Losing Respect For Smokin Joe!

I get what you're saying but if you lived in a pishy little room above a gym after having been king of the world you'd probably be a little bitter too.

Ali is my all time hero but the fact is a lot of his career was a fairly fortunate and some of the things he did left a real f**kin bad taste in the mouth , the difference is I'm a white guy living now not a black guy living in the sixties so its hard to critize too much.

 

Remember when Frazier said something about Ali lighting the fire at the olympics, and how he'd like to have pushed him into it lol.

 

Getting older tends to make one more forgiving and understanding but some of the things that Ali said to Frazier were particularly distasteful and as nice as apologies may be, they don't take away the fact that those things were said. It's easy for us to sit back and say that Joe should let go of the past but that is not for us to decide. Anger is like poison. If Joe wants to hold onto it that's his choice. Our relationship to these men is that of being fans. How they relate to each other as human beings these days outside the ring is entirely up to them.

 

If Joe wants to stay angry at Ali then so be it. I actually admire him for not buckling to the conventions of society and coming out to say "life is too short to hold grudges" blah blah..

If you don't like what someone did, **** it, you don't have to forgive them. Doesn't affect anyone bar the two fighters either so it's not having a rippling effect on family etc.

 

Imagine living in a time where your race were starting to slowly throw off much of the racist laws and attitudes of the past. Then a guy who you helped comes up and casts you as a Tom, turning your own people against you. I mean that's pretty awful.

 

I do not blame Frazier. Some of the things Ali said about Joe and his family were disgusting.

 

After what Frazier did on his behalf for Ali to turn around and wage a rascial hate campaign against him is disgusting. If Frazier is still bitter about what Ali did then that's up to him. I don't think many people would forgive Ali if that happened to them.

 

I'm as big a fan of Ali as the next guy, but lemme tell you something.... there are some things that are completely unforgivable, and I don't blame Frazier for feeling the way he feels today. It's not as easy as telling Frazier to just "get over it". How can he get over being disrespected after everything he did for Ali when Ali was exiled from boxing? That's highly personal, that's unforgivable. You go through what the man and his children went through because fo Ali, and you tell me if you'd ever be able to "get over it". This is one of the very few instances that I can understand why it's impossible for one to forgive.

 

i think what pisses him off more than anythign is that he was beat up ali 2/3 times and the 2nd fight being a very very borign affair.

ali, a guy who is regard a P4P 2 or 1 in some cases and frazier beat him up differently in the first and 3rd fight. badly hurting and destorying muhammads kidneys and liver.

and STILL he is regarded inferrior to him.

of course this was all increased by the comments that were brought upon him.

 

Joe has every right to laugh at Ali today if he wishes after all the things he taunted him with.