Why no questions about Frazier not giving Ali a rematch ?

In sporting terms he should be seen as such.

 

bokaj,

Smokin Joe smartly played his hand through 1971 and 1972.
(2) Easy defenses and the 'travelling musical revue'.
Nothing wrong with that.
And, he made 'alot of bread', without any risk.
Damn, his musical show was bad, but nobody booed him off the stage.

After his defense (planned victory over George Foreman), there was
supposed to be contract discussions for a Frazier-Ali II fight in the fall of 1973.

 

Yes, Ali's activity was way superior at this point, both in terms of frequency and quality.

After the Ellis fight Ali said he was going to have a couple of more tune up fights before Frazier and expected the rematch to come off in late '71 or early '72. After beating Quarry in '72 he called Joe out, though. And then fight should really have happened pretty soon afterwards. Joe had had his leave of absence and Ali had just badly outclassed his main rival for a title shot. But Foreman got the shot instead.

 

I think they both had good claims for the championship and that it was settled in that fight.

 

Yes but i doesnt matter.

 

You made such a thing out of Ali's first reign, but Joe taking on two unranked fighters and then skipping his mandatory is "nothing wrong". This in two years. Priceless.

 

Oh yes it does.

 

In a similar time frame Ali had been out 6 months with a hernia, rematched Liston and then beat the nr. 1 contender. But that's the sham reign according to you, right?

 

No, not all of them were rated contenders.

Yes, he was .... and when the fight was proposed and in the works in 1972 (by Jack Kent Cooke), Ali wanted "a few more warm-ups".

 

In the time frame between their rematch
Ali fought
Ellis no6
Mathis in the top 20
Blin in the top 20
Mac Foster no 5
Chuvalo in the top 20
Quarry no2
Lewis in the top 20
Patterson no7
Bob Foster LhVy Champ
Bugner No 8
Lubbers in the top 20
Norton x2 no9 and no 3
Those not in the top 10 would have been favourite to beat Daniels and Stander ,who were never rated anywhere.

 

Bokaj,
You fail to recognize that Joe Frazier did not win the Heavyweight Title on
3/8/71 over Ali.
He won it on 3/4/68 over Buster Mathis.
He did make (6) title defenses up to the defense versus Ali.

After the Fight of the Century, Joe was the rightful 'King'.
Yes, he did take time off, 10 months before an easy title defense.

But Ali blew all chances for them to set-up a rematch, because of his
outright pathetic effort against Buster Mathis earlier.

Ron Stander and Terry Daniels were poor challengers, but Joe was smartly
using the time to stay a little busy, before the re-match.

 

Joe Frazier should have retired after the ail win. Even though TFOTC took too much out of Frazier the decision to continue was still a good call from a business view point. Here was a champion who had finally achieved full recognition and was now a real superstar in his own right with nobody other than the man he just beat on the horizon to test him. Whilst being damaged goods himself I believe team Frazier may have had a strategy to take less demanding fights in the hope ail further declined against harder opposition before a swansong rematch and retirement. It back fired. Rather than declining further Ali adapted well against the opposition re-seasoning himself as a still capable veteran whilst a matchmaking blunder allowed George foreman to come along and ruin the frazier party. He should have retired.

 

On the face of it,
Joe Frazier and his team clearly under-estimated George Foreman.
It blew an estimated $4,000,000 + pay day versus Ali in the re-match.

I think Joe Frazier took the Foreman fight for $1,000,000.
After that fight, Ali said, 'Joe just blew $5,000,000 for the each of us.

2 months later,,,,,,,,,,,Ken Norton