January 22, 1973: George Foreman vanquishes Joe Frazier

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Forty five years ago, 24 year old George Foreman performed one of the worst massacres to ever take place in a boxing ring, especially over an undefeated champion.

Remember, Foreman was the underdog, Frazier had the much superior resume and beat a much better line of fighters, many of whom up to this point would've been considered better fighters than George Foreman. Frazier victims like Jerry Quarry, George Chuvalo (at least closer to his best) and Oscar Bonavena would've been considered much better than the relatively unproven Foreman.

Hindsight is 20/20 so today, many would say that Frazier would've never beaten Foreman. But if this were January 21, 1973 the day before the fight, many would say that the most success Foreman would have tomorrow night would be dropping Frazier early and putting up a losing effort similar to the one Bonavena put up, because surely Foreman wasn't better than Bonavena.

Also on this same day, 15 years after Foreman wrecked Joe Frazier in a fight that looked like a 5 year old fighting his dad, Tyson steamrolled Larry Holmes on January 22, 1988.

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