All Joe Frazier ever wanted was respect. He worked for it and earned it, but no matter how great he (and he was one of the greatest) became, he was always forced to share his place with Muhamad Ali - and you never get a fair split when it comes to Ali, he dominates everything he touches. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes posthumous rememberances for the deserving to fully receive what they should've gotten all along. Today, Smokin' Joe Frazier's greatness is all his own. Before too long, things will resort back to the status quo, and Frazier will always be intimately connected to Ali - but for the moment, Frazier is the fighter. The champion. The man who came from nothing and through sheer force of will and desire, turned himself into a living, breathing example of what makes boxing amazing on a purely visceral level - man engaging is hand to hand combat without regard for his own safety. Common sense says it's pure hyperbole and just a bit disrespectful to consider a boxing match equivilent to war, but fighting Joe Frazier was like going to war. A bobbing and weaving wave of hooks to the body and head that left Frazier and his opponent spent from the sheer force of effort that Joe always gave. It was never complicated - Joe was intent on breaking you and only the final bell or an opponents thundering fist was going to stop his intentions from coming true. To watch him fight was to know that war is hell, for the victor and the vanquished. It's not hyperbole. It's not disrespectful. It's just the way the ultimate "Philly fighter" made it be. He wasn't pretty. He wasn't sweet. He wasn't like the man he's so closely linked to in the history books. Joe Frazier was a working man at a time when one man cast an unordinarily large shadow over the sport that Frazier excelled at. Right now, he's getting his due. The fact that that will change in time and he'll have to share it with someone else is the price he had to pay - but that's for others to feel bad about. Joe Frazier's greatness is untouchable. Our desire to heap more attention upon the more flamboyant personalities amongst us is our failure. That Joe Frazier is destined to be partially hidden by a shadow is undeniable. That he belongs there is of our own choosing. That he stands alone, his own place permanently secure as one of the greatest ever and a champion amongst champions, is of his own doing - one hook at a time. We decided that he was someone else's supporting character. He decided he was his own man, with his own legend and had the good grace to play along with our misguided attempts to place him somewhere other than where he has always resided - in the middle of his ring, with his arms raised in triumph. One true champion amongst a sea of others.
Pretty much says it all. It's always sad to lose one of the good ones and Joe was one of the good ones. He epitomized the word "Champion" and represented everything that was good about the sport of Boxing. I guess we're all getting older now.
For me, Joe is under no ones shadow. He is what boxing is all about. Him and guys like him. No hype, no dumb act, just an honest, hardworking guy, gave his all every time out, no disrespecting and mind game bull****, he was a true fighter, and a true gentleman.
