Frazier's Final Seven 70's opponents

Well observed :good

 

Frazier also brought the very best out of whoever he fought.

 

Duplicating his victory over Quarry in 1974 was a good performance.. Jerry was coming off of what was arguably the best year of his career. Joe got hammered by Foreman again, but for whatever its worth, did manage to last a little longer... All three fights with Ali in the 70's were classics and absolute wars...

 

Don't forget when he was going to come out of retirement in 78 and who did he pick--slugger Knoetze. Anybody else is not facing a big puncher under those circumstances.

 

The Quarry bout looked quite easy for Joe,as well. Joe's first go with Jerry seemed a lot tougher for him.

 

Not really ... he look terrific in destroying Quarry ... their first bout was more competitive ...

The Bugner fight was more of a slightly off night ... other than one decent shot that Bugner caught the blind in one eye Frazier Joe was never seriously hurt and certainly not in any danger of losing the bout ...

The second Ali fight was a joke ... again, he was tagged decent once but for the most part Ali clinched all night and Perez let him ... it completely impacted the pace of the fight ... there was a reason the first and third fights were great, they were allowed to fight. Pretty amazing that a fighter blind in one eye was able to fight so competitively against Ali ...

He destroyed Ellis.

OF course the Foreman fights and Manila were brutal ...

 

AS i recall in the second Ellis Fight Ref Bob Foster looked more concerned than Ellis about Being caught by Joes left hook, i think he must of remembered something !?

 

Foster did n't look very comfortable in a referee's role.

 

Smokin Joe sure didn't take the easy road, when he had every right to do so.

On the Ellis fight;

Though he pretty much dominated Jimmy Ellis, he did look slower and missed many left hooks, over a shopworn Ellis.

Most were not impressed with his win over Jimmy, and it was apparent that Joe
was on the downside of his career.

 

Wasn't Quarry the oddsmakers' favorite for the second fight? I think I remember reading that. The perception was that Frazier was shot, and that Jerry had finally come into his own.

 

Actually, Frazier was hurt twice. First, his legs were buckled in the 4th by a Bugner right. Later, in the 10th, Frazier's legs went limp after taking another Bugner right.

Although Frazier was never in danger of losing, it's also true that he had trouble throughout the fight. Bugner's resistance was tenacious; he belted Frazier with innumerable left jabs and frequent rights.

Look at the picture of Frazier's face after the fight: it is a swollen mess.

The Frazier-Bugner bout contribued to the perception -- started by the earlier Foreman loss -- that Frazier was an over-the-hill fighter.

 

I think it was Ken Norton who made the first statement that Smokin Joe wasn't
Smokin anymore.

Norton had said that in his early sparring days with Frazier, Joe would swat
Kenny all over the ring. But in several 1972 sparring sessions, Ken would stay
on even ground with Joe, even backing him up in several sparring sessions.

 

That's the way I remember it. Dick Young of the NY Daily News wrote "... for Quarry to beat Frazier, Jerry would have to improve and Joe would have to decline from when they first fought. The question is 'have they crossed?' I believe they have."

 

I think the odds were very close, something like 5/4, but in favor of Quarry. I vaguely remember seeing this in an archived New York Times article.