty gd at bobbing and weaving with his style.
Great left hook of course but he also had a nice uppercut and had some gd combinations to.
He had alot of heart no one can say this man has no heart all you gta do is watch thrilla in milna and see how much heart he has he wanted to continue but his corner stopped the fight.
He rematched foreman after being destroyed what fighter in that decade would of rematched foreman except for ali? gta give him creds he was pretty gd but hes never rearly mentioned no more though.
I also dont agree with how he trained his son marvis frazier he wasnt a puncher but a boxer but joe changed his style to what he wanted it to be then tyson demolished him anyways i feel hes underrated.
I would also like to mention his hieght frazier was smaller then mike tyson he was only 5ft 10 rofl he did gd against bigger guys.

For sure, he was seriously tough and the finest example of heart. Although I think he was like 5'11.2 not 5'10. He knew how to deal with taller guys.

I was thinking the other day how he would do if he were around today. He would be in better shape than all the heavies today but also tiny by comparison to Wlad.
So prime Joe vs Wlad, who takes it? Joe is the greater fighter for sure but Wlads size and reach would surely present problems. Joe would need to connect a left to the jaw.

Aside from Wlad which is a hard call I'd say he would definatly be champ today.

[tyson]

I think most of the old-timers are underrated by today's public.

Bad video quality and no interest for past fights make it easy for us to say that this guy was slow, that guy was not as strong as Wlad etc etc.
But even if the sport of boxing has evolved like any other sport, today's warriors can't compare themselves against the warriors of yesteryear.

Not because today's crop would lose, but because the old-timers went to war all the time against all comers.
If you go to war as often as you can, chances are you're a warrior.

If a fighter today is (un)lucky enough to participate in just one thrilling fight, the world praises them as legendary warriors who can be compared to any fighter ever. Which is bull****.

**** me if Joe Frazier would ever say "I didn't throw left hooks because that would leave me open to counters"

And **** me if any world champion 50 years ago would be ****-scared of Barney's left cross.

[TheGreatA]

I was thinking the other day how he would do if he were around today. He would be in better shape than all the heavies today but also tiny by comparison to Wlad.
So prime Joe vs Wlad, who takes it? Joe is the greater fighter for sure but Wlads size and reach would surely present problems. Joe would need to connect a left to the jaw.

The Frazier who fought Foreman the second time would be an average sized heavyweight today (5'11, 225 lbs) like Chagaev, Brewster and Ibragimov.
Joe could still move at that weight and he seemed a bit stronger but he was getting old and blind.

You could look at the first Brewster fight to make up a good argument on how Frazier could beat Wladimir but you could also look at the second Brewster fight to make up a good argument on how Wladimir could beat Frazier.

Frazier needs to get inside and make Wladimir fight, wear him down.

Wladimir needs to prevent that, hit Frazier with the jab and the right hand (hard because of Frazier's movement), an uppercut would help a lot (Frazier was suspectible to that punch) but Wladimir doesn't seem to have a good one.

Right now I won't say anything to it because I haven't seen Wladimir's whole career yet but I've Frazier's.

If I say Wladimir wins, I would look quite foolish if Wladimir gets dominated and knocked out by someone like Chagaev in his next fight (remember Quintana vs Williams).
If I say Frazier wins, I would look quite biased for liking the 'old-timers'. The Frazier avatar doesn't help either.

[tyson]

In MY own PERSONAL opinion (big letters, so you Wladfans won't crusify me)
I think it's disrespectful of the greats to say that Wlad would beat Smokin' Joe.

If Wlad goes on to have a great career, you can make a case, but not as of now.

[Silencers]

He's underrated by some people today because it's hard to find his fights to watch, most newcomers to boxing will only think he's the guy that lot to Foreman and beat a past prime Ali. Not true, he was a great fighter, had great heart, stamina, one of the best left hooks ever in the heavyweight division, shame his fights are hard to come by nowadays.

[Flab]

Frazier is overrated if anything and don't even get me started on Ali. He got beaten 3 times, by someone with one punch and one eye, but yet many still call Ali the "the greatest"