smokin’ joe

Jesse Marinoff Reyes:

Sports Illustrated
March 1, 1971 issue
Illustration: Robert Tompkins Handville (1924-1993)
Art Director: Richard Gangel (1918-2002)

R.I.P. “Smokin'” Joe Frazier (1944-2011).

Joe Frazier

The former Heavyweight Champion of the World (back when that meant something) from 1970 to 1973, died last October of liver cancer, only about a month after the disease was diagnosed.

Despite his relatively brief tenure on the throne, Frazier will be remembered as one of the all-time greats of the game—and anyone who saw him buzzsaw his way to the top of the division in the 1960s would acknowledge that, in blistering bouts against the game’s top contenders Eddie Machen, Doug Jones, Oscar Bonavena, George Chuvalo, and Jerry Quarry. But as everyone knows, it will be his epic trilogy with the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali, in 1971, 1974, and 1975 that cemented him as one of the immortals—despite having lost two of the three. He won spectacularly in their first bout, “The Fight of the Century,” that pitted two undefeated heavyweight champions in the ring for the first time, memorably knocking down Ali late in the fight with a devastating left hook. Ali won handily in 1974 in a bout preceding his challenge to George Foreman for the title (who had taken it from Frazier the year before), but it was their third fight, the coda of their symphony, that takes their rivalry to an unparalleled strata.

With both men in their decline yet summoning up unprecedented will, put on the greatest fight in the history of the heavyweight championship, the “Thrilla in Manila.” When Frazier, both eyes swollen to blindness, was prevented from answering the bell for the 15th round ensuring the victory for Ali, the champion slumped to the canvas floor in exhaustion. Afterwards, he said of Frazier—words that resonate as a kind of epitaph—that the punishment meted out by Frazier was “the closest thing to death I could ever know.” Unbeknownst to Frazier, Ali had instructed his corner to cut the gloves off at the end of the 14th round, that he could not continue. It was while trainer Angelo Dundee was arguing with him that they learned that Frazier’s corner had thrown in the towel.

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