Joe Frazier's personality

Mostly to throw off the press. She was a good friend of his. He didn't spend a lot of time with her. Sent out a lot of photos of them together for newspapers to run. He was constantly going out to the clubs after fights. He frequented the Stonewall Inn where the LGBT riots broke out. He constantly had underage boyfriends. Like I said, McRae doesn't shy away from describing what amounts to grooming and pedophilia of teenage boys in stark terms. Griffin was abused himself when he was young. By all accounts he treated these street kids well for whatever that is worth. One looked after him long after his mind went.

Honestly a fascinating portrait of a relatively unheralded fighter with great historical context to boot. Highly recommended.

 

I started reading that book today. Looks to be very good, and about a very underappreciated and complex fighter/character

 

Could you tell me any stories about Joe and his gym or what his training was like? he was a boyhood hero of mine.

 

I always thought so highly of Griffith tell me he truly didn’t commit to perversions of underaged boys...

 

Joe Frazier was a great credit to the sport and a fine human being, we need more like Joe today.

 

He wasn't like stalking playgrounds or anything. These were young gay men with hard lives who'd go to clubs and such. But yeah, it's legally pedophilia. They couldn't consent under the law even if they did willingly engage with him. Griffith was raped as a child in the Virgin Islands. It's a very stereotypical narrative that incidentally does accurately depict his life. McRae plays it really straight in the book. The final chapters are one of those boys who by then was like 40 or 50 visiting him in the home. It's very sweet and sad because Emile is clearly gone. He just stared at a wall and didn't talk for the last years of his life.

 

Emile was a complex man, sweet and sad depicts his life accurately indeed but this news has lowered my opinion of him but raised the amount of empathy I feel for the toutured soul the times created.

 

Well at least no horror stories were unearthed. If anybody would've found an unkind word said about the man it would've been McRae. Different times though I don't think that excuses anything. I don't think that was very uncommon in his social circles. Gay youth were in very precarious positions. Certainly nobody who knew raised an eyebrow to it. They were way more concerned he was homosexual. Quite a different reaction in 2020.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway of his character his how completely innocent and childlike he was. Straight up momma's boy. Gil Clancy was like his dad. The end of that book hits you like a brick in the face. He is anything but a villain by the time you see where boxing sent him in his final years.

 

Liston was clever with some of his comments to the writers. Not educated but intelligent in his own way.

 

He seemed a likeable decent guy.I don't imagine he would ever have been a liberty taker with civilians,but neither would her tolerate liberties being taken with him.All round,a good guy

 

It was a flag of convenience.

 

Were gay marriages legal back then?

 

Maybe one of our members will correct me, I hope so, but it seemed that Frazier gave into bitterness in his latter years. His marriage to Florence ended in divorce but I don't know why. It cost Joe most of his money and he ended up living over his gym.
He never, ever cut Ali a shred of forgiveness. I know Marvis was still close to him but I don't know about the rest of his children.
I would very much like to be wrong about this but my impression is largely formed around a 2 hour long documentary that aired over here about 15 years ago.

 

He was certainly still bitter, but I think a lot of his bitterness towards Ali was from that he helped Ali when Ali could use a hand and then the favor was returned by a barrage of insults when he no longer needed the help...hard to really blame Frazier for always remembering that. Especially because it transferred down to his children having to deal with it.