All language subtitles for I.Am.Joe.Frazier.2025.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-Kitsune.Hi

[punching speed
bag rhythmically]

[silence falls]

Hey, Joe?

Yeah.

What's the highlight
of your career?

The highlight of my career?

Being born in the world.

["Back Burner" by
Stuart Moore plays]

[♪]

Joe Frazier made aggressive
fighting an art form.

When Frazier throws punches,
he wants to kill you.

[♪]

[Dr. Todd Boyd] He grew
up in South Carolina.

They didn't have any money,

they weren't educated,

but he was especially
well-spoken with his hands.

[Burt Watson] He was relentless.

There was a lot of punches,

he'd take one to give two,

but you had to get
inside to give one.

Joe was a very proud man.

He never kissed anybody's ass.

He didn't want to be
a political symbol.

[Joe] I speak from my
heart. You know I mean?

The way I see things
and the way I feel.

Joe loved cars, fighting,
women, and music.

Music, to Joe Frazier,
was his sanity.

That's what you saw when
you saw Joe perform.

Joe Frazier was a warrior, man.

Without Joe Frazier, there
wouldn't have been no Ali.

I'm the champ. You
ain't! You nothing!

That kind of rivalry,

we'll never see something
like that again.

Three of the biggest
fights in history.

It's no coincidence.

[♪]

There was another side to Joe.

He had a big heart.
Do anything for you.

If a car's broken down,

Joe Frazier will
stop every time.

It's just in his DNA to help.

White America always
thought Joe Frazier

was this blue-collar
working man,

but man, he was
the king of swag.

[Watson] No one ever did
get Joe Frazier right.

No one ever got the
real Joe Frazier.

[♪]

[traffic noise]

How we doing there, guys?

Uh, rolling.

There's a lot of things in

in my life that

the whole world
just they don't know

'cause I never sit
down and tell 'em.

[♪]

[cheering and shouting]

Ali-Frazier,

the Fight of the
Century, March 8th, 1971,

transcended the sport of boxing

and entered into this realm

of America at the highest order.

Everybody was talking
about Ali and Frazier.

It was the beginning
of the mega-fight era.

Frazier-Ali! It was polarizing.

He's the Uncle Tom.

The guy talked from
the side of his mouth.

It was the bull and the matador.

He's the other-type Negro!

Uh, he's a phony.

Who do you root for? And why?

Frazier's going to win!

It's a hell of a way

to present one's
society to the world,

because, you know,
that's what it meant.

Every punch that was thrown
had a subtext behind it.

Totally different styles.

The one area

where they were very
similar in the ring

was that they were both

mean, nasty, S.O.B. fighters.

Joe Frazier was prepared to
die in that ring that night.

Joe came out of ugly origins,

and boxing became his way out.

[match bell rings]

[announcer] Round one!

[horse whinnying]

[♪]

[Joe] I was born and raised
in Beaufort, South Carolina,

and my original
home is the South.

[Boyd] Joe's family,
they were sharecroppers.

It's not intellectual.

It's hard living.

[♪]

It was slow, and it was hot.

Bugs everywhere.

It was survival.

Joe Frazier has had
to face adversity,

not from the moment he was born,

but from the moment
he was conceived.

He was in his mother's stomach,

she was pregnant with him,

when his dad had an altercation

in which he was shot in
his left arm by a friend.

[gunshot echoes]

Shot off by, like, a
jealous husband of somebody

that Rubin might've been
doing the wrong thing with,

or "the wild thing,"
as Joe would say.

His mom was shot in
the same incident.

Could've killed Joe Frazier.

[infant crying]

Joe Frazier didn't grow
up in Beverly Hills.

1944 in rural South Carolina

is really not that far removed
from the end of slavery.

His earliest memory would be
sitting on his father's knee

and his father would,
would call him "Billy Boy,"

and, you know, he was known
to be, like, a daddy's boy,

and he was basically
his father's shadow.

Mom and Dad had probably
15 (kids) together.

Out of all of them, I
was the youngest one.

And being his dad's favorite,

Joe had to become
his dad's left arm.

[Bernstein] The whole
setting of that story,

the drama,

and how it ultimately
came full circle

with him using the left arm
that his father never had,

and become world famous,

was really extraordinary,
and in a way, poetic.

[Joe] Back in the
country, they had, like,

maybe one or two
televisions, you know?

Used to get around those,
to watch fights at the time.

[crowd cheering]

And you had boxing on
TV several times a week.

Everybody knew

who the Heavyweight
Champion of the World was.

And there was, uh, Joe Louis

and Rocky Marciano,

Ezzard Charles,

Jersey Joe Walcott,

and my uncles and my
aunts and my father

used to say, you know,
"That kid, look at him.

Look at the body structure."

He said, "One of these days,

that boy gonna be a Joe Louis."

I knocked my arm out of place
when I was a little boy.

Chasing after a hog,
and was told not to,

and fell and broke his arm.

My Mom said, "Listen, you
go down to the pen..."

"Feed the hog, do
not tease him."

"Yes, ma'am."

[laughing]

When I went down to feed the hog

I started teasing him.

He was a big old bull,
man, he was that high

and he jumped on the fence.

He couldn't run
no faster than me

I took away from him, but

when I tripped and hit the brick

the brick took the
arm out of place.

