In the times of Joe Frazier

Famous Left Hook To Ali in Fight of the Century

7 November 2011, Joe Frazier was knocked out from this world for good. A fierce and competent boxer of all times defeated by liver cancer. But Joe Frazier and all other boxers of 60's and 70's were most misfortune because they were in the times of Great Muhammad Ali. The extraordinary persona of Ali enchanted the whole world and all the other boxers were completely over shadowed by him. But still comparatively short but shrewd guy with arrogant swagger came to the scene of boxing and amazed everyone. Frazier or Smokin Joe, he was referred as, became professional in 1965. He won gold for USA in Olympics previous year. His style was very aggressive, always tried to narrow down the distance between himself and opponent. He was one of the most fiercest puncher of that era. He was famous for throwing fury of jabs and uppercuts but his most lethal weapon was his left hook, ironically he broke his left arm in childhood which though healed completely but was a bit short from his right arm. The accident not only shortened his range but also crocked his arm a bit which some experts say did him good.
Joe Frazier was best puncher of his time, as his first 10 fights ended earlier or in 6th round, and all were Knockouts. But the moment of glory for Frazier came on 8 of March 1971 after six years since his first fight. The fight was tagged as "The Fight of the Century". Venue was Madison Square Garden New York and each player was paid record prize of 2.5million dollars. Well what a fight that was, Muhammad Ali dominated in start but after 8(total of 15 rounds) round, Joe Frazier was in command. This was the fight in which Joe landed a superb left hook to Ali showing the canvas to him, second time in Ali' s career. Frazier became world heavy weight champion by a unanimous decision. To keep this for the glory of Joe I am not mentioning the fight of Frazier with Foreman in which Foreman ruined him in just 2 rounds.
Frazier was one of the two  fighters who completed hatrick with Ali, with famous Gorilla in Manilla, both resulted in Frazier defeat. Frazier belonged  to the era where on the scene of world boxing Ali floated and stung but still Frazier made his mark. The International Boxing Research Organization ranked Frazier among the ten greatest heavyweights of all time.