Tweet
Joe Frazier was not a great fighter
A honest and unbiased look at the overrated career of Joe Frazier.
“Joe’s gonna be smokin’ an’ I ain’t even jokin but I’ll be peckin’ and a pokin’ and I’ll pour water on that smokin’”
Let’s briefly go over the career of Frazier and the opponents he fought.
Mike Bruce (10-29). Frazier’s “hall of fame” career starts off on the right foot, correct? Actually, incorrect. In his second fight, Frazier meets up with this no name punk Bruce, and immediately gets floored in the first round. Against a bum like this! You need not look to the Foreman fights to see that Frazier was chinny. He was exposed right here. Frazier manages to get up off the canvas (where he’ll spend a lot of time in his career) to knock out this ham and egger in Round 3. Bruce was starched by Cleveland Williams in one round, and he even lost to legendary tomato can Chuck Wepner. Other stellar losses on his resume include Sonny Andrews (4-12 career record), Charlie Emperor Harris (12-30, he certainly wasn’t an emperor of boxing, maybe of getting knocked out), and Stamford Harris, and Tommy Hicks.
So, there you have it. Frazier is already shown to have a glass chin, and this will factor into his manager Yank Durham’s decisions on who Frazier fights in the future. Needless to say, Frazier will side step quite a few heavy hitters, instead choosing to beat up on guys he already took care of, and fighters that hit like girls. Anyways, after padding his record with guys like Charley Polite and Memphis Al Jones, Frazier faces his first real test in:
Oscar Bonavena (58-9). What happens? Frazier gets decked twice, almost losing by TKO. He barely escapes the round and manages to get a gift decision by the judges. People claim that Frazier was green while Oscar was a veteran, but Oscar only had 11 more pro fights than Frazier. Also, Bonavena as a fighter was quite overrated, simply because he fought in the 70’s. He was nothing more than an okay fighter with a stupid and akward style. He
wasn’t very big, proving that Frazier can’t win the big one against skilled men larger than himself, so he fights easy guys all the time.
I’ll take the time now to discuss Frazier’s chin and his defense. It’s pointless to mention every single opponent and the times they rocked Frazier, because I’d be here all night. EVERY guy he fought landed good hard shots on him, and stunned and staggered him. This includes good fighters like Ali, and even poor ones like Stander and Ramos. Now, you must wonder, how can all these guys land such clean shots all the time? It was because Frazier’s pathetic excuse for defense. He had none. Bobbing and weaving never did much for him, except tire him out. He was basically a stationary target, and many opponents took advantage of this. But as mentioned, none of them could really hit, and Yank Durham should win some kind of award for making such a pathetic fighter like Frazier look good. Durham was one of the smartest managers ever. He even managed to weasel his way out of fights, as will be discussed a little later. Anyways, back to Joe’s career. He beats up on an extremely old and shot Eddie Machen, and mows through stumble****s like Doug Jones and Jefferson Davis, before moving on to:
George Johnson (19-24). “Scrap Iron” Johnson was his nickname. Seems fitting. You can find scraps like him in the local dumpster, which is where this fight took place. Some ****hole. Anyways, Georgie was obviously robbed of a decision here. Not many know the story of this fight. Frazier called GJ the toughest fighter he ever fought, and with good reason. The man beat the hell out of him all night. The fans went crazy every time George landed a punch (which, obviously, was quite often). But the judges were most likely bribed and gave the decision to an up and coming fighter rather than a guy with a losing career record. Yank probably paid them money. He certainly had enough, as the guy was a crook. I wouldn’t be surprised if Frazier was in on it, as well. He always seemed pretty shady. So anyways, chalk up another loss for Frazier, but it was scored as a win.
How many gifts can a glass chinned fighter recieve in his career? How many big punchers and good fighters can one man duck before people start to raise questions? The proof is right here on paper, Frazier was a con. So, he moves on to beat up on “The Human Punching Bag” George Chuvalo, as well as Tony Doyle and Marion Conner.
