Joe Fraser: He never forgave Mohammed Ali until the end of his life. Joe Frazier VS Muhammad Ali

Today the great American boxer, world heavyweight champion according to WBC and WBA (1970-1973), and 1964 Olympic champion Joe Frazier would have turned 71 years old.

ANGLE FOR LEFT HOOK

Turn your body to the left and then put all your power into a side kick with your left... The signature hook of Joe Frazier, Smoking Joe, so nicknamed by his manager Yank Durham for his ineradicable desire to “hit so that his gloves smoke.” How many great fighters, including the greatest Muhammad Ali, were killed by this main blow of Frazier, expected by his opponents, but, nevertheless, always unexpectedly arriving from his disguised confusion of attacks with both hands. A short side kick, delivered with the arm bent at the elbow, and a long one, Fraser’s favorite, the so-called “swing” (English: to swing), which determined the outcome of most of the 27 fights he won by knockout.

It is curious that Joe himself claimed that he received his signature blow from... a pig, and told a story about how once in childhood, while chasing pigs on his family's farm, he was knocked down by a huge hog and, in the fall, broke his left arm at the elbow. Then this arm fused incorrectly, as a result of which he could only straighten it at an angle. But the angle turned out to be ideal for a hook...

OLYMPIAN FROM GOD

The now deceased famous Soviet heavyweight, European ’65 champion Alexander Izosimov lived for 33 years with a thorn in his heart, regretting that it was not him, the USSR champion of 1964, who was in excellent shape, who was taken to the Olympic Games, but Vadim Emelyanov, who was not eligible that year. was even among the winners of the national championship. “I had a great chance to deal with Fraser there,” he asserted. And the head coach of the USSR national team, Viktor Ogurenkov, admitted more than once after Tokyo that 20-year-old Fraser did not look invincible there, despite the fact that he won three out of four fights by knockout , including against Emelyanov.

Who can tell now what Smoking Joe’s boxing fate would have been like if he had not won the Olympic Games, not to mention if he had not gone there at all. But they had to go there, since they lost the pre-Olympic qualifying fight to Buster Mathis, but the final coaching choice in favor of Joe was determined by the injury his competitor soon received. However, Fraser himself had a different opinion on this matter. He had no doubt that it was not the coaches who made him an Olympian, but God himself, who “figured it all out and understood who he needed most”:

Mathis didn’t want to train,” Fraser claimed. “I woke him up in the morning and dragged him for a run. I have always had an iron rule: three miles every morning. We started together, I ran a mile and a half one way, and on the way back I met him... God understood who I was, what I wanted and slowed down Mathis a little...

By the way, Fraser won the final Olympic fight against the German Hans Huber with a broken finger on his right hand...

THERE ARE NO CHAMPIONS WITHOUT VICTORY OVER CHAMPIONS

And five years later, on February 16, 1970, he became the world champion in the two most prestigious versions of professional boxing (WBA and WBC). More precisely, six years later - on March 8, 1971.... Oddly enough, but the answer to the question: “When did Fraser become the world champion? ”, indeed, causes difficulties even for specialists. He officially received this title on February 16, 1967, when he defeated the owner of these belts, Jimmy Elias, ahead of schedule. Joe entered that fight as a world champion... of New York State (by the way, he won this title against Buster Mathis, thereby taking revenge), with 24 fights in the professional ring (19 of which ended in a knockout) and zero in the “ defeat." Knocked down the technical Ellias twice, forcing him to refuse to continue the fight after the fourth round.

But the victory did not bring much joy to Frazier, since Elias was the so-called “paper champion”, having received the most prestigious WBA belt without a fight after it was scandalously taken away from Muhammad Ali, who was deprived of his boxing license for refusing to serve in the American army. What kind of champion are you without defeating a real champion? Moreover, against the backdrop of that truly champion charisma possessed by “the second man after the president” Mohammed Ali, Fraser’s serious passion for rock music with his own rather dubious musical abilities, aggravated by such performances of the “Knockouts” group he created, aroused most boxing fans, At the very least, bewilderment prevented them from recognizing the new champion.

