Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!
Yes, liver cancer has taken former world heavyweight champion Joe Frazier but the memories linger on.
It's not hard to imagine. Even an atheist or an agnostic might be able to conjure up the vision of trainer Eddie Futch (tutor of Coach Freddie Roach) and Fray-ziuh (how Muhammad Ali would draw out the pronounciation) and Smokin' Joe behind St. Peter's Gate.
Their lively debate is, of course, should Futch have stopped the aptly named Thrilla In Manila when he did or should he have let Joe stagger to the finish line.
Howard Cosell is there--right there--to referee their debate.
Let me share with you some of my indelible memories of Frazier and, from Jump Street, please be advised I was always what Joe called "a Clay man."
Back in the days when they rumbled, young man, rumbled, you had to choose. No one of my generation liked both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, you chose either one.
Stones man, Clay man, some passing thoughts about this icon named Frazier.
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First time I saw Frazier he was clearly outpointed on ABC (if memory serves, Cosell called the bout) in a 1964 Tokyo Olympics eliminator which the network showed live from the Singer Bowl at the old World's Fair site in Queens, a line drive away from Shea Stadium.
Float like a rhinoceros, sting like a bee.
That could've been roly-poly, 295 pound Buster Mathis' ring motto.
Mathis suffered a hand inury and Frazier replaced him in Tokyo, going on to win the gold.
Based on that one bout, many would've preffered Mathis' boxing future to Frazier's but Joe went to thoroughly whip Behemoth Buster twice in the pro ranks.
Which reminds me, while everyone talks about Frazier going 1-2 in three tries against Ali and 0-2 against giant George Foreman, Joseph William Frazier beat everyone else who mattered.
Doug Jones gave a young Cassius Clay fits but Joe stopped him in six rounds. Roughouse Canadian George Chuvalo got stopped in four and classy Jimmy Ellis was twice stopped by Frazier.
Great light heavyweight Bob Foster was halted in two rounds. Formidable banger Jerry Quarry lost twice to Frazier as did Argentine ruffian Oscar "Ringo" Bonavena. He also stopped slick Eddie Machen although Machen was on vapors by then.
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I was just 17, a high school kid and a vendor at the Boston Garden when I met Frazier face to face.
I had illusions of being a pro boxer and had some amateur bouts with mixed success around Boston. I knew all the local pugilists but was very close to light heavyweight Marion Connor.
I walked into Connor's dressing room, carrying my tray of ice cold Cokes. I wished my 180 pound friend (Frazier was a solid 210) luck and he asked what I thought the outcome might be.
I pointed to my paper hat on which was written "Frazier TKO 3." It was a decent payday for Connors and he didn't take offense at my prediction.
The fight, held on Dec. 18, 1967, went three rounds.
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In between his March 8, 1971, Garden vanquishing of Ali (I was at ringside, courtesy of a ticket handed to me by the loser) and his KO 2 beating in Jamaica by hulking Foreman, Frazier became an equal opportunity guy.
He gave two white journeymen paydays, blasting "Council Bluffs Butcher" Ron Stander in Omaha and stopping smallish Terry Daniels of Dallas in New Orleans.
Stander was having marital difficulties and some reporter asked him estranged wife her opinion of his chances against the Frazier wrecking machine.
"I don't think you should enter a Volkswagen in the Indianapolis 500 unless you know a helluva shortcut," Mrs. Stander said.
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Few people know it but Philadelphia Joe, born in Beaufort, S.C., almost based his career in either Brooklyn or Boston.
Frazier was desperate, looking for financial backers, and sleeping in a car in Brooklyn before he turned pro, he once told me. He got to like New York but found the hustle and bustle a bit much and went back to the quieter daily rhythms of Philly.
In Boston, Peter Fuller was a major Cadillac dealer, the son of a former Massachusetts governor and a rich fellow who dabbled in prizefighters and racehorses.
The Boston Blueblood managed Irish Tom McNeeley, who died only last week.
It was Fuller who arranged the Connor-Frazier bout.
Then along came Cloverlay, the money group which financed Frazier's career.
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Frazier made laugh and made me cry.
When Ali lost, I whimpered like a baby at Madison Square Garden.
At social occasions, Frazier made everyone laugh.
His stern warning to those with boxing ambitions still rings true.
"You can get your money took, your brains shook and your name put into the undertaker's book," Frazier often said.
I remain "a Clay man" but, damn, I cannot imagine the life and times of Muhammad Ali without dramatis personae Joseph William Frazier.
Remember the Ali-Frazier I prefight endorsement Ali did for hair tonic?
"Joe Fray-ziuh, I say this to you with no malice...but I'm gonna go upside your head with Vitalis."
RIP, Smokey Joe, RIP.
(mlcmarley@aol.com)
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