This is where things start to get interesting. Ali, at this point, has his title stripped, so an 8 man elimination tournament is held, with fighters such as Ellis, Quarry, Martin, and Spencer, and some other no names. Should be an easy path to the title for Frazier, right? Wrong. Frazier and Durham OPT OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT. See, Frazier is too lazy and too soft to fight more than twice a year, so he decides to take on:
Buster Mathis (30-4). A rematch of the Olympics. A quick little story about that. Frazier won the 1964 gold medal, but that was because Mathis was injured and had to leave the tournament. HE ALREADY BEAT FRAZIER. Frazier undeservingly won the gold medal in his place. But the truth was, Mathis was just a big, fat, lump of **** with no skills at all. Proves that Joe can’t run with the big boys. Frazier gets lucky by TKO’ing Mathis in Round 11. Most likely Mathis would have caught Joe on his china chin and down he goes. But, Frazier gets lucky, and wins the NYSAC heavyweight title.
He moves on to defend it against Manuel Ramos, who ended up with a losing record. In that fight, Ramos almost knocks Joe out with one punch, and that was all Manuel had. No chin, no speed, nothing else. Frazier then doubles up on Bonavena, which he likes to do, and then beats Ziggy in 36 seconds. Yeah, great title defenses. And I thought this guy was a top 10 heavyweight? People may reconsider after reading this. Things get interesting
when he squares off with:
Jerry Quarry (53-9). Quarry was a great fighter, who would have been champion if, one, he boxed against Frazier, or two, he slugged it out with Ellis. He simply fought stupid both times. He also cut very easily. Now, Frazier was a thug, which is well known. He could brawl anytime, as he normally does on weekends in the bars. Quarry foolishly decides to turn the match into a slugfest, resulting in his downfall. Fight is stopped after 7.
Frazier moves on to beat up an inactive Jimmy Ellis and light heavy Bob Foster. Another example where Cloverlay in general avoided big hitters. Frazier was set to fight Mac Foster, who recently admitted that he would have stopped Frazier faster than Foreman did. But, Yank’s dog must have ate the contract, so the fight never came to be. This set the stage for The Fight of the Century, with:
A honest and unbiased look at the overrated career of Joe Frazier.
“Joe’s gonna be smokin’ an’ I ain’t even jokin but I’ll be peckin’ and a pokin’ and I’ll pour water on that smokin’”
Let’s briefly go over the career of Frazier and the opponents he fought.
Mike Bruce (10-29). Frazier’s “hall of fame” career starts off on the right foot, correct? Actually, incorrect. In his second fight, Frazier meets up with this no name punk Bruce, and immediately gets floored in the first round. Against a bum like this! You need not look to the Foreman fights to see that Frazier was chinny. He was exposed right here. Frazier manages to get up off the canvas (where he’ll spend a lot of time in his career) to knock out this ham and egger in Round 3. Bruce was starched by Cleveland Williams in one round, and he even lost to legendary tomato can Chuck Wepner. Other stellar losses on his resume include Sonny Andrews (4-12 career record), Charlie Emperor Harris (12-30, he certainly wasn’t an emperor of boxing, maybe of getting knocked out), and Stamford Harris, and Tommy Hicks.
So, there you have it. Frazier is already shown to have a glass chin, and this will factor into his manager Yank Durham’s decisions on who Frazier fights in the future. Needless to say, Frazier will side step quite a few heavy hitters, instead choosing to beat up on guys he already took care of, and fighters that hit like girls. Anyways, after padding his record with guys like Charley Polite and Memphis Al Jones, Frazier faces his first real test in:
Oscar Bonavena (58-9). What happens? Frazier gets decked twice, almost losing by TKO. He barely escapes the round and manages to get a gift decision by the judges. People claim that Frazier was green while Oscar was a veteran, but Oscar only had 11 more pro fights than Frazier. Also, Bonavena as a fighter was quite overrated, simply because he fought in the 70’s. He was nothing more than an okay fighter with a stupid and akward style. He
wasn’t very big, proving that Frazier can’t win the big one against skilled men larger than himself, so he fights easy guys all the time.
