How athletic was Joe Frazier?

Almost anyone outside of maybe a Chuvalo grade ( all three of them ) would have been bounced like a ball by the shots Foreman landed on Joe in Kingston. How about the fact that he kept getting up ? These shots made the sit Ingo hit Floyd with in 59 look like love taps .. and again, he was blind in one eye so often caught blindsided ... he was an extremely durable fighter ..

 

Frazier fans sometimes cast a blind eye on his durability. A terrific chin? No way. Joe was rocked, floored and buzzed in matches where he was sometimes hardly hit hard with anything. And when hit a few times in the face his eyes swelled like a softball.

In Joe's own words, he was very close to a KO loss in the first Bonavena fight, which is a clean draw if you use the 10 point must system.

Funny how Ali hurt Frazier a few times, but could not do the same to Norton. On Ali's power, he knew when to use it, which in the case of Foreman was when he was tired. The Lyle stoppage was had some controversy to it, but Lyle never had a good chin to begin with.

 

Alot of revisionism concerning Frazier. All the older fight videos with Frazier everybody talks about how good a shot Frazier took. Maybe not Chuvalo grade, but you don't fight like Frazier did and only get knocked down by 2 people, one who just happens to be one of the greatest bangers of all time. Yeh he got buzzed who doesn't, you wonder how many of those shots he just didn't see though. I believe the people who were Fraziers contemporaries.

 

I agree. The people calling Joe chinny just don't know.

 

He was rocked an 188 pound blown up light heavyweight and dropped by another 188 pounder and a 191 pounder. Hardly a resume for an all time great heavyweight chin …

anyone can be spun ...

 

Joe was green. How many floored Joe from when he took off in the late 60's on up?

 

elvin hayes

 

Ali`s chin would also be in question then. Doug Jones rocked him. Banks and Cooper put him down.

Hell Ray Robinson was dropped in his second pro fight.

 

That`s true.

 

Exactly.

 

John Conteh was great in Superstars and beat Olympic athletes, footballers, etc when he was on the show. Still, after flirting with the heavyweight division, he knew that he was best at 175 as he'd have little chance vs the likes of the 'unathletic' Frazier.

 

Excellent ... Ali was the example I was using ... Doug Jones ( round 1) , Cooper and Sonny Banks ... anyone can be spun to have a questionable chin bar a Chuvalo .. Frazier was a warrior with a top chin ...