How many times was Joe Frazier knocked down?

Joe Frazier - I'd learned early on not to take any fighter for granted. In my second bout as a pro, a supposed nonentity, Mike Bruce, had put me on my ass. Bonavena had abused me when i'd gotten sloppy. Machen shook me up when i figured i had the scambooga ready to fall over and play dead.

 

Gotta love Joe, no bullsh*t, just honestly said it as he saw it...

 

Very true.

 

Thank you. Very interesting read.

 

No. I more or less a Joe Frazier nuthugger. It sounded plausible.

 

He fought the guy that beat those guys. Had he faced the loser of those contests he would've been accused of ducking the better fighter..Jerry Quarry. Jerry could punch.

 

Prime Joe would have beaten Lyle, Shavers, and *cough cough* Mac with little or no trouble.
Ron: enough of the 'brain dead' Foreman bout...at the end I thought Lyle was DEAD!
Earnie: He came to fight; no real jab to frustrate the bobbing and weaving Joe. Unless some 'bomb' from nowhere lands, Earnie will be 'toast' at some point.
Mac: come on! When he stepped up to major 'comp' he couldn't cut it.
IMO, outside of Foreman, a 70-75 prime Joe would have destroyed virtually anyone you put in front of him!
My $0.02

 

Lmao typical causuals aways trying to change the narrative cause they cant stand the truth

 

I guess, at that time, Bruce may have been considered a decent opponent, being that he was 4-1. This is normal fare for amateur stars at the beginning. "Let's see if you can get past this guy"..

 

According to Mike Bruce's local paper he not only floored Frazier in the first round but won the second and was only stopped because his ribs were injured after he "slipped" in the third.

https://ibb.co/zHhbqhFZ

The Philadelphia Daily News saw it differently.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/philadelphia-daily-news-fraziers-2nd-fig/119535039/

 

Come Out Smokin by Phil Pepe says Bruce knocked Joe down in the 2nd rd, either way he was dropped.

 

He was dropped on his butt for a short count in the first round of his Olympic bout with Athol McQueen after having dropped McQueen with a monster left hook. He came back to drop McQueen several more times and finally stop him in the third round. He was also dropped twice by Gerald O'Neill in the amateurs.

 

I think this video contains very short hls of the McQueen fight (plus subsequent Olympic bouts) though unfortunately not the knockdown. Still gives us hope a fuller version is out there.

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Joe's true prime ended with the FOTC. He was never the same after that epic battle. I would place his actual prime at 1968-71
when he was an absolute terror knocking over everybody. For those two to three years he was as great as Dempsey and Marciano.

 

Roughly a dozen times in pro contests. AFAIK zero times in the amateurs.

It has long been rumored (based on a claim by Vito Antuofermo) that he was dropped in sparring in the mid-70s by Carlos Monzón.