I’ll take the time now to discuss Frazier’s chin and his defense. It’s pointless to mention every single opponent and the times they rocked Frazier, because I’d be here all night. EVERY guy he fought landed good hard shots on him, and stunned and staggered him. This includes good fighters like Ali, and even poor ones like Stander and Ramos. Now, you must wonder, how can all these guys land such clean shots all the time? It was because Frazier’s pathetic excuse for defense. He had none. Bobbing and weaving never did much for him, except tire him out. He was basically a stationary target, and many opponents took advantage of this. But as mentioned, none of them could really hit, and Yank Durham should win some kind of award for making such a pathetic fighter like Frazier look good. Durham was one of the smartest managers ever. He even managed to weasel his way out of fights, as will be discussed a little later. Anyways, back to Joe’s career. He beats up on an extremely old and shot Eddie Machen, and mows through stumble****s like Doug Jones and Jefferson Davis, before moving on to:
George Johnson (19-24). “Scrap Iron” Johnson was his nickname. Seems fitting. You can find scraps like him in the local dumpster, which is where this fight took place. Some ****hole. Anyways, Georgie was obviously robbed of a decision here. Not many know the story of this fight. Frazier called GJ the toughest fighter he ever fought, and with good reason. The man beat the hell out of him all night. The fans went crazy every time George landed a punch (which, obviously, was quite often). But the judges were most likely bribed and gave the decision to an up and coming fighter rather than a guy with a losing career record. Yank probably paid them money. He certainly had enough, as the guy was a crook. I wouldn’t be surprised if Frazier was in on it, as well. He always seemed pretty shady. So anyways, chalk up another loss for Frazier, but it was scored as a win.
How many gifts can a glass chinned fighter recieve in his career? How many big punchers and good fighters can one man duck before people start to raise questions? The proof is right here on paper, Frazier was a con. So, he moves on to beat up on “The Human Punching Bag” George Chuvalo, as well as Tony Doyle and Marion Conner.
This is where things start to get interesting. Ali, at this point, has his title stripped, so an 8 man elimination tournament is held, with fighters such as Ellis, Quarry, Martin, and Spencer, and some other no names. Should be an easy path to the title for Frazier, right? Wrong. Frazier and Durham OPT OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT. See, Frazier is too lazy and too soft to fight more than twice a year, so he decides to take on:
Buster Mathis (30-4). A rematch of the Olympics. A quick little story about that. Frazier won the 1964 gold medal, but that was because Mathis was injured and had to leave the tournament. HE ALREADY BEAT FRAZIER. Frazier undeservingly won the gold medal in his place. But the truth was, Mathis was just a big, fat, lump of **** with no skills at all. Proves that Joe can’t run with the big boys. Frazier gets lucky by TKO’ing Mathis in Round 11. Most likely Mathis would have caught Joe on his china chin and down he goes. But, Frazier gets lucky, and wins the NYSAC heavyweight title.
He moves on to defend it against Manuel Ramos, who ended up with a losing record. In that fight, Ramos almost knocks Joe out with one punch, and that was all Manuel had. No chin, no speed, nothing else. Frazier then doubles up on Bonavena, which he likes to do, and then beats Ziggy in 36 seconds. Yeah, great title defenses. And I thought this guy was a top 10 heavyweight? People may reconsider after reading this. Things get interesting
when he squares off with:
Jerry Quarry (53-9). Quarry was a great fighter, who would have been champion if, one, he boxed against Frazier, or two, he slugged it out with Ellis. He simply fought stupid both times. He also cut very easily. Now, Frazier was a thug, which is well known. He could brawl anytime, as he normally does on weekends in the bars. Quarry foolishly decides to turn the match into a slugfest, resulting in his downfall. Fight is stopped after 7.
Frazier moves on to beat up an inactive Jimmy Ellis and light heavy Bob Foster. Another example where Cloverlay in general avoided big hitters. Frazier was set to fight Mac Foster, who recently admitted that he would have stopped Frazier faster than Foreman did. But, Yank’s dog must have ate the contract, so the fight never came to be. This set the stage for The Fight of the Century, with:
Gizzard_Charles
Comment