And back in them days

Mom and Dad didn't have the

finance.

They had no
healthcare insurance.

They had no money
to go to a hospital.

My Dad didn't have the love.

You know how you
spell love, right?

M-O-N-E-Y

[laughing]

His mom and his dad

always said he was a fighter.

He had the bag
when he was a kid,

that bag that he built
with his own hands

and hung from a tree.

He filled it up with
peat moss, corn cobs,

shoes, wood,

whatever he could put in there.

[Joe] I grew up with a bad
arm, but that never stopped me.

Come home in the evening

I had 30 minutes
to punch the bag.

It was like a daily recitation.

That's where his power
really came from.

The roots of his thoughts,
and his gut feeling,

came from that time in his life,

what his mom and
his dad put in him.

So I decided I'd
find a better way

for Mom and Dad.

[Bernstein] Joe Frazier
was able to come

from the most
difficult beginnings

and get to a very lofty
place in this world.

I tell them, "One of these days, I'm
gonna build y'all whatever you want."

"I'm gonna be champion
of the world."

[Watson] Growing up in
Beaufort, South Carolina,

there were hard times,

but when you actually
lived in those times...

we really didn't
know any better.

I couldn't understand why

we had different schools.

I couldn't ride the bus.

I had to get out of town. at
certain times during the day.

Joe got into a
little bit of trouble

as he got a little older,

not older, much older, at 15.

Joe was, uh, 14, 15,
worked on a farm.

This Black kid is being
accosted by this white man.

We had problems, you know

racial problems, you know

with my white brothers.

I never could understand why

because we all had the same arm

the same leg

some of them
shorter than others.

[chuckling]

Joe had stuck up
for this Black kid,

and, uh, the white
man, um, decided

that, uh, he was going to,
uh, beat Joe with his belt.

Joe said, being Joe,

"I wouldn't do that, man."

Joe's mom, um, said to him,

"Listen."

If you can't get along

with the white people
here in Beaufort,

you better leave, 'cause, um...

"that's not, it's not
gonna end up good for you."

Joe was forced out
of South Carolina,

but he never, ever held
any grudge towards that.

His mom put him on a bus

with a couple of, uh,
legs of fried chicken...

ho...

and he took the bus on his own
from, uh, Beaufort to New York.

What a horrific childhood,

and what it took
to get outta there.

[newsreel theme plays]

[newsreel announcer]
This is a free land

in which we have a
right to work anywhere.

Joe Frazier came to
New York in 1959,

and moved in with
his brother, Tommy.

They got to a little
bit of trouble there!

I mean, they-they tried to
start a little side hustle.

[newsreel] We call it
"freedom of opportunity"...

I was borrowing cars
that wasn't mine

and didn't bring it back.

[newsreel] ...and it means

there is a free
market for our skills.

[Joe] I had to leave

because that wasn't gonna work

being a thief.

I lived with an aunt

she was like a maid

and my uncle, who was here

his name was Cadillac.

[laughing]

He was married at 16 and had kids, and he
was acting like a grown man at that point.

During the day, you work at all kinds
of jobs, when you can find them.

Money's scarce,
particularly when

yours and Florence's
son Marvis comes along

in September of 1960.

I got married when
I was real young.

He was working in
a slaughterhouse.

He put on weight.

At the age of 'bout 16,
I was about 230 pounds,

so I had a little problem of, you
know, of fitting up in clothes,

so therefore, I couldn't
afford the clothes,

so I had to find somethin'
to do to get that weight off,

and then I found
out how to punch.

When I went in the gym, they had
about 12 heavyweights in there,

and by the time I left out, I
was the only guy in the gym.

[Ralph Edwards] Fortunately,

you meet someone who
sees potential in you.

Joe, your close
friend and manager

since the beginning
of your boxing career,

Mr. Yancey 'Yank' Durham.

You saw Joe's, uh,
potential early, Yank?

[Durham] Yes. Joe
was a dedicated boy.

He would, his determination
was so great that I figured

that, uh, Joe would
go all the way.

[Joe Hand Jr.] In a boxing gym,

trainers like to keep
training sessions controlled,

but Yank Durham didn't
let Joe do that.

He let him be

as ferocious and aggressive
as he could possibly be.

Lot of people don't
know, that, uh,

when I first started with him,

he thought he was
the type of a fighter

that could move around the ring,
and I said, "Look, this is nonsense,

it's something we have to stop.
You're too short for a boxer.

You're a fighter,
you have the power,

and you got to keep applying
pressure on these fighters."

Felt like that relationship

was, uh, a father-son
relationship.

And Joe relied completely
on Yank Durham.

Mr. Yank Durham, God bless him.

I didn't go anywhere
without him.

[newscaster] Frazier won
38 of 40 amateur fights,

grinding through all opposition

to three Golden Glove titles.

I had all knockouts before I
went to the (Olympic) tryout.

I'm telling my
family and my friends

"Hey, I'm gonna beat 'em all."

[announcer] Round three
of the 1964 Olympic Trials

between heavyweights Buster
Mathis and Joe Frazier.

Mathis is enormous!
He weighs 300 pounds.

I didn't think
Mathis won the fight

but he got it anyway, so

I came back with a little
tear dripping down.