Frazier understood this perfectly well, and was literally eager to fight, doing everything in his power to ensure that their meeting with Ali in the ring took place. Few people, for example, know that Smoking Joe, as the current world champion, obtained an audience with the then US President Richard Nixon and personally asked him to bring Muhammad Ali back to boxing. “If you want to fight this man, this is your rightful champion. “He’s yours!” - so, according to Frazier, Nixon answered him then, and this is the presidential “he’s yours!” provoked him even more. After this, the fight, which would later be called the “fight of the century,” simply could not fail to take place.

ANSWERED FOR “UNCLE TOM”

In anticipation of him, the country was divided into two camps. Everyone who protested against the war in Vietnam and generally protested against something (no matter what) was on Ali’s side, naturally considering Frazier and those who supported him to be traditionalists, although Frazier was not one. High-octane gasoline was added to the already brightly burning fire by Mohammed Ali, who, as Fraser aptly put it, spun the press as he wanted. What kind of offensive words did Smoking Joe hear from him! But everything went by, within the laws of the genre, until Ali, who was not shy about self-promotion methods, called his opponent Uncle Tom. This went straight to Fraser's heart. For these words, he hated Ali for the rest of his life, not forgiving him until his death, since a more offensive nickname, especially at that time, could not be invented: Uncle Tom for whites was a shameful label that was hung on all blacks who shied away from fighting for their rights. But Fraser was not like that.

“Boy of the Giants” took place on March 8, 1971 at New York’s famous Madison Square Garden (many, including the arena’s managers, believe that this fight is still the most prestigious event in its history). It should be noted that all the tickets were sold long before him, despite the record high prices.

After the first five relatively equal rounds, the advantage gradually began to pass to Frazier, who, showering his opponent's body with a hail of blows, patiently waited for him to finally lower his hands and open his jaw for his main left blow. And in the eleventh round, as it seemed to many, he waited until Ali, pressed against the ropes, missed two powerful left hooks to the head and staggered. His knees buckled, but by some miracle he survived. But only in order to delay the historical moment awaited by Fraser’s fans until the last fifteenth round. At the very beginning, Ali lowered his right hand to strike from below, having forgotten, apparently from fatigue, about Frazier’s “pig kick” that was in ambush. “I remembered” when I found myself on the floor for the first time in my career. He jumped up about “four”, but then in the remaining two and a half minutes he was already thinking only about not being knocked out before the end of the fight, the outcome of which was a foregone conclusion at that moment...

MOHAMMED ALI: “I WAS CLOSE TO DEATH”

Only after this fight did Smoking Joe become the undisputed champion in the eyes of everyone, even though he won, as many still said, if not a shadow, then only a worse version of Ali in the mid-60s. But this was not Fraser’s problem - he did his job honestly, he won with his heart, as he liked to say.

Then, having already lost his title in January 1973 in a fight against George Foreman, he would meet Muhammad Ali twice more. The last time was on October 1, 1975 in the Philippines, in a battle that went down in history under the name “Thriller in Manila.” Take the time, young generation of boxing fans, take a look: it can be easily found on the Internet. It was a tough fight in the terrible heat of two, albeit already aging at that time, but the greatest fighters. Mohammed Ali would later say that he would have been close to death, and Frazier, whose left eye was completely swollen (his right eye had poor vision before the fight), was not allowed out by the coach for the last fifteenth round...

“I won our second fight, despite the fact that Mohammed won it. “I would have won the third one if I hadn’t been stopped,” said Fraser, and he carried this belief that he had never lost to his main rival throughout his life, which ended on November 7, 2011 in one of the hospices in Philadelphia. Alas, his famous “swing” was powerless against liver cancer.

In the photograph of Walter Yoss Jr., who recreated in a series of photographs the current face of the great confrontations, Ali is silent and looks into the camera with an unblinking gaze, standing next to Joe Frazier. That's it, the circle is closed, these two are side by side again, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. They can no longer, and do not want to, hate each other.

When Ali was stripped of his championship title and boxing license for refusing to join the US Army, Frazier, who had become a champion during Ali's absence from the ring, gave Ali money through his manager, asked President Nixon for him, and himself repeatedly emphasized that he did not consider himself the best - until he beats Ali.

In 1971, the fight contract was signed, and Ali declared himself Joe Frazier's enemy for the next 5 years. During these five years they will meet three times. In the first fight, Frazier knocked Ali down hard, the kind you usually don’t get back up from, and won on points. Almost three years later, Ali took revenge and paved the way for himself to regain the crown. He knocked out George Foreman, who the year before had proven too big, too strong and too tough for Frazier. But once again at the top, Muhammad discovered that his “friend” Joe Frazier was next in line.

