They don’t get any harder than Joe Frazier. The son of a sharecropper, he grew up in the blackest part of black America, Beaufort County, South Carolina. He spent his childhood makin bootleg corn liquor and beating on a stuffed burlap sack. As a child on the farm his left arm was mauled by a 300 lb hog. Unable to pay for medical attention, the arm healed crooked, leaving it permanently cocked for the perfect left hook.
In the 70s, Joe Frazier’s gym on Broad and Indiana was the best place to train in the United States. He had the greatest trainer who ever lived, Eddie Futch. Following a training accident in 1964, Joe Frazier was partially blind in his left eye for his entire career, still going on to be one of the greatest fighters ever to live. That legacy was cemented in the annals of boxing history in 1971, after he became the first man ever to defeat Muhammad Ali. In doing so he captured the greatest title in all of sports: Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Boxing is the hardest sport, by far. There aint no teams. It’s just you getting punched in the face for three minutes at a time. It aint the UFC. You can’t tap out. You can’t quit. You can’t rest. You gotta hit the other guy harder than he hits you. It’s the only sport where the players are willing to pay the ultimate price to win. Fighters die in the ring every year. Joe Frazier said that he would have been prepared to die to fight the last round of the Thrilla in Manilla, his third and final fight with Ali. As a blind Frazier begged Eddie Futch to go on, he through in the towel before the start of the fifteenth round. Little did they know that Ali was begging his corner to cut his gloves off, and probably would not have stood had that bell rung.
Human beings are the last step in an evolution of animals that crawled out of the ocean. The only thing we have in common with those beasts is the will to fight to the death in order to triumph.
Boxing is the only thing in the world that brings out that desire in humans today.For his last thirty years, Joe Frazier lived in a room on top of his gym on Broad and Indiana.
He was broke from various failed business ventures, most notably, after buying 140 acres in Bucks County for $800,000. He eventually lost the land, and today it is worth over $100 million.
He didn’t have it all bad though. Still a revered figure in boxing history, he toured the country frequently, being paid to appear at various functions.
He was also a regular at Philly’s own B&W Sports Bar on 22nd and Spring Garden, where he enjoyed a New York Strip or Blackened Tilapia, along with his favorite drink — Courvoisier and ginger ale.
There is a disgraceful statue of of Sly Stallone, who stole many of Frazier’s real life training exploits (including pounding beef carcasses and running up the art museum steps) standing in front of the Art Museum. Where is Joe Frazier’s statue?
No comments:
Post a Comment