Joe Frazier vs Eddie Futch: Manila

Awesome stuff, thank you!

 

dope, loved it. Futch did the right thing man.

 

Great read.

 

Horrible fight and Futch was right.

Frazier to this day will still not let go and that is sad.

 

Eddie Futch



Saturday, 13 October 2001










There is a tale Eddie Futch used to tell about sparring with Joe Louis when the future world heavyweight champion was still an up-and-comer working out at the Brewster Centre in Detroit:


Eddie Futch, boxing trainer: born Hillsboro, Mississippi 9 August 1911; three times married (three children, one son deceased); died Las Vegas 10 October 2001.

There is a tale Eddie Futch used to tell about sparring with Joe Louis when the future world heavyweight champion was still an up-and-comer working out at the Brewster Centre in Detroit:

Joe wouldn't intentionally hurt me [Futch was only a lightweight] but one time he hit me with a left hook that knocked me out of the ring. I went through the top two ropes.

Futch wanted to help in the development of his friend but taking blows from a much bigger man didn't make any sense. Self-preservation was uppermost in Futch's mind but in studying Louis's style he picked up things from which many fighters in the future would benefit. Futch noted that Louis never threw a long punch. Always short punches. Also, that Louis never let a punch go unless both of his feet were squarely on the canvas. "I stayed outside the arc of the short punches," he said,

When I moved to my left, Joe would turn to face me, then I'd move to my right and he'd turn back. For him to move, he [Louis] would have to pick up his feet. Now I had time but it had to split-second. I'd move left, then right. When he turned back, bing, I'd step inside, throw my punches and get out of there.

A sharp boxing mind was already at work but many years would pass before Futch achieved renown as a trainer and he was almost lost to sport. For four decades he needed other jobs to pay his bills. He worked as a hotel waiter, a road labourer, a welder, a sheet-metal worker in an aircraft plant, and a distribution clerk in the Los Angeles Post Office, where he had to know the locale of every city and town in Texas. "I think Texas had 737 cities and towns then," he once said:

Big cities like Dallas, Houston and Amarillo were the distribution points for all the little towns. No matter how well you knew where the towns were, you had to take a test every year. You had eight minutes to throw a hundred cards in the right cubicle. You had to get 95 per cent correct. I did it in three minutes and always got 100 per cent.

One of Detroit's most respected amateur coaches before he moved west, Futch became so disenchanted with the way boxing was being run in California that he turned away from the sport. "There were things going on that made me suspicious," he said:

Good fighters weren't getting the breaks they deserved and it got to the point where I didn't trust anybody. The prevailing values were not my values.

Time spent with Futch, usually with my friend Colin Hart of the Sun newspaper, was an education. One night in Las Vegas, he spoke of the hard times he endured as a black man trying to make a living as a trainer. He described long nights of driving when blacks were not permitted to purchase a cup of coffee in roadside restaurants; having to drop off his second wife – who was white – because petrol-station attendants would not sell to interracial couples.

When you consider the depth of Futch's knowledge and the clarity of his application it is astonishing to recall that he was approaching 60 before people began to speak of him in the same breath as such trainers as Ray Arcel, Charlie Goldman, George Gainford, Angelo Dundee, Freddie Brown and Cus D'Amato. "I guess I took a long time to get there," he said.

It wasn't until 1971 when Futch was persuaded by Yank Durham to work with Joe Frazier that he hit the limelight. By 1975, following Durham's death, Futch was in sole charge for the third contest between Frazier and Muhammad Ali in Manila, his decision to retire Frazier at the end of the 14th round entering the lore of boxing. "It was a terribly hard fight," he recalled,

Both men had given their all and at the end of the 12th I decided unless Joe got on top in the next I'd pull him out. I gave him another round after that because Ali looked spent but Joe took a beating. I kept thinking about Joe's kids, how much he loved them, how much they loved him. I didn't give Joe another chance; despite his protests I cut off the gloves.

