Tuesday, November 8, 2011

'Smoking' Joe Frazier career highlights

Joe Frazier died Monday night at age 67 after a short battle with liver cancer. While he may be remembered best for his "Fight of the Century" win over Muhammad Ali, he also won a gold medal and was inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota in 1990. Here are some of his great moments in the ring immortalized thanks to YouTube.

Frazier-Ali I was dubbed by many as the 'Fight of the Century." Madison Square Garden donated the ring from the fight to the IBHOF in 2007.

Announcer Howard Cosell immortalized George Forman's initial knockdown of Frazier with this historic call.
The rubber match between Ali and Frazier was dubbed the 'Thrilla in Manila." Ali took every opportunity to verbally taunt Frazier beforehand and the two generally seemed to dislike each other. In this case, the actual fight lived up to the pre-fight hype as the two battered each other for 14 rounds with Ali winning in a TKO.