Would joe Frazier still be an ATG......

He would be rated akin to a Floyd Patterson IE in the lower half of the top 20. Honestly probably lower because at least Patterson had some good victories past his devastating blowouts.

 

Joe's FOTC win is enough to make him an ATG. He should have retired after that fight..and found something else to occupy his life like Tunney did.

 

NO-WAY ! Frazier cud not deal w/ a past-prime ali , so tht just proves how **** he rly was. yes he has sum trinket w/ the **** heavyweights of yesteryear but here r the facts :

W/out Ali he never beat an ATG (not nessescary 2 BE an ATG but still gud for a thin resume)
Against **** opposition yes dominant
beat trinket hvyw8s like Quarry, Bonavena, machen, bugner, n others. not THT GOOD.

 

Without the ali trilogy i'd have him just ahead of langford at number 15. As it stands I have him just behind tyson at number 12.

This is the thing with hindsight isn't it, I wasn't even conceived in the 60's/70's so I have no idea if people felt he was avoiding the big punchers back then.

But looking back i'd definitely say fights with shavers, norton, patterson and liston should have happened.

The victory over ali is the one thing making it competitive between him and tyson on my list at present imo.

But he still had a 5 year run as best heavyweight in the world (even if just by virtue of ali retiring) kinda like wlad now actually a lot of people, myself included, believe if vitali wouldn't have got injured he'd have ruled instead.

The only difference is that ali came back and challenged frazier whereas vitali came back and accepted second place.

 

It would have been big had he been able to walk away after that, but he would always be criticized for not rematching Ali or ever fighting Foreman.

 

I don't understand the relevance.

 

Agree .

Vitali had 1 mean uppercut, jab, strength, unorthodox ability to destroy and outbox the ,
limited, pathetic slugger tht was Joe Frazier .

Imagine . Frazier gettin 1 worse beating then he did by foreman

 

I'm inclined to put Frazier among the 15 or so guys I consider ATG heavyweights.

As to whether he'd still be an ATG if he hadn't fought ALI -- Hell, yes!


WHO you fight does not make you great; rather, they're just the light in which ones greatness is seen.

They help make one's greatness more knowable; they don't make one BE great.

 

So he'd be great, we just wouldn't know about it.