What would have happened if Joe Frazier had been beaten at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics?

I don't think it would have mattered too much. He did get a group to back him eventually but many experts thought Joe was too short and not a good prospect.

Frazier might of had a harder road to notoriety but he was determined, he would have gotten to the top. Remember just to win the Gold Joe had to fight through a broken thumb in the finals. He broke it on the Russian fighters head in the semi's finals in the process of knocking him out.

I can't imagine boxing with a broken thumb.

 

yes with Frazier determination he always gets to champion of world

 

Exactly. The reps of true greats aren’t (or shouldn’t be) built on ifs bits and maybes. Their manifest careers prove them to be great and they all had real life obstacles they did overcome let alone any we might hypothesise.

They instil the confidence that, come what may, they still would’ve prevailed one way or another - because of the very determination you succinctly and perfectly highlighted.

 

My first impulse was to wonder if Joe would even have turned pro if he had not won the Olympic gold. As it was, winning the gold was not a springboard for Joe in 1964 as it would be for others in succeeding years. He went back to work in a Philadelphia slaughterhouse for a while before turning pro in August, 1965, nearly a year after the Tokyo Olympics. On further reflection, as an amateur Joe had lost to Buster Mathis, who should have represented the U.S. in the Olympics. When he injured a thumb, Joe took his place and went on to win the gold. And since the gold medal did not really help that much with Joe turning pro, a silver or bronze medal probably would not have made much difference. Assuming Joe still wanted to fight and turned pro, his drive and dedication would take him to the top, especially if he still hooked up with Yank Durham.

 

Joe defeated Germany’s Hans Huber in the gold medal match.

If Huber won, it’s a near certainty that the movie ‘Die Hard’ would have chosen a different name for villain Hans Gruber, played superbly by Alan Rickman. If he had been named Hans Shulz or something like that, the movie probably would have flopped at the box office and Bruce Willis would have never become a Hollywood action hero. Rickman would have gone back to England to play character roles in art house movies.

Major ripples through cinematic time from one boxing result.

As for Joe, he would have whipped whoever they put in front of him because that’s one of the most determined sons of a gun I’ve ever seen in a ring and he’d have still won heavyweight gold and the FotC.

 

In an alternate reality, there’s a Buster known as Tokyo Mathis.