Just finished watching "Thrilla in Manilla" for the 5th time. Joe Frazier is one of my all time favorites. Watching it reminded me what Joe Frazier said about all the hero worship of Muhammed Ali when he was chosen to light the torch at the 1996 Olympics. Frazier said he heard how some woman was awe inspired by Ali as he was lighting the torch and said this: "I should have been picked. I wish Ali had fallen into [the flame]. If I had the chance, I'd have pushed him in." Personally, I couldn't stop laughing when I read this... :hey
It's a riveting documentary. I love how after FOTC Joe is said to have been in his dressing room yelling "Get him to come in here and crawl on his knees and call me the greatest!" :yep
Yeah one great fighter who is so broken by the game mentally that he inappropriately disgraces another great fighter who is broken by it physically. Ali has apologised for being a ***** (which he was) and Joe makes money off Ali's name any chance he gets, while still flogging a dead horse. Quite pathetic! Maybe if he hadn't talked **** like that he'd be a more marketable commodity, instead of being **** ass broke in Philly!
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5l5dRpGBC0&feature=related[/ame] I love what Ali says at 8.50 Do you think you'd be so successful if you weren't so pretty? "I don't know, if I looked like Joe Frazier, I wouldn't care - just keep walking into punches like he do".
It's up to Joe Frazier whether he want to forgive him or not. Neither you or I was hit by an Ali punch or at the end of an Ali taunt. But here's another Frazier quote: "I hated Ali," Frazier told writer Thomas Hauser for his seminal biography, "Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times." "God might not like me talking that way, but it's in my heart. I hated that man How would you feel if your kids came home from school crying because everyone was calling their daddy a gorilla? 20 years I been fighting Ali, and I still want to take him apart piece by piece and send him back to Jesus." Words means things and it's obvious Ali's words cut deep. Joe Frazier can feel whatever he wants towards Ali, he earned it. :nono
Words can indeed be mightier than the sword. I have spoken to Joe Frazier personally for a few hours. He is really a fun guy. Great sense of humor and kind to everyone. The words must have really cut him deep after he went to bat for Ali, lent him money and so on. That stays with him. By the way, the documentary said that Ali made the apology in 2001. Both he and Frazier had been retired for YEARS. What took him so long to make the apology?
Well, he attempted one long before that, back in the Philippines - but through Marvis. Joe pretty much rejected it out of hand and said "He should come say it to my face. You're not me, son."
Ali's statement before fighting floyd paterson [I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoe horn to put his hat on.] makes me laugh every time i read it.
And I agree with him on that. Ali should have gone to Joe or said it publically to the media instead of waiting another 25 or 26 YEARS to say it.
Mate I read the Hauser bio 20 years ago and Frazier's joint bio with Berger, when it was initially released. You ain't teaching me anything. I wouldn't mind Frazier's anger as much if he didn't appear on This Is Your Life for Ali in 1978, sung the national anthem at Ali vs. Spinks 2 and got paid for God knows how many appearances publicly. If you're bitter then stay bitter and don't be two faced. It's hypocisy at a sad and pathetic level.