Joe lost to Buster Mathis
in the Olympic trials,

but Buster broke his hand,

so Joe Frazier went
to the Olympics.

[Joe] Tokyo was like a whole
different world altogether.

The second to last guy

he was 231 pounds

of nothing but muscle and bone.

[laughing]

I said come on with it.

[♪]

I dropped him two times

third time they didn't
let him come back out

and that's where I
bust up the thumb then.

He broke his hand
in the semifinal,

and had to figure out a
way to fight in that final

with that broken hand!

Joe had his own medication.

Put some hot water

some salt

and sugar

an old remedy that Mom used
to give me and Dad, you know.

[Joe Hand Sr.]
Dolly, his mother,

she was just a beauty.

Corn-cob pipe, sitting
on a front porch.

Dolly would eat dirt
every day with a spoon.

She would go out,

and then find some of
this peat soil stuff,

and eat it,

and I asked Joe
what it was about,

and he said, "That's where
you get the goodness."

You know, she wanted the
minerals from the earth.

Joe Frazier was
from Gullah culture.

In the Gullah culture
and tradition,

we were spiritually
into the church,

but at the same time,
being into root,

and witches, spirits.

You couldn't go to a doctor,

so Joe always concocted things.

They came from his childhood, the
most obscure things you could imagine

to fix something.

Whether it was the flu,

whether his back was
hurting, arthritis...

Sometimes he'd write
on the jar what it was.

He might just put,
"hair growing" there.

If you've got bad hands
from hitting the bags,

"Come here, son, let me put
some of this stuff on there."

Joe used to take a
big mayonnaise jar

and fill it with liquor and
orange peels and rock candy,

and have it sit and marinate
for about two or three months,

and shake it up,

and every time we'd go someplace,
he would take some of that,

and that would be his medication,
for whatever ailed him.

His big thing was
Westley's Tire Cleaner.

It was a special cleaner

that they had for the
limousine company,

for the white walls,

so he'd spray it on a toothbrush
and then brush his teeth with it.

Gargle something,

maybe Courvoisier, maybe lemon
juice. In his mind, he was, like,

"Hey, if it's gonna make the tires
white, it'll make my teeth white."

[laughing]

[Bernstein] Joe Frazier made
the most of his opportunity

in 1964.

He was going to get the
job done, no matter what.

Fighters have, many times,

fought with injuries that
they sustained during a fight,

but it's very rare

that somebody goes into a
fight with that kind of injury.

It's emblematic of Frazier.

Joe Frazier, who was
concealing a broken thumb,

won a gold medal.

[Slone] Joe was very patriotic.

He was the only
American to win it,

and he was so, so proud of that.

Nobody won the
gold medal but me.

It was a great thrill

to know that

I saved America.

[Florence Frazier] In 1964,

when Joe came back
from the Olympics,

things was awful hard
for Joe and myself.

Time was real bad

I didn't have a job.

I was working at
the slaughterhouse

and then I got laid off.

Look, he was a guy
with a bad hand.

Wasn't particularly verbal.

Joe Frazier was
country, you know,

and Joe didn't have the
wordplay to deny this.

He was a reflection of
those country roots.

An Olympic gold medal

was a very different
phenomenon, economically,

in those days,

and at that point,

there was no way of knowing

that he was going to become
the fighter that he became.

Well, I done spent
most of the...

most of our savings to, to
buy, uh, food for the kids,

and pay the bills and
rent, and everything.

His hand was broke
and he couldn't work,

and I had the
children to care for,

I couldn't work, so...

we were just sort of stuck.

Well I was going blind in '64

when I came back from the Games.

He had shrapnel in his
eye from the speed bag,

a little sliver of steel that
cut into his eye's retina.

It made him 80%
blind in one eye,

and he fought his
whole career that way.

Blind and broke wasn't no fun.

Yank, you told Dr. Gray

that you thought it would
take at least $5,000

to get Joe launched on a
professional fight career.

[Durham] That's true. I
sit and talk with Dr. Gray,

and I asked him
about a co-operation,

so he talked to various people,

and we got the corporation
together, that's where we are today.

[interviewer] Mr. Wright,

how and why was
Cloverlay formed?

[Bruce Wright]
Dr. Baldwin had asked me

to give him a method of
sponsoring a prizefighter.

How did you get
involved with Cloverlay?

I read about it
in the newspaper,

and I called Dr. Baldwin

regarding a purchase of a share.

My dad showed up
at the next meeting

with 500 hours,

and now he was

one of the founding
guys of Cloverlay.

[Wright] We guaranteed Joe
$100 a week for three years,

and this was before any
earnings had come in.

[♪]

Cloverlay really looked
out for Joe Frazier.

[interviewer] Isn't it kind of unusual
for a woman to be part owner of a boxer?

Yes, that's what
made it so thrilling.

[♪]

They were guiding Joe's career.

They didn't want to exploit Joe,

they wanted to see that
Joe was fairly treated.

[Joe] It's a real good
feeling, you know,

that you really got people
like that behind ya,

and, uh, they're wonderful
people to be with.

You could kind of
brag to your neighbor,

to your boss or coworkers,
that you owned a fighter.

They would sell these
shares of stock,

and they were $250.

The Joe Frazier/Cloverlay
story became popular.