The battle at the Araneta Coliseum in the capital of the Philippines was only the final chord of a war that had been going on since 1971.

On October 1, 1975, at 10:45 a.m. local time, the first gong sounded. Ali and Frazier met each other's eyes again and fought blow for blow. Breaking through Ali's hooks and jabs whistling at his temple and past his jaw, Frazier closed the distance, cut Ali off from space and drove him to the ropes. There Ali was forced to grab Frazier's arms and neck and hold him. Ali tried to move and throw quick series, but Frazier eventually ended up getting close. But at the entrance to the inside, having taken three or four heavy fast blows on defense and sometimes on the head, Joe was knocked out of the position to start the attack, and sometimes he was simply stunned and the referee again and again separated the fighters from the clinch.

Here Frazier throws two hooks - Ali turns sideways towards his opponent, and another blow follows - to the champion's kidneys. Ali winces in pain. This is no longer the old “fluttering” Ali, and he knows that his legs are not so fast and light, and will not be able to take him to a safe distance. He stays nearby and decides to take the fight. Joe hits brutally and very selectively - he plants uppercuts under the heart, in the liver area, then transfers the fire along the floors - up, to the head, and Ali is forced to grab him again and lightly press on the neck from above. A forbidden move, but the price of victory is too high. Ali knows that Frazier is also not young, he will soon run out of oxygen and slow down.

By the 13th round the fight turns into a massacre. Joe's right eye is swollen shut, the hematoma is filling with blood, and he cannot see the blows that are coming at the target from that side. Ali looks a little better, but any blow could break the last thread connecting his head to the central nervous system. But then a few right hands through the arm shake Frazier's head... Ali goes to his corner after the end of the 14th round on unsteady legs. In the opposite corner of the ring, Joe sucks in the heavy, hot air that contains more blood than oxygen and hears, “You can’t go on.” The corner keeps Frazier out for the 15th round.

After the fight, Ali called Joe's son, Marvis Frazier, to him and asked him to forgive him for everything said about his father before the fight. He found the strength to apologize to Joe only in 2001.

Recreating the current face of the great confrontations in a series of photographs, Ali remains silent and looks at the camera with an unblinking gaze, standing next to Joe Frazier. That's it, the circle is closed, these two are side by side again, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. They can no longer, and do not want to, hate each other.

Ali is as much a child of his era as the rebellious and protesting youth of the 60s, numerous fighters for their rights, the rock movement, huge cars that ate cheap gasoline, and Martin Luther King. A big wave was coming - and Ali, formerly known as Cassius Clay, was on its crest. His reputation was very bad, first and foremost he was "the man you love to hate" and only then "The Greatest". Now it doesn’t matter how or at what moment this happened - and much stranger characters turned out to be big heroes.

When Ali was stripped of his championship title and boxing license for refusing to join the US Army (Ali was not required to go to Vietnam and kill someone there), Frazier, who became a champion during Ali’s absence from the ring, transferred money to Ali through his manager, asked President Nixon for him and himself repeatedly emphasized that he did not consider himself the best - until he beat Ali. The friends chatted merrily and planned various PR campaigns, Ali ran to shout to Joe Frazier's audience, Frazier called the studio when Ali gave another live interview, but all this came to an end.

The battle at the Araneta Coliseum in the capital of the Philippines was only the final chord of a war that had been going on since 1971. The Cadillacs and Lincolns in which Ali's team was traveling had difficulty making their way through the crowds of people along the entire route, and Joe Frazier arrived and checked into the Hyatt almost unnoticed by anyone. The very first interview for the assembled press - and Ali takes out of his pocket (“I have no idea where he got this?” recalls his cutman Ferdy Pacheco) a small rubber figurine of a gorilla. And he repeats: “It will be murder, horror, and thriller when I get to this gorilla in Manila.” He started hitting this rubber toy, saying: “Hey, Joe, hi, gorilla! We are already in Manila! Then someone brought a five-foot monkey doll into the training room, and Ali beat it too. As if that wasn't enough, he showed up at Fraser's training session, insulted him at length while standing on the gym's balcony, and then threw a chair down. A few days before the fight, he came to Fraser’s hotel and threatened him with a pistol - as it would later turn out, a toy pistol, but Fraser had no time for jokes. “Hey, Joe, I’ll get you, I’ll shoot you!” Ali performed these antics every day, and did not admit out loud that he was doing this only in order to at least slightly drown out his fear, gain self-confidence and deprive his opponent of it.

