Just finished Joe Frazier's autobiography

Interesting read. It was published in '96.

A few things really stuck out at me.

1. How much he disliked Ali. In the book, he calls him Clay or "The Butterfly", never Ali. Here are some choice quotes about Ali:

"It never ended with this chump. Nonstop bull****. While the public found it amusing, I guess, and came to view him as a good guy, I knew different. This was a nasty, envious, mean-spirited egomaniac, who still couldn't stand the fact that in the biggest fight of his life I'd put him on his ass, I'd whupped him in front of God and the world."

"It'd be easy for me to fall in line and act as if Clay was some fuzzy ole saint to me, like he is to so many others. I know that's what people would like to hear. Forgive and forget.

But I'd be shuckin' you if I told you that.

Truth is, I'd like to rumble with that sucker again -- beat him up piece by piece and mail him back to Jesus. No, I ain't forgiven him for what he said and did. I stood up for him when few others did. Told the boxing officials, 'Let the man fight." Then, when he got what he needed, he turned on me and said everything bad that he could. Called me the white man's champion to get the black men to turn on me. Called me a Tom and an ignoramus to demean me in public.

Now people ask me if I feel bad for him, now that things aren't going so well for him. Nope. I don't. Fact is, I don't give a damn. They want me to love him, but I'll open up the graveyard and bury his ass when the Lord chooses to take him. You see what the Lord did to him: He shut him down, that ungrateful scamboogah. Clay always mocked me -- like I was the dummy. Gettin' hit in the head. Now look at him. He can hardly talk and he's still out there trying to make noise.

People don't understand this guy, don't understand what he's all about. Well, I'll tell you: he'd about himself more than anything. Yeah, Clay -- he was so busy being THEE greatest, he couldn't see the snakes that were holding up his pants. Well, all that talk of his don't amount to much anymore. He's a ghost, and I"m still here."

2. His vision issues in the Thrilla and in his rematch against Foreman. In the Thrilla, he couldn't see out of his left eye by the end, leading to his beating. Against Foreman, he'd had eye surgery and needed to wear a contact. Once the contact got crinkled up in his eye, he couldn't see out of his left eye, and started getting hit. His plan didn't seem bad -- be real defensive, landing where he could, hoping Foreman got tired in the second half, then start taking chances.

3. His explanation of his management of Marvis. He explained putting him in against Holmes so early as that you have got to take the big money when it's offered, and Marvis was offered $750k for that fight. Against Tyson it was $300k, and Marvis had just held up against Bonecrusher, so Joe figured maybe he would be able to at least go the distance.

This section of the book is written very matter of fact while still being proud of his son. He basically says Marvis was one of those fighters much better suited to amateur rules than pro rules, that Marvis's lack of size combined with his relative lack of power just made things too difficult, that Marvis had a tendency to get hurt in training.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the book. Gives you a really good sense of the man, especially about how ridiculous he thought it was that Ali made him out to be the white man's champ, when Ali had lived a privileged life as a kid yet he had grown up a poor black kid in the south.

Other fun bits: making moonshine with his dad, going on moonshine delivery routes with his dad during which his dad would sleep with the moms while he slept with the daughters (lol), his disappointment with Bert Cooper's inability to avoid drugs, his lack of being impressed with fighters not named Mike Tyson, his moment of empathy for Ali when Ali's wife shows up in Manila to yell at him for running around on her, what a dick he thought Bonavena was...

I highly recommend it. Although it may make you think a little less of Ali.

 

Just ordered his off ebay. Found a hardcover for $5 with free shipping. Can't beat that.

 

I want to know if Frazier really said "scamboogah" that much or if he was using it in the book to avoid saying "mother****er" all the time.

 

I would assume Frazier was told, during the editing process, that he comes off as bitter. And I think his response was probably something line of "don't care, **** Clay". lol