It is correct that a fight between Frazier and Earnie Shavers was in the works in 1977 or 1978. Frazier reportedly contracted hepatitis and the fight fell through.
Joe Frazier is the opitome of class and greatness in athletics. Have a lot of Frazier stuff hanging in my house. Pure heart. Only Foreman beat JOE in my mind. Smoke won rds 3-12 in Manila and beat hell out of Ali. The second fight was at least a draw and 1 he won 11-4 I think. Put 68-71 Frazier in with any champ beside George and have him living off their chest and see how they handle it. And it took a past it Joe for Foreman to beat.
Frazier a tough SOB .. So many ATG HW's in history would have ZERO clue in how to deal with a Prime Joe .. He is simply underrated H2H
His comeback fight took in far less than $800,000 Shavers would have beaten the older Frazier. The money was up. He didn't take it.
Thanks. Frazier was fat and slow, missing badly with his hook. He should not have come back. Cummings probably edged it, but like I said before the draw was perfect. Frazier would have been in serious trouble vs a puncher.
H2H a prime (Mathis to Ali 1) Frazier might have stopped Shavers in the first round, 'cause there's no way Jerry Quarry matched him for one shot power. Shavers after Ali...it's another case where Joe mostly comes in all the time, making it sooo easy for Earnie. The uppercut would have wasted Joe earlier than George's did imo. Sometimes I'm convinced that Joe just gave everything of his prime to the FOTC, and necessarily faltered after that. It took something from him imo (iirc Joe was in the hospital for weeks after). Glimpses of the man from FOTC for sure showed in TiM, but ultimately he was a different fighter. One of the most interesting questions for me is whether the Mathis-beating Frazier could have beaten the Folley-smashing Ali.
Yeah, he fought a musclehead named Jumbo Cummings to a standstill, who later almost knocked out Bruno before being knocked out himself. (That was a lot like the Briggs-Lewis fight.) Kind of makes me wonder how prime Frazier would do against Bruno.
Agree with most of this. After the FOTC everything changed for Joe. He was eaten up with bitterness that Ali still got all the publicity, he partied , played with his music band , had health issues. His manager wanted him to retire. There was something put out that he didn't fight the rest of that year for tax reasons , but when he did return he fought 2 of the worst challengers for some time. Outta shape mentally and physically he then ran into Foreman and helped create the myth that Foreman was indestructible. He had a couple more decent fights in him and then there was Manilla. I think Joe wouldve got up for a fight with Ali every day for the rest of his life if it was on offer. That aside , he was finished. He slurred his speech terribly and was a terrible advert for the effects of boxing. Late seventies he had nothing left. He always looked older than he was. Looking at pictures of him and Ali in their late sixties , they both looked at least 10 years older than they were. I cant believe anybody would want to see them fight more than they already did.
