44 years ago today: Joseph William "Smokin' Joe" Frazier vs. Floyd "Jumbo" Cummings

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5½ years after crushing defeat in the Foreman rematch, Joe Frazier returned to extend his professional career into a third decade. Let's just say, while he did earn the privilege of not retiring off a loss, his eighties campaign...didn't exactly have legs. And was fat. And slow.

With a measly 6.5k attendant live gate (a scant 18% of his career peak, in Foreman I, and no more than a fifth of any installment of the Ali trilogy) showing that his decline in drawing power was as steep as his terminal-velocity nosedive in skill & fitness, the sport's most famous heavyweight practitioner of both the bob & weave and the left hook since Patterson - and probably remaining the greatest until Tyson, if not the present - labored to a draw with the unremarkable Jumbo Cummings.

Cummings, besides Frazier, fought a total of 21 opponents - and of the maximum of 6 that you might've heard of, he lost to all. Frank Bruno and Tim Witherspoon? No shame; they both went on to hold world titles. Renaldo Snipes and Mitch Green? At least they were fringe contenders. Jeff Sims, though? Yeah, not great. Cummings even lost to a lesser Frazier - Laughin' Larry (of Seattle, not Philly - no relation) - less than a year after holding old Joe to a tie.

To his credit, Frazier took heed of the universe's hint and never laced up again. Of his five blemishes (the others being a pair of losses to all time greats George Foreman and Muhammad Ali) this is by far the most embarrassing - and for Cummings, it's his crowning achievement without a doubt. Which makes it odd that -broke and mired in legal trouble, he tried suing ESPN for rebroadcasting it almost two decades ago. "Oh no! Don't show the world that I fought a top fifteen HW of all time and he didn't beat me. What a brutish intrusion on my privacy, good heavens! "

 

I can't think what in the modern day even compares with this. I wanted at first to say maybe Horn upsetting Pacquiao but honestly...Horn >>>>>>> Cummings p4p, and that Manny wasn't nearly as compromised as this Joe.

 

Yes, a draw, as I said twice in my OP.

I did count it among his blemishes - as in, non-wins - the four Ali/Foreman losses and the Cummings draw.

 

Yeah that one's more fitting as Barrios vs. Pacquiao was a draw - and probably the Filipino's swansong after multiple years off (just like Joe here).

Barrios also, like Cummings, got thoroughly outclassed by the very best he faced (Thurman and Davis) but unlike Cummings did have some quality wins...including a guy that actually beat Pac, in Ugás.