For any sports writer who was more interested in the game than the gossip Futch was marvellous company. He once told of a tiff with the welterweight champion Marlon Starling. Unwilling to accept Futch's priceless advice, Starling picked up his bag and made for the gymnasium door. "Marlon," Futch said. "Marlon, a lot of good fighters listened." Starling went back to work. Starling was so much on top when defending the title against the British boxer Lloyd Honeyghan in Las Vegas that he began taking liberties. Before sending Starling out for the next round, Futch said, "Stop that nonsense otherwise I won't be here when you get back."

More than 20 world champions benefited from Futch's tuition. Apart from Frazier and Starling, he worked with Larry Holmes, Ken Norton, Michael Spinks, Trevor Berbick, Bob Foster, Virgil Hill, Alexis Arguello, Mike McCallum, Don Jordan, Hedgemon Lewis and Riddick Bowe.

At around 75 years old, Futch almost lost his life in a car accident while driving late at night in Arizona. In hospital he met a young therapist, Eva and later married her. They were devoted to each other.

 

Chilling statement by Joe Frazier.

.....and knowing how Joe Frazier felt about Ali and with him pleading "no, no, no"..... I'm saddened to say that if I were in Futch's position that night in Manila, I likely would have taken the chance of Frazier dieing in the ring than to stop the fight.:?



Eddie Futch is a better man than I am, and I'm certain he rests in peace with the decision he made.

 

Three minutes can be a long, long time when you're blind in one eye and your arch enemy is mercilessly spearing you. A sad night for Joe. As a morality play, it would've seemed proper for Joe to win. Ali, to me, was always the bad guy in that rivalry.

 

Thanks man! Nice piece

 

Great story. Beautiful writing.

This fight is fraught with controversies and subplots. We won;t know for sure what all really happened in there but that's what makes it an epic.

 

Boxing to me has always been a ying and yang proposition,Brutal at one time and poetry in motion in another.Ali /Frazier for me was the epitomy of boxing in my youth ... 2 men with a heavy dislike for each other but tempered with respect as well.I tried to be half the man that these men were in my athletic pursuits,I was not as gifted as they were but by using them as a model I was able to achieve lots of my goals.I love the rivalry that they had and look forward to next rivalry that comes our way in the ring thats close to Ali /Frazier...hopefully in my lifetime ?

 

truly EPIC

 

Great read. :good

 

I know many people may not agree, but in my opinion he hurt Joe more than Ali ever could. Joe wanted this more than anything. He hated Ali, and was so determined and disciplined to beat him. He trained furiously, and even entered the ring with a handicap not many knew about, a bad eye. He gave his heart and soul into that fight.

Not many can understand, because most of us wouldn't be willing to give our lives for something like Joe was willing to do. But to Joe, either he was going to leave with the victory or die trying.

Most people saw Eddie Futch show compassion and save Joe's life, what I see is someone Joe trusted take away his heart and rob him of his dream. And from what I read it seems like Joe would agree.

If it was me in Eddie Futch's position I would have looked Joe in the eyes and asked if this was worth dying for. If he would have said yes I would have let him go out there no questions asked. Who am I to hold him back after all that he gave of himself? It may seem brutal, but I would have died in the ring than to have my dream, the thing that I sacrificed blood, sweat, and tears for, taken from me by another man.

I know alot of people may not agree with my views, and believe me I understand. What Eddie Futch did was the right thing to do. But you know what they say, "Sometimes the right thing isn't always the right thing."

 

Exactly right. Joe's eye was closed and he couldn't see what was coming from that side for the previous two rounds. The last was going to be really bad for his health even though Ali was just about stuffed too.

 

Those who say that Ali wouldn't have come out for the 15th or would have collapsed in the 15th round are delusional. Ali had a will of iron, just as Frazier had. Never would Ali have quit, I think he was ready to die in there, just as Frazier was. Ali would have come out for the 15th round, and he would have pounded on the half-blind Frazier again, no matter how exhausted he would have been.
Eddie Futch did the right thing and stopped the madness - this was 'just' a boxing fight after all.