Five Frazier Missed As Champ

Even Coopman beat Daniels.

I think Ron was quite a popular fighter back then, probably in a 'good bloke who's handy in a pub fight' kinda way. Actually, didn't he lose to Roy Shaw in an unlicensed fight once? :!:

 

Daniels and Stander were sandwiched between Ali and Foreman, let's not pretend that simply because Frazier had a shorter reign he didn't face serious contenders along the way.

Also, to the best of my knowledge, Williams and Cooper were unranked by the time Ali faced them, though I could be wrong, and please correct me if I am.

 

They were both ranked in the top 10.

I thought he did, I'm not sure where I read that they'd fought.

 

Have I ever said otherwise? No, I just said I can't really blame the guy for taking on Daniels and Stander, even though there were other better choices, ranked contenders who wouldn't have been much trouble to Joe.

 

Frazier fought who he had too and he would beat them all

 

This is true. IMO, Frazier 's people knew he would chew up smaller boxer with less power, but also knew to steer clear of power hitters unless there was a lot of money or title attached to the risk.

 

The point is that Norton was not on anyone's radar mid 72. You listed him as someone Joe missed fighting during that time period. Both Daniels and Stander were rated by WBA or WBC within the prior year before Frazier fought them....although unranked at the time of the title bouts.

 

Fighting easy touches is nothing new in boxing history and these two bouts were sandwiched between bouts with Ali and Foreman who are two ATG's. There is no issue here whatsoever.....Ali in 71, foreman in 73, two soft touches in-between. Taking this two steps further Joe fought Bugner, Ali and Quarry after fighting Foreman and Foster, Quarry and Ellis prior to the FOTC. Give the guy a break!

 

I didn't try to justify it, I responded to someone who claimed that as a champion you're not allowed to take "any days off". It's not the first or the last time to happen in boxing history, so if there's no sympathy for one of them, then it really shouldn't be for the rest of 'em either, or for one in paricular.

Your original question was if any of the boxers you mentioned could beat Joe in the '70-'72 period, but most of them were young and unproven to get a title shot, let alone win against Joe, while the rest of them were either past their time or simply not skilled enough to do it.