Did the two overall get along well? Frazier seemed to have no problems with anyone unless your name was Ali. His biography mentioned he had issues with Mathis and Bonavena but those grudges seemed to disappear soon after he defeated them. Foreman was only other boxer to beat him but Joe seemed to take it much better than his experiences with Ali.
Obviously they weren't friends. Hard to be friends with a guy who beat you in such a one sided manner. If the fights were remotely competitive, i could see them being friends. Foreman spoke very highly of Frazier when Joe passed but Foreman reportedly chose not to attend the funeral. I think that makes sense. If i were Joe, i wouldn't want the man who so badly beat me to show up to my funeral. Joe did not hate George the way he hated Ali because George was more respectful with his words. But i do feel that Joe never fully emotionally recovered from the Foreman defeats. It ended his career. Before Foreman 1, it looked like Frazier might retire undefeated like Marciano and end up as a top 5 all time heavyweight. Still, Joe is an ATG.
The right time to retire was the FOTC he got hit too often, Futch even thought so, he’d shorten how many rounds Joe sparred for that reason, By the time Foreman came around look who he was fighting, look what he was doing look at the scales, investigate into how much he drank… if he had to stay, it should’ve been exclusively a trilogy with Ali to retire on.
