Frazier vrs. Cummings [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3veF34xz4sk&feature=related[/ame] It's in 8 parts and the ending is cut off. After all these years it was interesting to watch. The ringside announcer was an idiot and the video not the best, but it was still good to watch. Frazier did much better than I thought from what I had read. I know Joe's ring wars slowed him down, but he wasn't that bad considering he hadn't fought since '76, was 229 pounds, and quite rusty.
Heard alot of rumors on this fight: joe couldnt get licensed anywhere so thats why it was held in a reservation, that the ref halfway in asked joe if he wanted to quit, that cummings was robbed by that draw, etc.
Thanks for posting. I know watching this will sadden me as Frazier is one of my favorites, however I can't help being curious enough to watch.
i posted the link to the whole fight months ago but yeah frazier was heavy and washed up....frazier was nearly ko'ed 3 different times in this bout...cummings wasn't even much of a boxer or a puncher for someone who looked the way he did but he def should have gotten the nod..any good fighter with sound skills and punching power would have destroyed him that night
Patscorpio. I think Cummings hit hard. Bruno was out on his feet saved by the bell at the end of round 1 from a cummings right hand.
Thanks for posting! I have wanted to see this footage for a very long time. I haven't seen the fight footage just yet, so I cannot comment at this time.
Having finally seen the fight, I disagree about how bad Joe was. Sure, Joe would have KO'd Cummings years earlier, but Cummings didn't come at all close to stopping Joe. Cummings liked to punch on the clinches and do a lot of grabbing. Joe made a fool of Cummings at the end of the fifth round by putting his arms down and mocking Cummings. Joe then landed a left at the bell that looked like it slightly staggered Cummings. Too bad the round ended. Cummings best was some good shots in the eighth, but Joe got through fine. That guy calling the fight did a poor job.
Sad to watch. I got a copy and just deleted it immediately after seeing it. I was curious as was others but it's best to resist temptation to watch it.
A strange and surprising affair. Joe started slowly of course, and Cummings had the best of things on the inside with his uppercuts and body punching. Frazier started coming on after the first few rounds. Weirdly enough, Joe was far better from long range with his jabs and right crosses, when he deployed them. If he'd gone into the ring with the bizarre mindset that, "I'm going to win a decision by out boxing Cummings from the outside with superior skill, experience and speed," he might just have pulled it off. Smoke's hand speed and reflexes looked all right, but his hook was clearly not what it once had been. Jumbo was ready for that, and Joe missed often with it. The few times it did connect, the force it used to carry behind it seemed diminished. Frazier had energy, spirit and displayed respectable stamina, but he had trouble pulling the trigger, particularly with the hook. Now, I'm not suggesting he should have continued with his comeback, but if he had, he'd have done better against another opponent the caliber of Cummings. (And if he'd had a rematch with Jumbo, I believe Joe might have been able to win on points.) However, the magic was gone from that legendary hook, and it would have been too surreal to watch him beat second raters on points behind his jab and cross. Taken as a self contained event, it wasn't a bad fight, nor was it a sad display from Joe, although it obviously suffers badly when measured against what he could do a decade earlier. Had Frazier and Ali gone from Cummings and Berbick to sadistically square off with each other a fourth time, that would have been Muhammad's fight all the way. Berbick did not outbox Ali from long range, while Cummings did get the best of Joe on the inside. Frazier no longer had the power to trouble Muhammad.