As time went by, they
increased in value

to, what I remember
someone saying,

like, almost $14,000 a share.

You think it was
a good investment?

Very good. I have no complaints.

I was rooting for Joe Frazier,
who I loved as a boxing fan.

I loved watching him run through
the Heavyweight Division.

[announcer] Frazier
was the only American

to win a gold medal in
the 1964 Olympic Boxing.

And Frazier is down!

[crowd cheering]

At 11 and 0,

he faced a very tough
fighter in Oscar Bonavena,

a South American fighter
who had power in both hands,

and because of the
style Frazier fought,

it was two trucks
coming together.

Bonavena is probably
the stronger of the two,

and has fought the more
experienced opponents.

That one particular fight

I didn't like the
way I performed.

He could punch.

Frazier down again!

There was a three-knockdown
rule in effect,

so his career at that point

could have been short-circuited.

He was trying to get
that third knockdown

with a push and a shove.

Because he knew if he
pushed me down a third time

they were gonna stop the fight.

Yank Durham was furious.

Joe had gotten sloppy.

He had started to believe
that he couldn't be hurt.

"I lay hands on
them and they fall."

[crowd cheering]

[announcer] And there
it is, the final bell!

That was a real crucible
for him early in his career,

but still won a decision.

But you came on to win,
I wanna congratulate you,

you're still undefeated,

and you're certainly
a wonderful prospect.

One of these days, we hope
to have you in a title fight.

Thank you very much. Everybody!

Thank you very
much, Joe Frazier.

Thank you!

The man to beat me
hasn't been born yet.

[♪]

He said he was the greatest.

Nobody could beat him. I'm the

Heavyweight Champ of the World,
and I don't have to talk no more

and say "I'm the greatest," because
people tell me I'm the greatest.

I came outta Mama like this.

I am the greatest.
I am the king.

I wanna shut him down!

I'll be champion,

and I can stay in the ring
ten more years easy, I figure.

So you're not prepared
to discuss your feelings

about the Vietnam War?

Mm-mm.

[reporter] World Heavyweight
Champion Cassius Clay

refused to take the Oath
of Induction into the Army.

The Black Muslim fighter, who's
also known as Muhammad Ali,

was immediately
stripped of his title

by the World Boxing Association.

My intention is to box,
to win a clean fight,

but in war,

the intention is to
kill, kill, kill, kill,

and continue killing
innocent people!

Muhammad Ali refusing induction
into the United States Army

during the height of the war

had enormous sociological
and political impact.

Muhammad Ali was
prohibited from fighting,

and Madison Square Garden said

that New York State would
recognize a championship fight

between Joe Frazier
and Buster Mathis.

Even the fighters
themselves know

that they cannot be
considered world champions

until they've
fought Muhammad Ali.

What are your feelings
about the demonstration

against the fight?

Don't know anything about it.

Got the fight on my mind. I
get out there and I go to work,

and as long as Mathis wanna
be there and be smoked on,

I'm gonna smoke him.

[♪]

Even before I
turned professional,

I'd seen him annihilate
Buster Mathis.

He beat that boy, beat that boy,

and finally knocked him out.

From that point on, everyone
was afraid of the small guy.

Frazier wasn't that big.

He got the maximum out of
his physical abilities,

fighting, you know, the
best of competition,

Eddie Machen,

George Chuvalo,

and Oscar Bonavena twice.

[Hand Jr.] The second
Oscar Bonavena fight,

I was ten years old.

Joe's son, Marvis, and I were around the
same age, and we were pretty good friends.

My dad, of course,
put us at ringside.

I remember it being, like,
kind of a brutal fight.

I hit him with everything and
he just wouldn't fall, man.

He was a tough guy.

[Hand Jr.] After
the fight was over,

they rushed Marvis and I back
into Joe's dressing room,

and I see Oscar
Bonavena walk in,

and Bonavena did not
have his eyes open,

'cause they were swollen
shut, at that point,

and somebody had to lift his arm

to put it into Joe's,
and to shake his hand.

The brutality of that sport
struck me that night, for sure,

and it, and it
doesn't leave you.

It's a brutal, brutal sport.

Tomorrow night, Joe
fights Jimmy Ellis

for the World
Heavyweight Championship

at Madison Square Garden.

Music was what he,
he enjoyed doing,

and people let him do it.

But right now, here he
is with The Knockouts,

singing "Knock on Wood."

[match bell dings]

[crowd screaming]

[♪]

♪ I don't want to lose ♪

♪ This good thing, baby ♪

♪ That I got ♪

♪ If I do... ♪

To go on The Ed Sullivan Show

before the day he's gonna
fight Jimmy Ellis...

Live! And it was live back then!

...he's supposed to be resting.

I mean, this guy was,
like, made of concrete.

♪ I wonder Do you
feel it, baby? ♪

♪ Oww! ♪

♪ I wonder, do you feel it? ♪

♪ Knock on wood ♪

Not only was he doing a
good job on Ed Sullivan,

he walks in the ring

and does his day
job extremely well.

[announcer] Champion Joe
Frazier takes on Jimmy Ellis.

The bob-and-weave style
was staying low...

like the Henry Armstrongs,
the Tysons of the world.

That's my whole
trick about fighting,

you know what I mean?

