January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

don't do. Frazier in fighting Quarry a second time, the last one standing after
the elimination process, Frazier was following tradition.Also, most
fighters don't pick their opponents, their management picks them. Joe could
have been saying he wanted to fight this or that guy but his management didn't
want him to, for whatever reason. No, Frazier defeated Mathis after the
eight man WBA tournament was over. As far as Frazier staying out of the
tournament, his management likely thought that since he was already the number
one contender, that he had earned a title shot. I still don't know how the WBA
can rationalize dropping Frazier to the number nine contender after not losing a
fight just for staying out of the tournament.|
|8/18/04 05:03:02
PM|Timana|Auckland||kiwi@hotmail.com||||10|ForestPerhaps you are correct
about the 'alcoholic' comment concerning Frazier. I was not trying to be unfair.
I do know that he had a battle with the bottle. With the recent problem about
(allegedly) bashing a girlfriend, I think I must have read between the lines to
draw a ('armchair') conclusion that he was back on the bottle.If I'm
wrong, I'm sorry. However, I still believe that Joe has had a problem with
alcohol, although it might not be current.However, our debate seems to
have reached a majority conclusion: that Frazier was choosy about the fights he
took. It seems that some of us agree that he avoided some fights. In my opinion,
this is not a trait that gives anyone eligibility to be considered as 'one of
the all time greats'.Joe was not a risk taker. Ali had been out of
action for 3 years and 5 months leading up to his first fight against Frazier.
So Frazier was entitled to be confident. And Frazier only took the Foreman fight
because he was very confident - as were the pundits - that he would win
easily.Comparatively, Frazier had few fights. Frazier fought 37 times,
Ali 66 times, Holmes 72, Marciano 49, Foreman 81, Louis 66, Liston 54, Norton
50, Patterson 64, Douglas 44, Dempsey 64, Johnson 105, and the list goes
on.There were so many fights he could have had but he never took.
Putting aside the elimination tournament he refused to go in (and he was the
only contender to refuse to participate), men of his era who he never faced
included London, Patterson, Cooper, Mildenburger and Norton. We can speculate
about Shavers and Lyle, but we can't get away from the fact that he recycled
opponents rather than take on new challengers.It seems to me that he was
the type of fighter who needed an extraordinary amount of recovery time to then
save up all his energies (and hate) for the next big occasion. |
|8/18/04 05:15:44 PM|Timana|Auckland||kiwi@hotmail.com||||10|KentYou
comment that Frazier was following the tradition of taking an easy fight after
winning the title.His records showes that he milked that tradition for
all its worth. For two years after the first Ali fight, this is who he
fought:Clevelend Williams exhibitionJames Helwig
exhibitionTerry DanielsRon StanderHe'd just beaten Ali and
was considered the best in the world and he's fighting exhibitions and taking on
nobodies like Daniels and Stander for the next two years !Frazier says
he didn't fight Norton because there was not enough money for it. Was there more
money in fighting comparative stiffs like Stander and Daniels ? Where
were Joe's competitive juices ? Norton was out there ready to fight. Norton
found time to fight Ali twice in 1973. But Frazier never fought Norton. It
wasn't a big money fight ? They were buddies, and buddies don't fight ? Yeah,
sure, gimme a break, goddammit.|
|8/18/04 06:40:49 PM|Kent|La Habra, Ca||kentallenent@aol.com||||10|Wow, this
used to be a friendly place for Frazier fans but lately there have been a lot of
Frazier critics checking in.I almost jumped on the bandwagon in that
regard a few months ago when I was critical of him regarding the alleged
assaulut charge, which has since been dropped. I commented assuming he was
guilty but I didn't have the facts on what happend.I have always admired
Joe and will continue to do so. The man has faults but who doesn't?I