Excerpt from SI about Joe Frazier's disdain for Ali

Hauser said that Joe was very wary of him at first but warmed to him later on.

 

Yes. Frazier must have been one very unhappy man through much of his later years.

 

I totally get Frazier's legendary dislike of Ali and without question Ali overdid it especially pre-Manila but a point not to be forgotten was how Frazier insisted on calling him Clay often and at the worst times and that added to Ali's venom ..

 

I never heard any comment like that from Ali about the incident but did read Frazier later claiming he owned Ali after seeing how big his eyes got when Joe went after him ..

 

The funny thing is that from an objetive perspective Frazier owes a lot to his grudge wtih Ali.

IIRC Nikki Lauda, the great F1 driver, remembering his grudge with James Hunt (another great F1 champion), said a Doctor told him once: "Be grateful you have a great enemy in yout life. The wise man gets more from his enemies than a fool man from his friends"
Lauda realized the Doctor was right because his hatred for Steward fueled his competitive fire and helped him to recover after an almost fatal crash. At the end Lauda and Hunt, regardless their grudge, respected each other.

I am not saying Joe should have been grateful for Ali being a massive jerk with him and his family. But, at the end Ali defined Joe's career and viceversa. Take away his trilogy with Ali from Frazier and his resume loses at least 50% weight, and probably a lot more.
The FOTC was his defining moment, a before and after when Frazier defeated the unbeaten Ali.

Yep Ali was a jerk, but Frazier was not 100% innocent. He also trash talked and if he wanted revenge for Ali badmouthing him, sure he got it beating him in the FOTC.
The other 2 fight, particularly the Thrilla in Manilla gained both of them massive respect. If Frazier wanted to punch Ali some more, he had plenty of time and space to do that in those bouts.

Thus. altought I understand Joe being initially angry to Ali when the trashtalking happened, keeping a grudge for decades is kinda sick.
He got somehow even with Ali. He beat Ali, Ali beat him. They had three whole bouts to punch the heck out of each other.... what else Joe wanted? Ali's heart and eyes?

 

In multiple sources, Joe was quoted as saying prior to Manila, “I’m going to cut that half-breed’s heart out and eat it off his chest.” He was that angry.

 

He died poor due to bad financial management (he was too kind/naive to give away money like candy back when he had it), lived alone in the apartment above his gym, and his gym was forced to close.

 

I feel the main reasons he remained angry were because of how he couldn’t finish Manila the way he wanted, and how Ali continued to be remembered and he became forgotten once they retired.

 

Yes I read about that. Sad.

 

I heard about the dinner where Joe was drinking and started getting aggressive toward Ali

 

And it wasn't until Ali was well retired that he admitted to having some Irish blood. Calling Joe an Uncle Tom when Frazier was blacker than Ali ever was,

 

What would Ali have done without Frazier?

 

He would still have reached legendary status,albeit not quite so dramatically.