Stay close on a man, and
take the room away from him.

There was a lot of nuance
to what he did, you know?

He would use his jab
on different levels,

then he'd double with the left
hook, so that'd surprise you.

When you perfect it,

it's very tough for any
opponent to deal with.

Jimmy Ellis, to Joe,

was just too relentless
and too powerful for him.

He goes out

and knocks Jimmy Ellis
out in five rounds.

[sportscaster] Joe
Frazier becomes

the undisputed Heavyweight
Champion of the World

in Madison Square Garden.

An elated...

[audience applauding]

[♪]

America in 1971

was divided over
the war in Vietnam,

it was divided
over racial issues.

Think about the
assassination of Malcolm X,

Martin Luther King,

Robert Kennedy,

and, of course,

Muhammad Ali's
three-and-a-half-year exile.

[♪]

Black people got to the point where
they couldn't take it no more.

To make some people
understand sometimes

you have to use
bottles and bricks.

You may not intend on it,
you don't wanna use it,

but then again,
you just have to.

[Hauser] Muhammad Ali and Joe

really became surrogates
for that culture war,

Muhammad willingly,
Joe unwillingly.

When it came to the politics,
and the wars and stuff,

he said, "I'm not qualified
to make a judgment on that."

For Joe Frazier to be a
champion, he's gotta beat me.

He said, "You got my title."

I said, "I ain't
got your title."

I didn't take it away from you.

You know what happened.

You didn't fulfill
your responsibility.

"That's why you lost the title."

There were times
during Ali's exile

when they were quite friendly.

Before he had his title,
uh, stripped from him,

I had a lot of respect for him.

Joe was helpful to
Ali in different ways.

He said, "Joe Frazier, I
need to go to New York."

I said, "Alright. I'll
take you to New York."

I put him in my car.

I took him to New York.

We got to start talking.

He said he didn't
have enough money.

I can't remember what it was

five hundred dollars

two hundred dollars

three hundred dollars

but I gave him some money.

We go into New York

he got out of the car

"Joe Frazier

got my title.

"I want my title!"

Man, come on man.

Give me a break, I brought you.

"That's Joe Frazier!"

You, Joe Frazier!

I want my bout with y'all!

Ali was angry.

He'd been stripped of his title.

He was being treated
by many Americans

as an object of scorn.

Take it easy, man.

We'll get the contract together.

Just chill out, you
know what I mean?

Joe said to me,

"This scam booger has got
my money in his pocket,

and he's talkin' bad about me."

The whole time,
going back, he said,

"Yeah, I was talking
to him in the car,

but I was thinking of how

I'm gonna kill him
in the ring legally."

I helped him with a
lot of things that

most people, they wouldn't do.

We went to the President
of the United States.

President Nixon.

"Mr, President, for me, would
you give Muhammad his license?"

He says, "Joe, do you
think you can take him?"

"I believe I can take him."

[chuckling]

When the white
man took his title

and denied him a chance to
do anything to make a living,

Joe Frazier stood up.

He came to the plate.

The main thing, we
were responsible

for him to get
half of the purse,

and after he got this money,
and got a little foothold,

you know what I mean,

he tried to do everything
and say everything

to put me down.

He was the champion
of the world.

But, therefore

if you ain't got something
right to say to me

then you better
keep being quiet.

'Cause I'm gonna
peel off and hit you.

[Watson] It was 2.5 million each

that they got for that fight.

That was the biggest
sports payoff

that an athlete got in
the history of sports.

It's the biggest fight,
because for the first time,

you've had a witty, quick,
fast-talking heavyweight champ.

When the most of them
ask him a question,

"How do you feel, champ?"

[speaking in gibberish]

I think a lot of Black
people hear Ali saying,

"In addition to everything else,

you're a country boy,
you're a farm boy.

If you want to really
get deep, you know,

you're a field slave."

[continuing in gibberish]

Ali called him stupid,
called him ignorant,

called him "Uncle Tom,"

'cause he knew Frazier
was sensitive to that,

saying, "The white man
is controlling you."

'Cause he's the Uncle Tom.

Joe Frazier, you's a Tom!

Tom?

I ain't no Peepin' Tom,
what you talking about?

I ain't peeped in
nobody's window.

He told me, "Look, this guy
keeps calling me Uncle Tom,"

and he said, "I don't want my wife
thinking that I'm peeping in windows."

He actually thought

he was calling
him a peeping Tom.

He didn't know what
an Uncle Tom was.

He's the other-type Negro.

He's not like me.

[Hauser] It was damaging to Joe,

and it also made that
demeaning treatment

of a certain kind
of Black person

acceptable,

which it shouldn't have been.

He's a brother.

One day, he might be like me,

but as of now, he
works for the enemy.

Ali had tried to paint Joe
Frazier as an Uncle Tom,

and somebody that wasn't
a part of the solution

for Black people,

but was still part
of the problem.

Why did he insist on
calling me Cassius Clay,

when even the
worst of the whites

recognize Muhammad Ali?

He keeps saying "Clay"!

"He's still Clay,
he gon' stay Clay,

and, to me, he'll
always be Clay."

Joe, for a long time,
did call him Ali.

Uh, Ali made a
statement the other day

that he wants, uh, six million,

It wasn't until Ali
started disrespecting Joe

that Joe started
calling him Clay.

