Did Frazier get the recognition he deserved for winning the Fight of the century in 1971 ?

Let's see it this way:

Norton's resume gets a massive boost as one of the very selected ones who beat Ali when it mattered. (No, Holmes and Leon neon dont belong to that club).

Frazier's resume gets on steroids and is launched to the moon with the FOTC win.

 

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MMA fighter Yoel Romero talking about Frazier beating Ali, loved this quote.

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Yep.

It put him in the top ten.

Without that win, he might not make the top twenty.

 

Nonsense.

That win can't be talked down.

That was possibly the greatest win in HW history.

 

Doesn’t stop an awful lot of people trying. To be fair to Ali, he didn’t talk it down.

 

I think he always got the recognition he deserved and maybe moreso.

 

Exactly.
After the FOTC Fraizer was hailed as a possible GOAT and was expected to dominate the HW division for a long time.

Frazier's problem was that his reign was a flash in the pan because some dude called Foreman.

 

He was a great and his Ali fights put him forever in the talk of heavyweights. It is amazing how he weighted near 205 and a guy like Usky goes up higher than that moving up. Today Frazier would be a small heavyweight.

 

Yeah you get a lot of “Ali wasn’t in his prime” “That 3 year layoff and lack of fights affected him” “Frazier wouldn’t perform as well against anyone else due to his hatred of Ali”

Ali insisted that he won the fight for years until after his retirement when he admitted that Joe won.

 

Literally the greatest win of all time in the sport, and it wasn't even a close fight. Anybody with eyes witnessed him batter Ali for 15 rounds and then land one of the greatest left hooks every thrown.

Of course he was recognized for it. Looked like an absolute beast that night.

 

Today Frazier would be busy terrorizing Bivol and Beterbiev, not dealing with dudes with 6 inches and 50lbs on him.

 

I've seen a clip of him on a talk show shortly after the fight being gracious about it. He starts to say he thought he won, then stops and says "oh hell, it's ok, I'll get him next time".

 

Frazier has serious longevity issues in that scenario.

 

I don’t know that his career losses do anything to hurt him, except arguably how convincingly he lost to Foreman. Since nearly everyone has losses on their résumé, the fact he has only four, & all came to Heavyweights routinely ranked in the top 3-5 of all-time, that’s if anything pretty impressive as an argument in Frazier’s favour.

Louis, Ali, Foreman & essentially everyone not named Marciano wish they could say the same about themselves.

 

Let me get a clarification on the terms of your question. Are you asking whether he got the recognition THEN, in real time, or historically?

I think he absolutely got his due in real time.

Historically, I think that’s regarded as a stellar moment in time and one of the greatest fights ever, but while he’s absolutely an ATG … he’s seventh on my list … I think him getting pulverized by Foreman and the fact that Ali didn’t just get even once but twice to prove who the better fighter was has probably taken some of the luster off that night.

I think Joe probably went to his grave thinking he didn’t get his just due, but he had the mistaken belief that Ali would be over after the 1971, and probably was as bitter over that as he was over Ali’s mouth.

But I have said this before here: Joe could never be anything more than a great prize fighter. Ali could never be just a great prize fighter.