What did Frazier do to be called "Uncle Tom" by Ali?

His response was it helped ticket sales - but for the FOTC, they were both guaranteed paydays; I don't believe either took a portion of the ticket sales (IIRC, Frazier's camp later regretted it because they'd essentially left millions on the table). Again, I think he did it mainly to get under Frazier's skin and get him too mad to fight effectively. In this case, however, it backfired badly - Frazier was on a single-minded mission that night, and there was no way Ali was going to win.

 

I never bought into this 'poor Joe' thing. Everybody was an open target. Liston (ugly bear), Patterson (rabbit), Foreman (mummy), Wepner (Frankenstein). I once read where it was asked of Earnie Shavers, was he offended at being called 'the acorn'. Shavers, of thicker skin, said in no uncertain terms that it was all part of the Ali show, which meant a big gate and a big payday. If Ali was a shrinking violet would any gate be as big? Would people be coming out to see him get his arse handed to him? If anyone else thinks, 'Poor Joe', they should watch the end of Joe's first fight with Jerry Quarry. after the fight, Jimmy Ellis, the WBA champ, comes into the ring to congratulate Joe and Joe rebuffs him, yells at him, taunts him with Ellis standing aghast. Oh man, 'Poor Jimmy.' Joe was as guilty of the hype as Ali, it's just that Ali was better at it.

 

Anyone looking intellectual or ethical consistency from Ali is on a fool's errand. He was a genius boxer. That should be enough.

 

Ali was too happy to have people all side with him and against his enemies. "Ali bomaye". He fed off that.

 

To be honest, I think it's a load of "bohoo" on Frazier's part. He did what he could to belittle Ali before and after they fought, and then went on bitching about "meanie Ali" for decades afterwards.

 

Ok, so say that he did loan Ali money, even though I never see these sources presented, that means that Ali should just take it when Frazier belittles the very, very firm views that made Ali change his name and refuse the draft, even though it endangered both his life and his career and made him a pariah in his own country?

He should just eat that **** with a spoon because Frazier alledegely loaned him money?

Frazier started the ****, got what was coming to him and then went on bitching about it for decades.

 

Was a long time ago I read it, and I remember that car ride but not the money part. Was 30 years and change ago, though.

 

What about all the horrible stuff white people said to black people in the 60`s?

 

He was also a member of the nation of Islam.

 

Patterson kept calling him Clay.

 

What about whataboutism?

Ali had his moments of deep insight but had more moments of vacuous inanities that bordered on or transgressed the boundaries of offense.

 

He knew Malcolm X who became an expert on how black people were being held down by the American government, it was the era of the civil rights movement.

 

Don't know why the things Frazier were called by Ali have become so much more of a thing than what he called Liston, Chuvalo and Foreman - who never really called him anything as far as I know.

That was an obnoxious part of Ali's schtick and I can see why Liston allegedly slapped/and or pulled a fake gun on him, but I can't see why Frazier is made out to be such a special victim of Ali's tongue. In that case it was much more of a two way street.

 

I think people who say Frazier was being some sort of cry-baby are missing the point a bit, by overlooking the context of the historical period and the influence Muhammad Ali's words had (across the world and among African-Americans) at that particularly moment in time.