Joe Frazier

Joe Frazier is a former heavyweight boxing champion from South Carolina. He fought three fights with Muhammad Ali, culminating into the world-famous "Thrilla in Manila" in the Philippines where he lost to Ali for the second time.

Along with Ali, Frazier fought many of the best heavyweights in the 1970s, generally considered the Golden Age of heavyweight boxers, including Jerry Quarry, Jimmy Ellis, and George Foreman. At 5-foot-11, Frazier was not big for a heavyweight, but he built a successful offense around incessant forward movement and a ripping left hook. Defensively, he had a shell defense, slipped punches effectively, and a great chin.

After Ali was forced into hiatus by refusing to join the army out of opposition to Vietnam, it was Frazier who picked up the heavyweight mantle. He won the title with a fifth-round knockout of Ellis in 1970, beat light heavyweight champ Bob Foster in the second round of their title fight, and then squared off against a returning Ali in the so-called Fight of the Century in 1971. Frazier beat Ali convincingly in Madison Square Garden in what was the greatest victory of his career. He would defend the belt successfully twice more, before being knocked out by George Foreman in the second round in 1973, in a fight in which Frazier hit the canvas six times in less than six minutes. Frazier would never again win the heavyweight title, but he would stage memorable rematches against Ali (twice, including the famous Thrilla in Manila), Ellis, Quarry, and Foreman.

His last fight came in 1981. Frazier retired with a record of 32-4-1, with 27 knockouts.

The crowning triumph of Frazier's career came in 1971, when he bested Muhammad Ali, handing him the first defeat of his career. Ali was in his third fight back from a long layoff due to his refusal to serve in the army, and Frazier boxer who had inherited his place as heavyweight king. As such, the fight amounted to two undefeated heavyweight champions facing off, something close to unprecedented. Ali goaded Frazier before the fight, calling him an Uncle Tom and placing himself in the role as the anti-establishment hero, while the mantle of the squares was thrust upon Frazier. The bout was dubbed the Fight of the Century, and was held in the then-Mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden. The stands were filled with some of the nation's most famous celebrities of the day.

In the fight, Ali had some success early on, using his jab, movement, and length to batter and frustrate Frazier. But as the fight wore on, Frazier's condition proved superior, and he riddled Ali's midsection and his head with body shots, especially coming from his notoriously damaging left hook. Down the stretch, Frazier was in something approaching complete control, as Ali's punching declined and he ate a steadily increasing number of punches. To top off the performance, Frazier knocked Ali to the canvas with a massive left hook to the jaw in the fifteenth round. Although Ali rose to his feat and finished the fight, he was thoroughly beaten, and lost a unanimous decision. http://boxrec.com/media/index.php?title=Fight:17957

1. 1960s: Middles Atlantic Golden Gloves heavyweight champ for three years
2. 1964: Won the heavyweight gold medal in the Olympics
3. 1968: Became the New York State champion
4. 1970: Became the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion
5. 1971: Defended title against Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden
6. 1972: Defended title against Terry Daniels and Ron Stander
7. 1974: Lost to Ali after a decision in a 15-round match in Madison Square Garden
8. 1975: Lost to Ali when his corner stopped the bout in the 14th round in Manila, in the bout known as the "Thrilla in Manila"

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Halberstam wrote of the Ali-Frazier match-up: "Technically the loser of two of the three fights, [Frazier] seems not to understand that they ennobled him as much as they did Ali, that the only way we know of Ali's greatness is because of Frazier's equivalent greatness, that in the end there was no real difference between the two of them as fighters, and when sports fans and historians think back, they will think of the fights as classics, with no identifiable winner or loser. These are men who, like it or not, have become prisoners of each other and those three nights."ESPN.com: Joe Frazier Biography