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One fan's tribute: Joe Frazier (1944-2011)

Roar Guru
9th November, 2011
9

To pay respects to your fallen heroes is no easy task. It requires fortitude, objectivity and the rose-tinted view that only fond nostalgia can offer. It’s with these thoughts in mind that I pen this tribute to one ‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier.

As a teenager, I spent many hours immersed in boxing history. VHS tapes of old fights took the place of TV shows for my weekend viewing.

My heroes were the leather-fisted warriors that looked back at me through black and white pictures. It was from these times that I first learned of Smokin’ Joe; the champ, the gold medallist, the left hook, the legend.

The former heavyweight champ was a giant in an era of behemoths. Though I’m too young to have been alive during the golden age of heavyweights, anecdotes from my elders have certainly left an impression.

My father vividly recalls the famous left hook that felled Ali in the ‘Fight of the Century’. My grandmother was present at the Araneta Coliseum during the famously brutal ‘Thrilla in Manila’ in 1975. They both spoke fondly of Frazier’s tenacity and resilience.

It’s impossible to praise Frazier without mentioning Muhammad Ali in the same breath.

Like Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson before them, these two will forever be remembered as bitter rivals. Unlike Robinson and LaMotta, the Frazier-Ali rivalry transcended the confines of the squared circle.

Their rivalry was one of political and social significance. Ali represented the opinionated and unsilenced black man that white America could no longer contain. Frazier was portrayed as the ‘Uncle Tom’ – the white man’s silent slave.

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Frazier, who grew up in far more dire straits than Ali could have imagined, was far from being the subservient black man. Raised on a dirt farm, amidst widespread poverty and discrimination, Frazier was certainly never favoured to be a success.

To the more astute observers, he represented the hard-working everyman.

Far removed from Ali’s loud flair and charisma, Frazier plied his trade in silent efficiency. Where others would ham it up for the cameras, Frazier quietly went about his roadwork in heavy combat boots.

His left hook often spoke louder than any words he uttered.

Though Frazier continued to hold animosity against his nemesis for many years, there was always no denying that Smokin’ Joe’s accomplishments stood on their own pedestal.

Indeed, there are countless ways to remember him. In this humble writer’s eyes, he will always be the first man to silence Ali in 1971 and for a time, stood atop the boxing landscape as the very best.

He won the Fight of the Century, and now we bow our heads to commemorate his last battle.

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“Life doesn’t run away from nobody. Life runs at people.”

The final bell has tolled for Smokin’ Joe.

Rest easy, champ.

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