I'm tired of all these
Uncle Tom Negros!

You might be
considered ignorant.

"Uncle Tom" is an
entirely different thing.

[Hauser] It was very
hurtful to his kids.

It's understandable

that Joe harbored the
ill will that he did.

You talk from two
sides of your mouth!

One to the white,
and one to the Black!

Many people, as we all know,
rooted for Muhammad Ali openly

because they saw him

as a symbol of the
anti-war movement,

and wrongly, Joe
Frazier was somehow cast

as this darling of the
older white establishment

in the United States.

It's real difficult for
someone to say in public,

"I hate that nigga,
Muhammad Ali,"

so Joe serves the purpose

of camouflaging some
of the racist ideas

of certain individuals.

Now, these people,
they don't give a shit

about Joe Frazier.

The reality is,

they like Joe because
he's fighting Ali.

I was there to get the job done.

I can't let the people down.

Look at me, steady as a rock.

To Joe, it was a battle of,
uh... really, of religion.

He felt like he was destined
and called for that position.

Every person of note
was at that fight,

whether they were in politics,
entertainment, sports,

you name it.

We know it's a big
fight when Frank Sinatra

is a photographer at ringside.

Yank Durham, his trainer,
told him before the fight,

"You win this fight, your
life's set up forever."

It was truly the
fight of the century.

There hadn't been
a fight like that,

with that much magnitude,
that much interest,

in the history of boxing.

[Slone] Joe once told me that
right before the fight with Ali,

he was in the dressing room,
and he asked for some privacy,

and he claims somebody
came into the room

and talked to him,

and, uh, he-he went out,

and he was upset with
the security guy,

and he said, "Who was it?"

And the security
guy assured him,

"Nobody's been in that room."

But Joe swore he got a visit
from a man wearing white,

and he told me, he said, he said, "Rich,"
he said, "When I was in that room,"

he said, uh, "God came to me."

He said, you know, like, "God,
can I ask you a question?"

And God said, "Certainly."

He said, uh, "If I kill
this motherfucker tonight,

will you forgive me?"

And he said, "The
Lord said 'yes'."

[announcer] The undisputed

Heavyweight Championship
of the World.

[commentator] Muhammad
Ali in the red trunks.

Joe Frazier in the green trunks.

They appear very light.

[funky intro plays]

Frazier will try to bore
in and catch this man.

I don't think that Muhammad
was ready for the pressure.

[commentator] Joe
keeps coming in!

As he was attacking,

there were many
different nuances,

and all the while,

a big part of it was
the head movement.

Some of the shots
that I hit him with

they would knock down buildings.

[commentator] Ooh,
that must have hurt!

I went back to the corner.

I said, "Yank?"

"What's wrong with this guy, man,
I'm hitting him with all I've got?"

"Just go right back where
you left off from...

Them body shots, he will
fall after a while."

It is new for Muhammad
not to be in control.

[commentator] If
anybody is psyched here,

it is not Joe Frazier.

Look at that hook!

That night, that fight,
Joe was possessed.

[commentator] Frazier's
just laughing at him!

[bell ringing]

Round 11!

I caught him coming
out of the corner.

He was going to my left.

I caught him with a
hook, on a ricochet.

Boom!

[commentator] That
one hurt, so did that!

If the ropes wasn't there, he
would fall out of the ring.

[commentator] All right, this is the final
round of the fight, and what a fight it's been!

I throw two left hooks at him.
Second one was on the chin.

Bang!

[crowd roars]

The 15th-round knockdown?

The coup de grâce, man.

[Bentt] Joe walks away,

and I'm sure he's thinking,

"Am I a goddamn Uncle
Tom now, nigga?"

He said to me once

he didn't realize how
much the correlation was

between him using the left hook

and being his dad's left arm.

[Joe] My father, you know, he had
one arm, and I was his left-hand man,

so therefore, I learned
to use my left hand more

than I did my right hand.
-Really?

[Joe] I would go in the woods

and probably pull the saw,
you know anything about that?

The knockdown came from a
signature Joe Frazier move

that nobody in the sport
has ever done better,

and that's a double left hook.

It's the most beautiful timed

work-of-art shot you'll ever see

in the history of boxing,

and Joe didn't get his just due,

because Ali bounced back up.

[Bernstein] In any
other universe,

that knockdown would
be discussed as,

"Well, Joe Frazier
punctuates a big win

with a knockdown
in the 15th round."

No, the narrative is,

"How did he get
up? It's amazing."

We were sitting
three rows ringside.

Boom! His back didn't even stay.

Just, boom, he just
come right back up

and stood up, and
looked at him like that.

I said, "Okay. Okay."

It's part of the
bigger narrative

that somehow

the achievements of
Joe Frazier overall,

and especially as
it relates to Ali,

kind of get overshadowed.

[Joe] If I didn't dust him off,
he might have got the decision.

But he got hurt
in the third round

eleventh round

and every round.

Every round he got
hurt, trust me.

It's just hard to surpass

what Muhammad Ali
represents in 1971...

[bell ringing]
-There it is!

[cheering]

...so even though
Joe won the fight,

he's still cast in Ali's shadow.

The winner by
unanimous decision,

Joe Frazier!

