PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joe Frazier needed the night of his career to knock down "The Greatest."

Frazier
knocked Muhammad Ali down in the 15th round and became the first man to
beat him in the Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden in March
1971, the first in a trilogy of bouts that have gone down as boxing’s
most fabled fights.
"That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life," Frazier said.
It was his biggest night, one that would never come again.
The
relentless, undersized heavyweight ruled the division as champion, then
spent a lifetime trying to fight his way out of Ali’s shadow.
Frazier,
who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age
of 67, will forever be associated with Ali. No one in boxing would ever
dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to
Smokin’ Joe.
"I will always remember Joe with respect and
admiration," Ali said in a statement. "My sympathy goes out to his
family and loved ones."
They fought three times, twice in the
heart of New York City and once in the morning in a steamy arena in the
Thrilla in Manila the Philippines. They went 41 rounds together. Neither
gave an inch and both gave it their all.
In their last fight in
Manila in 1975, they traded punches with a fervor that seemed
unimaginable among heavyweights. Frazier gave almost as good as he got
for 14 rounds, then had to be held back by trainer Eddie Futch as he
tried to go out for the final round, unable to see.
"Closest thing to dying that I know of," Ali said afterward.
Ali
was as merciless with Frazier out of the ring as he was inside it. He
called him a gorilla, and mocked him as an Uncle Tom. But he respected
him as a fighter, especially after Frazier won a decision to defend his
heavyweight title against the then-unbeaten Ali in a fight that was so
big Frank Sinatra was shooting pictures at ringside and both fighters
earned an astonishing $2.5 million.
The night at the Garden 40
years ago remained fresh in Frazier’s mind as he talked about his life,
career and relationship with Ali a few months before he died.
"I can’t go nowhere where it’s not mentioned," he told The Associated Press.
Bob Arum, who once promoted Ali, said he was saddened by Frazier’s passing.
"He
was such an inspirational guy. A decent guy. A man of his word," Arum
said. "I’m torn up by Joe dying at this relatively young age. I can’t
say enough about Joe."
Frazier’s death was announced in a
statement by his family, who asked to be able to grieve privately and
said they would announce "our father’s homecoming celebration" as soon
as possible.
Manny Pacquiao learned of it shortly after he arrived
in Las Vegas for his fight Saturday night with Juan Manuel Marquez.
Like Frazier in his prime, Pacquiao has a powerful left hook that he has
used in his remarkable run to stardom.
"Boxing lost a great champion, and the sport lost a great ambassador," Pacquiao said.
Don King, who promoted the Thrilla in Manila, was described by a spokesman as too upset to talk about
Frazier’s death.
Though
slowed in his later years and his speech slurred by the toll of punches
taken in the ring, Frazier was still active on the autograph circuit in
the months before he died. In September he went to Las Vegas, where he
signed autographs in the lobby of the MGM Grand shortly before Floyd
Mayweather Jr.’s fight against Victor Ortiz.
An old friend, Gene Kilroy, visited with him and watched Frazier work the crowd.
"He was so nice to everybody," Kilroy said. "He would say to each of them, ‘Joe Frazier,
sharp as a razor, what’s your name?’"
Frazier
was small for a heavyweight, weighing just 205 pounds when he won the
title by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their 1970 fight at
Madison Square Garden. But he fought every minute of every round going
forward behind a vicious left hook, and there were few fighters who
could withstand his constant pressure.
His reign as heavyweight
champion lasted only four fights — including the win over Ali — before
he ran into an even more fearsome slugger than himself. George Foreman
responded to Frazier’s constant attack by dropping him three times in
the first round and three more in the second before their 1973 fight in
Jamaica was waved to a close and the world had a new heavyweight
champion.
Two fights later, he met Ali in a rematch of their first
fight, only this time the outcome was different. Ali won a 12-round
decision, and later that year stopped George Foreman in the Rumble in
the Jungle in Zaire.
There had to be a third fight, though, and
what a fight it was. With Ali’s heavyweight title at stake, the two met
in Manila in a fight that will long be seared in boxing history.
Frazier
went after Ali round after round, landing his left hook with regularity
as he made Ali backpedal around the ring. But Ali responded with left
jabs and right hands that found their mark again and again. Even the
intense heat inside the arena couldn’t stop the two as they fought every
minute of every round with neither willing to concede the other one
second of the round.
"They told me Joe Frazier was through," Ali told Frazier at one point during the fight.
"They lied," Frazier said, before hitting Ali with a left hook.
Finally,
though, Frazier simply couldn’t see and Futch would not let him go out
for the 15th round. Ali won the fight while on his stool, exhausted and
contemplating himself whether to go on.
"It was unworldly what we
had just seen," Arum said. "Two men fighting one of the great wars of
all time. It’s something I will never forget for all the years I have
left."
It was one of the greatest fights ever, but it took a toll.
Frazier would fight only two more times, getting knocked out in a
rematch with Foreman eight months later before coming back in 1981 for
an ill advised fight with Jumbo Cummings.
"They should have both
retired after the Manila fight," former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr.
said. "They left every bit of talent they had in the ring that day."
Born
in Beaufort, S.C., on Jan 12, 1944, Frazier took up boxing early after
watching weekly fights on the black and white television on his family’s
small farm. He was a top amateur for several years, and became the only
American fighter to win a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo
despite fighting in the final bout with an injured left thumb.
"Joe
Frazier should be remembered as one of the greatest fighters of all
time and a real man," Arum told the AP in a telephone interview Monday
night. "He’s a guy that stood up for himself. He didn’t compromise and
always gave 100 percent in the ring. There was never a fight in the ring
where Joe didn’t give 100 percent."
After turning pro in 1965,
Frazier quickly became known for his punching power, stopping his first
11 opponents. Within three years he was fighting world-class opposition
and, in 1970, beat Ellis to win the heavyweight title that he would hold
for more than two years.
A woman who answered Ellis’ phone in
Kentucky said the former champion suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease, but
she wanted to pass along the family’s condolences.
In
Philadelphia, a fellow Philadelphia fighter, longtime middleweight
champion Bernard Hopkins, said Frazier was so big in the city that he
should have his own statue, like the fictional Rocky character.
"I
saw him at one of my car washes a few weeks ago. He was in a car, just
hollering at us, ‘They’re trying to get me!’ That was his hi," Hopkins
said. "I’m glad I got to see him in the last couple of months. At the
end of the day, I respect the man. I believe at the end of his life, he
was fighting to get that respect."
He was a fixture in Philadelphia where he trained fighters in a gym he owned and made a cameo in
"Rocky."
It
was his fights with Ali that would define Frazier. Though Ali was
gracious in defeat in the first fight, he was as vicious with his words
as he was with his punches in promoting all three fights — and he never
missed a chance to get a jab in at Frazier.
Frazier, who in his
later years would have financial trouble and end up running a gym in his
adopted hometown of Philadelphia, took the jabs personally. He felt Ali
made fun of him by calling him names and said things that were not true
just to get under his skin. Those feelings were only magnified as Ali
went from being an icon in the ring to one of the most beloved people in
the world.
After a trembling Ali lit the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was asked by a reporter what he
thought about it.
"They should have thrown him in," Frazier responded.
He
mellowed, though, in recent years, preferring to remember the good from
his fights with Ali rather than the bad. Just before the 40th
anniversary of his win over Ali earlier this year — a day Frazier
celebrated with parties in New York — he said he no longer felt any
bitterness toward Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and is
mostly mute.
"I forgive him," Frazier. "He’s in a bad way."
___
Dahlberg reported from Las Vegas.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.