Joe Frazier was scheduled to come out of retirement and face Kallie Knoetze in 1978

You guys don't remember how badly Frazier looked against Cummings. No chance he beats Knoetze. It would have been a sad one sided bout to watch.

 

I'm glad this didn't take place seeing how little he had left against Floyd Cummings. Quarry had his marbles scrambled coming back with nothing left also.

 

The Cummings fight was in `81 and I dont think Frazier trained all that seriously for it. In `78 he mightve had more left along with the fact that he was better facing a bigger threat.

I agree if he came in at 229lbs he wouldve been in trouble.

 

As has been said,this was three years before the Cummings debacle. I reckon Joe would still have had enough left,at this point,to have beaten Knoetzee. I can't see him achieving that much afterwards though.

 

Knoetzee has decent sized and could punch but he was pretty slow and clumsy ... This Frazier would likely have decisioned him if he trained ..

 

When 34 was OLD! I realize it's as much about how long he hadn't been fighting, and his career up to his retirement, but it's always interesting when you see just how short careers can be. Just thinking that Ali never fought into his 40s, but I'm not sure I ever saw an older 38 year old in that Holmes fight...and to think that Holmes, who was close to 31 when he fought Ali, would go on to fight until he was 52!

 

Yeah, it's funny to think of a 34-year-old fighter as being old. Fighters' prime years nowadays seem to last much longer than 30-40 years ago, which is due to many factors of course, but still. You see a lot of 34-year-olds out on the street that look youthful and not much older looking than many college-age people, yet in an athletic context, they are often described as old, over-the-hill, has-beens, etc. It's strange.
In terms of Ali and Frazier, both guys burned out quite rapidly; of course, I realize you have to factor in career length, inactivity, fighting style, etc. when analyzing why or how a guy burned out so early. But a guy like Lennox Lewis was basically in his prime at 34-35.

 

In Joe`s case I think fighting style had much to do with it. Even the Philly gym wars.

 

Best for all concerned that this didn't happen.

 

agreed .. Frazier was already a physical near wreck ..

 

The South African was very limited and slow and Frazier would of won this fight either on pts or by stoppage . It would not of been nice to watch as Frazier had little left of the smoke the once engulf a division I like most here am glad this fight did not happen . A win on the South African may of led to Frazier being manoeuvred into a fight where he might of taken an unneeded beating

 

I remember that, Knoetze was getting a lot of press at the time and the big build up. I don't know why but more so it seemed than Gerrie Coetzee who had a win over him. If Joe had anything left I would think he would of won as long as he was in shape.