Why is it tht Frazier is praised so highly???

Good post. :good

 

Listen to Joe Frazier admit that he would have been willing to die to go out for the 15th round.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fOibG3aL2k[/ame]

 

He was slow, clumsy, flat footed, too dependable on his left hook and that made him predictable.

Add Wlad, Lennox, Bowe and Holyfield on that list and you're a step closer to the truth...i see much more boxers giving him very hard time but i will just resume to those above that i see beating him comfortably.

he's just too small and his arsenal is limited, he will simply get outclassed by the much larger and technical boxers that came after him.

 

Joe Frazier is NOT an all time great???....yeah,...and then you woke up!!!

 

Actually...He was very fast, shifty, smooth, extremly sharp, wicked left hook, versatile with the right hand, and a mean body puncher. He also was very good defensively, nasty head movement and upperbody movement.

 

Frazier had excellent footwork, some of the best ever for a heavyweight, and if he was predictable, so what? As Merchant said about Tyson being predictable "You can predict a hurricane, but what are you going to do about it?" And that was the case with Frazier - you can think you can predict what he's going to do all you want, but when he comes at you, it's a whole other ball game.

Joe Frazier would have trouble with Wlad but I think he would KO him or beat him in a wide UD, he would axe Lennox Lewis within 5 rounds, Bowe would be tough and I could see Bowe possibly beating Frazier, and it's hard to say about Evander because he was always just average and even with steroids he was never that great to me physically from what I could see. Without PEDs I think Joe outworks him to win the fight.

 

Slow? SLOW?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rewbK0QmSoE[/ame]

Joe Frazier was far from slow. As for your clumsy statement, that is also false. If he's so clumsy how come he was only ever off his feet in three fights?

He was flat footed for sure, but the man had great footwork nonetheless.
His arsenal was far from limited.

Jab: He threw a tight, popping jab which managed to keep Foreman at bay for a little bit.

Straight right hand: He certainly threw a fast and powerful straight right hand.

Left hook: His left hook was the stuff of legends. It had one punch KO power, speed, angles, dynamics, accuracy, and of course, timing.

Right hook: Not as amazing as his perfect left hook, but a great weapon nonetheless.

Left uppercut/Right uppercut: Unfortunately, he didn't throw these punches too much so I can't really comment.

Speed: He was not exceptionally fast, but to say that he was slow is ludicrous. He was pretty fast.

Power: He was a dynamite puncher and KO'd most of his opponents.

Accuracy: His punches were very accurate, and let's not forget that he was blind in one eye!

Chin: A very, very solid chin. But not unbreakable.

Heart: He got up off of the floor six times against a prime Big George Foreman. He wanted to go and fight Ali in the 15th round, even though both of his eyes were closed.

H2H abilities: He was an ATG swarmer, an ATG in fighter, and was extremely difficult to hit because of his constant bobbing and weaving which was almost perfect.

Limited arsenal, you say? I respectfully disagree.

 

He stepped into the void Ali left behind when he was exiled in 1967, and conclusively established himself as the one and only champion in the deposed king's absence, then repulsed that former titleholder to conclusively settle all lingering doubt as to who the best heavyweight in the world truly was.

1970 dismemberment of Ellis retroactively proved him to have been the world's best active heavyweight, as of his March 4, 1968 stoppage of former amateur two time conqueror Buster Mathis, for the vacant NYSAC version of the HW Title. Rematched his most difficult opponent during his rise to the title in his second defense, winning a clear UD over the championship distance. In 1976, after Manila, and with no world title on the line, rematched the man who dethroned him in lethal fashion, and improved on that earlier shellacking despite being completely shot, against an angry and hungry George Foreman then in his athletic prime, and eager for redemption after Kinshasa and a rough comeback against Lyle.

The man never quit in his life. Won the 1964 Olympic HW Gold Medal despite having a broken thumb on his vaunted left hand. Repeatedly bounced up from knockdown after knockdown when he lost the title. Each of the three times he was stopped, somebody else had to call the halt, or else he might have been killed trying to continue. Had the bulk of his success while blind in one eye.

Won ten consecutive world heavyweight title fights in the course of a six year reign. Came back from an extended stay in a hospital bed to make two more successful title defenses following the FOTC. Took three minutes and 49 seconds to destroy a reigning ATG LHW Champion, evoking memories of Joe Louis KO 1 John Henry Lewis. (Typically, LHW Champions challenging for the HW Title are at least reasonably competitive. Bob Foster and JH Lewis are noteworthy exceptions.) Bob Foster had been stopped before, and would be again, but never crushed like Frazier squashed him, until the very end by a very heavily roided final knockout victim Bob Hazelton in a career ending rematch.

Saved his rise to contention in 1966 after sustaining two early knockdowns in round two in a situation where a third knockdown would trigger an automatic stoppage. Didn't run, didn't clinch, but went into the trenches and gutted it out in an extreme crisis. Everybody who doubts the fighting quality of the man should watch round two of Frazier-Bonavena I.

Over a decade ago, the 20th Century came to an end. During the course of it, a number of bouts were promoted as, "The Fight of the Century." Now that those 100 years have drawn to an end, we have the necessary hindsight to know which of those bouts truly deserves that distinction. The acronym "FOTY" has come to stand for only one event, and this thread discusses the winner of that event, who in round 15 produced the premiere knockdown of the Queensbury era.

 

Its so glaringly obvious that you've never even watched him fight

 

Frazier is not only an ATG in terms of resume, he is one of the most skilled inside fighters ever. His defense on the inside is vastly underrated and we all already know about his offensive skill.

Can I hit whatever you're smoking, P00ckerh00ked?

 

:good

 

My thoughts are that you've been "poockerhooked" one time too many..and brain danage has occured.

 

I think a big reason as to why he's liked so much here is that he didn't know the meaning of the word "quit". For me, I've never seen anyone encompassing the meaning of the phrase "mind over matter" more than Joe. That alone is worthy of praise.

That he was one hell of a fighter doesn't hurt either.

 

Add on that he was the 3rd best heayweight of the golden era of the sport, a former undisputed champion, and a working class hero.

Thats probably why. Nobody is dumb enough to rank him higher than his rivals and biggest obstacles, Foreman and Ali, but he beat most everybody else out there for him, barring his teammate Norton. The ascendance of Young and Holmes and Shavers came after Frazier had been on the decline. He has one of the best wins in history over a motivated, if faded, GOAT heavyweight, and acquitted himself terrifically even as Ali avenged those losses.

And he worked with my daddy. Nough said.