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

Thanks, but I'm really trying to figure out exactly when the Ali-Frazier feud began and whether Ali ever offered any explanations for his "Uncle Tom" comment in particular.

I just came across an interview from early 1970, before Ali came back. In the article, he says that Frazier wasn't as good as Ellis, Cleveland Williams, Patterson, or Liston, but he doesn't call him any demeaning names or anything.

 

This. Lets not pretend Ali didn't say frivolous **** to sell fights. He was real about politics, but he understood the fight game is showbiz. Frazier didn't.

 

It wasn`t about religion, the nation of Islam told Ali Clay was the name of the white slave masters who held his ancestors as slaves during the Atlantic slave trade, black slaves were given the name of their slave owners, which was why Malcolm X denounced his surname also, originally Ali was going to call himself Cassius X.

 

The fued was all hype. Ali never had any issues with any of his opponents and he always liked Frazier, but animosity sells.

Here is Ali talking about it years later.

During an interview in a Midtown Manhattan hotel suite Wednesday, Ali said, "In a way, Joe's right. I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him names I shouldn't have called him. I apologize for that. I'm sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight.

"I like Joe Frazier," Ali said. "Me and him was a good show. It was a good traveling show."

Here is Joe responding to the apology
"I accept that," he said in a telephone interview from Wildwood, N.J. "I'll accept it, shake his hand and hug him when I see him. We're grown guys. Why we been biting off bullets? We have to embrace each other. It's time to talk and get together. Life's too short."
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2001-03-15-0103150316-story.html

 

Bill Russell lived in the same era, was also very active socially and fought for blacks rights as much as any sportsman. Yet he never said things Ali did. I'm not expecting boxing champion to be bright, Ali was boxing genius and that's all that matters. Some sport greats like Russell also happen to be quite eloquent, but most of them are not.

 

Ali knew more about racial politics than the average sportsman and Malcolm X ws going to steer him away from the nation of Islamand really teach him about the civil rights movement etc.

 

Sorry, but you won't convince me that Ali was more touched by racism than Bill Russell.

 

I don't put much weight on Ali's late-life rationalizations, but I think it reflects far more poorly on Ali if he said those things just to hype their fights instead of out of any real personal animus.

 

Those were even worse. But we can acknowledge that and still criticize the ridiculous, offensive things Ali and the NOI said about white people.

 

You forgot George Chuvalo, The Washerwoman.

 

Like I said in my post, he used Joe Frazier as a date in our far past may have used us, pretended to be interested. Ali acted like he was in desperate need and probably was, but when Joe helped him, Ali got what he wanted and laughed and made fun of Joe. Joe did even go to President Nixon on Ali's behalf, to get Ali's license back, Joe not that innocent had his ulterior motives too in this.

 

That`s not the point, there was still segregation in the sough, it was unbelievable.

 

Joe Frazier's management also referred to Muhammad Ali as Clay, Yank Durham used to all the time.

 

Muhammad Ali once said that he learned to sell tickets from the wrestler Gorgeous George in the early 1960's. People would pay money to see him lose, that became Ali's concept, it sells tickets.

 

This. Those ticket sells wouldn’t have been even half of what they were if Ali didn’t sell those events to the hilt like he did by shooting his mouth off.