On October 1, 1975, at 10.45 am local time (the fight was broadcast to the whole world via satellite, and this time was optimal for Europe and the USA), the first gong sounded. Ali and Frazier met each other's eyes again and fought blow for blow. Breaking through Ali's hooks and jabs whistling at his temple and past his jaw, Frazier closed the distance, cut Ali off from space and drove him to the ropes. There Ali was forced to grab Frazier's arms and neck and hold him. Ali tried to move and throw quick series, but Frazier eventually ended up getting close. But at the entrance to the inside, having taken three or four heavy fast blows on defense and sometimes on the head, Joe was knocked out of the position to start the attack, and sometimes he was simply stunned and the referee again and again separated the fighters from the clinch.

Here Frazier throws two hooks - Ali turns sideways towards his opponent, and another blow follows - to the champion's kidneys. Ali winces in pain. This is no longer the old “fluttering” Ali, and he knows that his legs are not so fast and light, and will not be able to take him to a safe distance. He stays nearby and decides to take the fight. Joe hits brutally and very selectively - he plants uppercuts under the heart, in the liver area, then transfers the fire along the floors - up, to the head, and Ali is forced to grab him again and lightly press on the neck from above. A forbidden move, but the price of victory is too high. Ali knows that Fraser is also not young, he will soon run out of oxygen, and he will slow down... Ali says: “Joe, they told me that you are already finished!” Frazier lands a left hook that nearly takes Ali's head off and responds, "They tricked you, champ, they tricked you..."

By the 13th round the fight turns into a massacre. Joe's right eye is swollen shut, the hematoma is filling with blood, and he cannot see the blows that are coming at the target from that side. Ali looks a little better, but any blow could break the last thread connecting his head to the central nervous system. But then a few right hands through the arm shake Frazier's head... Ali goes to his corner after the end of the 14th round on unsteady legs. “Cut them, take them off!” he says to Angel Dundee, pointing to the gloves. He's ready to give up. He doesn't want to continue. In the opposite corner of the ring, Joe sucks in the heavy, hot air that contains more blood than oxygen and hears, “You can’t go on.” Too much effort has been given. Too much hate. Too much drama. The corner keeps Frazier out for the 15th round.

Suffering from Parkinson's disease, almost unable to speak or move on his own, Muhammad Ali himself became a monument and a living reminder of Thriller in Manila. A sad monument to hatred, cruelty and inhuman will.

“Well, Butterfly and I knew different times. There were a lot of emotions then. But I forgave him. I had to. You can't keep this to yourself forever. There were scars on my heart, I dreamed for years that it would hurt... It's time to end this. We needed each other to give you one of the greatest fights in history." Joe Fraser.

Perhaps both of these vindictive and bellicose gentlemen are not paragons of virtue. But we should give them credit - they both held on until the last.

Boxing match Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Bugner(Joe Bugner) watch online at . This was their first meeting with each other, which took place on February 14, 1973 at the Convention Center sports complex, Las Vegas. The fight was supposed to take place according to the boxing formula of 12 rounds of 3 minutes each.

Ali defended his NABF title before this fight, knocking out Bob Foster in the 8th round. Muhammad approached the fight with Joe Bugner with a track record of 40 wins and one loss to Joe Frazier (Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier watch online). Joe Bugner had 48 appearances in the professional ring (43 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses).

The fighters approached the fight with a slight difference in weight, as for the heavyweight category. Muhammad Ali weighed 98.5 kilograms, and Joe Bugner weighed 99.3 kg. The match was officiated by referee Buddy Basilico.

The meeting between Muhammad Ali and Joe Bugner was broadcast on television in several countries around the world, viewers from all corners of the globe had the opportunity. It was after this most interesting fight with the legendary Ali that Bugner won the respect and love of many fans of this courageous sport.

The fight took place in a bitter struggle all 12 scheduled rounds. Muhammad Ali won by a small margin in points. The ring announcer announced the results of the side judges: Roland Dakin 57-54, Lou Tabat 56-53, Ralph Mosa 57-52.