When former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier died in 2011 it got here as a shock to the boxing world. In any case, he was a mere sixty-seven years of age and the world had solely simply discovered of a prognosis for liver most cancers. Instantly he was gone and we lamented not solely his absence however the reality we had not totally appreciated him when he was with us. Nowhere was this extra keenly felt than in Frazier’s adopted house of Philadelphia the place on the metropolis’s artwork museum there stood a statue of a fictional boxer named Rocky Balboa, whereas no public tribute existed for an all-time nice heavyweight champion who had referred to as Philly house for many years. The legendary Smokin’ Joe deserved higher.
Now, fortunately, if belatedly, the town can boast a statue of Frazier, because it was lastly unveiled in 2015. However for a few of us, it appears insufficient, and never solely as a result of it ought to have been put up years, if not a long time, earlier than. Someway a bodily likeness of the person doesn’t fairly do him justice; Joe Frazier was a legit boxing legend and he deserves one thing on a grander scale. For this author, a extra becoming statue for the warrior named Joseph William Frazier would have been a colossal left hook. I’m considering one thing about three tales excessive, all shiny and sinewy, a cocked left arm chiseled from stone, immovable and monumental.
Sure, I do know, one thing comparable was accomplished in Detroit with that metropolis’s memorial to the nice Joe Louis. However that statue is of Louis’s proper arm and fist, acceptable since whereas The Brown Bomber packed dynamite in each palms, his most potent weapon was the appropriate cross. Frazier may have proven up along with his proper arm in a sling and nonetheless received fights, his left arm was that important to his ring success. Detroit can have the appropriate; Philadelphia ought to have an enormous, muscled left arm, cocked at a ninety diploma angle, and carved from South Carolina granite as a substitute of solid in bronze. And subsequent to it, an limitless, huge display screen video loop exhibiting Smokin’ Joe bashing a succession of opponents with in all probability the most effective hook in heavyweight historical past.
Vacationers would in fact ooh and ahh over the lefts that floored Muhammad Ali and Jerry Quarry, however the one to make individuals wince and shake their heads is the hook ending the primary and final problem for the heavyweight crown by nice gentle heavyweight champ, Bob Foster. Frazier threw a number of deadly left palms in his profession, however none extra devastating than the one concluding, with brutal emphasis, his quick encounter with Blitzin’ Bob.
Going into his problem of Smokin’ Joe, Foster loved a 20 bout successful streak, all however a kind of victories coming by the use of knockout, in addition to a deserved repute for being an extremely highly effective puncher, no less than for the 175 pound weight class. Foster had already ventured into the heavyweight division and whereas he got here away with a number of notable victories, he had additionally been stopped by Doug Jones and Ernie Terrell. This didn’t bode properly for his possibilities in opposition to Frazier. Nor did the very fact the champion outweighed him by 21 kilos.
Smokin’ Joe was undefeated and coming off a very powerful win of his profession to this point, a fifth spherical stoppage of Jimmy Ellis. That victory secured widespread recognition for Frazier because the reigning heavyweight king, regardless of the very fact many considered Muhammad Ali, who had been stripped of his title for refusing to be drafted into the military, because the rightful champion.
Because it occurred, Cobo Corridor in Joe Louis’ house metropolis of Detroit hosted the Frazier vs Foster conflict, ABC’s Huge World of Sports activities broadcasting it to tens of millions, with Howard Cosell offering the ringside commentary. And what the bout lacked by way of drama it made up for in sudden violence. All suspense was passed by the top of the primary spherical because it was evident the challenger lacked the energy to maintain Frazier at bay. As Foster would later say, “You want a .45 to maintain Frazier off you.”
Within the second, Joe went for the kill. Barely a minute in, the champion related completely with a compact model of his well-known hook, the blow nearly lifting Foster off his toes earlier than dumping him on the canvas like one of many sides of beef Frazier used to haul round when he labored in a Philadelphia slaughterhouse. Bob barely beat the rely after which struggled in useless to clinch or struggle again as Joe swarmed him.
Then got here the monster hook, thrown this time with full velocity, extensive, all of Frazier’s weight on it, a freight practice crashing via Cobo Corridor and colliding full power with Foster’s jaw. The challenger’s head recoiled like a launched spring and his entire physique froze earlier than it toppled to the ground. The rely by the referee was a very futile gesture; Foster remained on the canvas for a full minute. Contemplating the ability of that ultimate shot, it’s astonishing he didn’t exit the ring on a gurney.
In fewer than 4 minutes Frazier had demolished the reigning light-heavyweight champion of the world and the vicious knockout solely additional whetted the general public’s urge for food for the conflict to return a number of months later in New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard. There, two undefeated champions, Smokin’ Joe and The Louisville Lip, battled for the undisputed heavyweight crown and Frazier’s distinctive legacy can be without end secured when he turned the one boxer to defeat a major Muhammad Ali after one of many biggest fights within the sport’s historical past.
The left hook that floored Ali within the ultimate spherical of that monumental conflict is with out query essentially the most well-known punch Frazier ever threw and is the inspiration for the eleven foot statue that now stands in The Metropolis of Brotherly Love, however the hook that separated Foster from his senses on this date again in 1970 is, for sheer ferocity, simply as worthy of commemoration. Watch and keep in mind the braveness and energy of Smokin’ Joe.
— Michael Carbert