[Hand Jr.] Joe just
collapses in Yank's arms,

and he gives him a fatherly hug.

It's a fatherly hug,
not a trainer's hug.

[♪]

I feel like I did, let's
say, a blessing to the world.

[Slone] And the
action was so good,

I heard two people died of
heart attacks in the arena.

People in Northern Ireland that
were having their troubles,

apparently they stopped fighting

and watched the fight on
the same TV in the bars.

It stopped the world.

One of the things that
people tend to forget

was that Joe won that fight.

That was the greatest
fight of all time,

and Joe Frazier won that fight.

You think he was clownin'?
He couldn't move!

[press laughing]

All them body shots
piling up on him.

One, two, three, it adds up.

He would've died

before he allowed
Muhammad Ali to beat him.

I know what the people
would like to know

Why I went to the hospital.

Joe actually had started
to have physical problems

after the Jimmy Ellis fight.

He had issues with
high blood pressure.

I used to go to the doctor
every day after training

make sure that the
blood pressure is right.

[laughing]

I'd take a handful of
pills, you know what I mean?

Hey, babe, what's happening?

What's happening?

The doc wanted to check
me up. He checked me up

and find out that my
blood's a little high.

I was with him the whole time.

For two, three days,
he was in there.

I was watching his
blood pressure go up

and up and up.

I said if we got
to 300 and some,

he would get a stroke.

Muhammad Ali wins when he loses,

because all the
interviews afterwards,

he's going, "Look at me.
Not a mark on my face.

Joe Frazier's all busted up."

If you look at Frazier's face and
look at mine, there's no comparison.

I'm sure I hit him three
times more than he hit me,

if you watch the film.

Joe got much less enjoyment
from his time as World Champion

than he would have had

if Ali had painted a
different portrait of him.

I feel like I'm
ready to go, man.

I'm trying to get out of
here as fast as I can.

Number one, he's ugly...

[laughter]

[Hauser] It's a shame,

'cause Joe's experience
was far more typical

of the Black
experience in America

than Ali's,

and they should
have been allies,

rather than adversaries.

And who told him he could sing?

He got him a big band,

he started traveling the
world with his new title,

thinking that he's
gonna sell 'em all out.

What is there to worry about?

[laughing]

The fighting money's good,
the singing money's good.

Look, and I can do
both of 'em. You know?

Why should I let it go by?

And I'm having fun
while I'm doing it.

Every time I would
read the paper,

there's a Joe Frazier appearance

in this place in England,

the arena held 10,000,
37 people showed up.

[laughter]

[Bentt] He's going off
on this concert tour,

like, you know?

And that to me is an
indication of, like, you know,

he's not really being
a disciplined soldier

to his craft, man.

[♪]

♪ Girl, try to remember ♪

[crowd cheering]

♪ We've had issues ♪

♪ We stuck together
Just me and you ♪

[Bentt] A fighter's
life is, uh...

is brutal.

He was too courageous to
admit, you know, that, um,

"I'm really not cut out
for this thing right now.

I think I've hit my peak."

Joe Frazier did what he
had to do for the world,

and that was quiet
the butterfly.

After '71, he was the
people's champion,

so he became the partying Joe.

He was with people everywhere,

drinking and having a good time.

He had an eye for
the ladies, always.

He had some of the prettiest
women on the planet.

[Averona Jr.] He loved women.

He would go like this,
"Oof, look at that, Bo.

That's an 18-wheeler
over there."

That's what he would say because
she was built in the back.

[Joe] My dad was a
hard working man.

He drove the farm bus

to pick up the
workers in the fields

where they were all ladies.

So Dad had control
of all the females.

[laughing]

Wich Mom didn't like
that, you know, but

that was my daddy.

[Averona Jr.] So when his
dad was running moonshine,

Joe would be in the car, so he
said, "We'd pull up to this place,"

he goes, "And he had me waiting
in the car for friggin' two hours,

so one day, I got out of the car
and I sneaked up the driveway."

He said, "I look in the window, and
I see him kissing a woman and all,

that son of a gun!
So I'd run back,

and I would hide in
the car and wait."

And Rubin'd be gone for an hour or two,
and then when Joe got of a certain age,

he would, he would go in
and chase the daughter.

He said, "So after a while,

I started kissing
the daughters."

[laughs] It's a true story!

He said, "I started
kissing the daughters."

[♪]

[Arum] Yank Durham was
an old-line boxing guy,

which meant that if you had
the Heavyweight Champion,

you'd take easy fights

and pick up whatever
money's available.

[commentator] Frazier
cutting him to ribbons now!

The title is just,
it's just here.

You know what I
mean? And I have it,

so anybody would like to
try to take it from me,

then these guys gonna
have to challenge me,

and these guys ain't doing
nothin' but making noise.

[Arum] The boxing
organizations said "enough."

Frazier had to fight the
number-one contender,

who was George Foreman.

[blows thudding on bag]

George Foreman, back then?

Hoo! Was a beast.

[reporter] Foreman
is fresh and good.

Frazier, since
his bout with Ali,

has only fought twice,

and both of those
opponents were nobodies.

The old bromide that
styles make fights

is never more evident
than in this match.

[Howard Cosell]
Well, they're trying

to psych each other out.

