Joe Frazier never received American deification and failed to think of an indoor heating pad for cooking. Therefore, his voice has always been quieter among the boxing legends from the 1960s-1970s.
HBO’s “Thrilla in Manilla” documentary (first aired last weekend) provided Frazier an opportunity to speak for himself at center stage with a sympathetic ear on hand. Finally, Joe, the stage is yours. What say thee?
“I’m sorry that (Muhammad Ali) is the way he is, but I didn’t have too much to do with it. It was the good man above. Maybe I did have a little to do with it, but God judges, you know what I’m saying? We don’t have the power to judge that the man has above.”
… okay, that’s a wrap here, people. Thanks for your time. The lightning strike will be here shortly and we’d like to get this expensive filming equipment out of the way.
Oh, he’s still talking … something about pushing Ali into the Olympic flame? A philandering Ali? No no… go on. We’ll just get the van warmed up.
Ali and Frazier don’t owe any affection to the other, but Joe’s received bad advice if he thinks this will damage Ali’s halo, true or not. Also, is there a Kennedy past that lost any shine for his indiscretions? If anything, Frazier should be mad at the “good man above” for giving him lesser boxing ability than Ali.
11:35 am on April 13th, 2009
Frazier was 134 years old when he fought Ali….
11:37 am on April 13th, 2009
Why the hatred toward frazier with this article? isn't he entittled to say what everyone else is thinking, Ali was a creep in his life and frazier knows him better than most, so he is probably correct
1:01 pm on April 13th, 2009
Ali was a scumbag. A phony with no character–plenty of talent–but a scumbag. The world is full of them and now maybe the world will see Ali for what he really was.
1:03 pm on April 13th, 2009
Watched the HBO documentary, it breaks my heart to see Frazier living the way he is now.
Rocky Balboa (fictional character) gets a statue erected in his honor and Smoking Joe gets a one bedroom apartment above his gym???
2:40 pm on April 13th, 2009
Doesn't seem like the person that wrote this post watched the whole documentary.
8:38 am on April 14th, 2009
This article should also inform the reader of the douchebag things Ali said and did to Frazier. If I was Frazier, I'd probably feel the same way towards Ali.
It is a great documentary, too bad this is all the writer got out of it.
3:11 pm on May 14th, 2009
Did you even watch the documentary?