Joe Frazier is one of my all time favorite fighters, that being said when you look at his record he retired at 32-4-1 (27 kos) which is fairly low. When he fought George Foreman the first time Foreman had had as many or more fights than Frazier. Granted George thumped a lot of tubs, and Frazier was fighting higher quality fighters overall but I've wondered why Joe didn't have more fights. Was it due to his eye injury or was it simply because he was thrown in with good fighters almost from the start of his career?
Idk, some guys just don’t fight as much as others. He definitely made his mark with the amount of fights he had
Agreed, although I like guys with a lot of fights I've often admired Joe's quality over quantity record.
Oscar, Ellis, and Quarry are some pretty good wins. But not the stuff of legend without his win over Ali I wouldn’t rank him very high at all.
I don't see the total number of fights on his record as being particularly important. A fighter who is 30-2, and beats 6 ranked contenders, has a more impressive record than a fighter who is 44-2 and beats 2 ranked contenders.
Joe wasn't one to take tuneups against pushovers (1972 excepted). The only non-top 15 fighters Frazier faced after 1967 were Ron Stander (and I'm guessing Stander was ranked by somebody) and Jumbo Cummings. Several were top-3 when Frazier fought them. Even before 1968 Joe fought some notable names: Bonavena, Machen, Doug Jones, and #5 Chuvalo. Frazier was badass, fighting only the toughest guys out there.
Except for Liston, who called him out 10000000 times. Not sure if Frazier was the one who refused the fight OR his team though.
Joe was one of my all-time favorites as well. His gold medal in the 1964 Olympics was not an immediate springboard to a successful pro career; he went back to work in a Philadelphia slaughterhouse and did not turn pro until August, 1965, nearly a year after the Olympics. About one year later, he was in with Oscar Bonavena who was already fighting world class opposition. He suffered two KDs in one of the early rounds and one more would have been an automatic TKO loss, but he rose to the occasion and won a split decision. By the end of 1966 he had stopped Eddie Machen and won the Progress Award for the year by Ring Magazine. 1967 was a busy year for Joe. He had a busy schedule, stopping Doug Jones, and becoming the first to stop the very durable George Chuvalo. He became the #1 contender at that point and won Ring Magazine's Fighter of the Year award for 1967. After winning the NY State version of the heavyweight title in March 1968 against Buster Mathis, Joe fought on the average of twice a year thereafter. This followed the pattern of Marciano and other champions before him. Having a physical style in which he routinely took degrees of punishment in his fights, a pace of twice a year against top opposition allowed him to sufficiently recover for the next fight. After winning undisputed, universal recognition in FOTC, I wondered what kind of reign he would have as champion. Between Joe and Ali, they had virtually cleaned out the division. Joe's reign did not turn out anything like I would have imagined, but to be fair to Joe, I believe negotiations stalled for an Ali rematch and he took the Daniels and Stander fights to stay busy. Rumors abounded that he was a sick man who should not be fighting. The Foreman fight was to be his return to a serious title defense, but we know what happened there. With that loss, Joe lost his aura of invincibility and while he had some fine victories and performances afterward, he knew that it was time to hang 'em up after the second Foreman fight (until the later Cummings fight). To summarize, Joe was fighting world class opposition during his second year as a pro and he slowed the pace to two fights a year after reaching championship status. His style of fighting was typically one which lends itself to a short prime. His eye problem, which was virtually unknown until after his career ended, makes his accomplishments all the more remarkable.
I believe it was Yank Durham that did not want Joe Frazier to fight Sonny Liston either, even though Sonny was getting on in years, style was dangerous for Joe.
When Joe Frazier fought Muhammad Ali in The Fight Of The Century on March 8 1971 in Madison Square Garden, Joe was defending his undisputed heavyweight title, Frazier had won it on Feb 16 1970 stopping WBA Champion Jimmy Ellis in round 5. Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title on April 28 1967, after he refused to accept military induction, his license was taken from him as well. So FOTC was a title defense for Frazier, Ali was the challenger.
It is mainly due to his style. Pressure fighters usually do not age well. There are few exceptions. Most of them have changed or at least adjusted their styles. Joe was not very versatile. He was not an in between hybrid style guy. He was just a pure pressure fighter. He took too many hits...always had to go right through the hail of punches to deliver his left hook. The more defensive fighters tend to have longer careers: Out boxers, tall boxer punchers or even the more "slickier" pressure fighters like Duran. They don't have to take as many shots to the head.
The guy started fighting contenders when he had about a dozen pro fights. His record is pretty free of padding.