Muhammad is awesome, he always comes across as an amazing person, from standing up for Angelo Dundee against Don King, or his NOI hanger-ons who didn't want a white guy in the group, mingling with fans out in the open, signing autographs for ANYONE, visiting people in the hospital, his acts of charity, this: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNuTex1jZB4[/ame] But when it comes to Joe Frazier, a guy who helped him out during his ban from boxing, he went beyond trash-talk and hyping up a fight. He was just MEAN. I never got why.
He just was, that's all. No seriously, frazier was the biggest threat to Ali in his boxing life...his main rival...so he reacted against him this way...it was the verbal reaction to Frazier outside of the ring that paralleled his physical reaction to Joe inside the ring..it was not necessary for Ali to go beyond his usual banter with Frazier to include such nasty personal affronts..but frazier must have made Ali feel threatened..which justified it no matter how wrongly with Ali.
Because Ali had people whispering in his ear about how black people were supposed to behave and Frazier didn't fit the mold.
I believe he was afraid of Fraizer. He knew he had a guy who would fight hell and high water and keep coming at him. It worried him and his only defense was to go nuts.
People will say tickets or even politics, but it just boils down to that Ali was a ***** at times and one of those times was the run up to fighting Joe.
Frazier seemed vulnerable to it. He could have learned a thing or two from Ken Norton and a few others. Regarding the bad talk between them years ago, Ali was the instigator. However, out all the things said between them both, Frazier has probably said the worst. Saying he gave Ali the Parkinsons, etc. It's almost as if he's happy to give himself the credit for it. I think Joe forgets that a few others might have been responsible, not just him. Shavers, Spinks and Holmes, etc. Anyway, Frazier was the one who was eating right hands for breakfast all the way through the 14th round. I'm pretty sure if he came out for the 15th, it would have been 'normal service resumed'. Another thing that I'd like to add. If you look at Frazier on his stool after the 14th round, he was a man who was 'slightly' shaking his head before Futch halted him. His demeanour on the stool was that of a man in distress and not looking like he wanted to continue. And not once did he argue with Futch or show any emotion after Futch asked the ref to stop it.
At first to sell the fight and to psyche Fraizer out. Then when Frazier felt insulted, as Ali went too far, he started at times to call him Clay. Which probably further convinced Ali (in his own mind) that Frazier was a tool for the white power structure, and may then have meant some of the things he said. Hate then spiraled out of control, as it often does in human afffiars. But note what Ali said about Frazier after winning and surviving Manilla. "He is great... He is the greatest fighter in the world today after me." Not Foreman or such. Edit: I believe he also said that the way Frazier fought that night, in boxing history, only he, Ali, could have beaten him that night. So tremendous praise actually.
some guys are very competitive and they need the edge, and Ali didn't like Frazier much which was obvious.
