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Frazier, who had admired Ali, was baffled and insulted by what he considered a betrayal of the brotherhood of boxers. Frazier “ignorant,” “dumb” and an “Uncle Tom.” With Ali returning to boxing after a three-year layoff, the stage was set for a showdown.Īgainst a background of political and racial upheaval, Ali called Mr. Frazier beat Jimmy Ellis to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. Frazier turned from ordinary ribbing to something deeper that reflected the divisions of race and opportunity in America.Īli had been the heavyweight champion from 1964 to 1967, when he had to relinquish his title after refusing to participate in the military draft. Frazier and Ali fought in the ring were complicated by a personal antipathy rare in sports. The last of their three fights, the “Thrilla in Manila” in 1975, is widely ranked as the greatest match in boxing history.īut the bouts that Mr.
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Frazier’s quiet stoicism was no match for Ali’s glib flamboyance. The most exciting thing about him was his nickname, “Smokin’ Joe.” His crouching, relentless style of boxing was in stark contrast to the tall, graceful presence of Ali.
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Frazier, a sharecropper’s son from South Carolina, was stocky and powerful. Both fighters had won Olympic gold medals, but in most other respects they were very different. Frazier and Ali were the dominant heavyweights of their generation, and their rivalry was considered one of the most heated and enduring in all of sports. His family said he died in hospice care in Philadelphia. Joe Frazier, a onetime heavyweight champion whose epic battles with Muhammad Ali in the 1970s spilled from the boxing ring into a decades-long war of words, died Nov.