I expected Joe Frazier
to beat George Foreman.

[Cosell] We may have
an interesting evening.

Frazier, quite
understandably the favorite.

[Bentt] When George comes out
and makes that first swing,

that is saying, "Hey, I'm here."

[Cosell] There is no
fear in George Foreman.

That's a lie. He's
terrified of Joe.

The one guy I'd gotten
into the ring with

that I was really frightened
of was Joe Frazier,

because I'd followed his career.

I'd seen him stand
up to everybody.

You hit him hard, he liked it.

Foreman had this strategy
of pushing Frazier off.

He was physically
strong enough to do it.

When George was
pushing Joe away,

he's upsetting Joe's balance.

So many times in that fight,
and it didn't last long,

you'd see a left hook

4whistle past the head
of Foreman, short.

[Cosell] I think he
hurt Joe Frazier!

I think Joe is hurt!

We're driving in the car, I said,
"Say, champ, tell me what happened

when you fought George Foreman."

He said, "He hit me
and my legs shook."

[man] Frazier's hurt!

[Cosell] Angie
Dundee, Ali's trainer,

right next to me is saying,
and you may hear him...

Down goes Frazier!

Down goes Frazier!
Down goes Frazier!

"Down goes Frazier!"

"So I tried everything
I could," he said.

"The man hit like TNT."

[Cosell] Foreman is
all over Joe Frazier.

Frazier is down again,
and he may be...

oh, he is rising.

Getting hit on
the chin like that

is tantamount to having
your... a computer unplugged.

He was still functional,
but he was like a zombie.

[Cosell] Two knock-downs
in the first round

of Joe Frazier.

Down again!

Oh, saved by the bell!

[Joe] I keep getting up every time he
knocked me down. He got mad one time

"Joe, why don't you stay down?"

[Cosell] Frazier's
knees buckled.

He is... oh, he is down!

He is down for the
fourth time in the fight!

"Why don't you stay down there, man?
I'm tired of knocking you down."

Foreman had the perfect style

to beat a fighter
of Joe's style.

He was too big.

[Cosell] It is over. It is over.

George Foreman

is the Heavyweight
Champion of the World!

They could've fought ten times,

and George probably
would've won all ten.

[Durham] Just one
of those things.

Joe got fogged with a good shot,

and no fighter, I don't think, no man
would have stood up under that shot.

Getting up six times

after being knocked
down six times?

That's courage, man,

and we have to
admire that in Joe,

because he was willing to die.

[Cosell] You going
to seek a rematch?

Yeah, I would like to fight, or,
you know, get a rematch with him.

Styles make fights.

I think styles have
a lot to do with it,

but then, after he had
beaten Muhammad Ali,

there was not much
left of Joe Frazier.

If I had fought him
two years earlier,

it wouldn't have been like that.

I didn't fight the
best Joe Frazier.

Believe me, he wasn't the best.

What we know now

is that, uh, Joe had started
to slack off in training.

Lee Grant was here,
God rest his soul,

he was Joe's driver
and his dear friend,

and he said to me, "Bo, don't
listen to a word he said",

because two weeks before
the George Foreman fight,

he was hanging
out with this one,

and that one, you
know what I mean?

"So he didn't take him serious."

"Oh, yes, I did!"

And they started to get into it a
little bit, like with one another.

He didn't make any excuses,

and he gave George
all the respect.

It wasn't no fight.

The guy just came
and took me out.

He was much too powerful for me.

Yeah, "Down goes Frazier!
Down goes Frazier!"

That was the...
call of the West.

"Down goes Frazier!"

I mean, "Hey, come
on. Relax, man.

That's... that's not cool."

Joe was a sensitive guy.

You know, he had feelings
like everybody else.

[Cosell] Down goes Frazier!

Down goes Frazier!
Down goes Frazier!

[newscaster] Sad news
from the world of sport.

Yank Durham, long-time
trainer and manager

of former World Heavyweight
Champion Joe Frazier, has died.

Durham suffered a
stroke two days ago,

and passed away this morning
at Temple University Hospital.

He was 52 years old.

[Joe] I really don't know
where to go and what to do now.

He said that he was
gonna let me know

when he think it's time
for me to retire, so, uh...

I'm very relieved that, uh,

he will come back
and let me know,

you know, in a dream,

uh, what to do from here.

[Hand Sr.] When
Yank Durham died,

it was real easy

for Eddie Futch
to just slide in.

[Bernstein] There are

a half dozen trainers
in the sport of boxing

that reach legendary status.

Eddie Futch was one
of those people.

[Hand Sr.] If you couldn't
get along with Eddie Futch,

you didn't belong in this world.

He was really,
really a nice guy.

I would say, as of now,
uh, both of us have lost,

and now we going
back to each other

to determine who's the best.

The second Ali-Frazier fight

was certainly less
anticipated than the first.

Neither guy was
champion at the time.

It was 12 rounds, not 15.

Ali-Frazier II

is sort of like The
Godfather: Part III.

It's easily forgettable.

[Cosell] That was almost
three years ago, Muhammad,

and you lost.

White people say I lost.

And that's some white people.

All Black people know I won.

Ali put all sorts of
very ugly labels on him

that Joe was never
able to shake.

[Bernstein] When they
both got in the studio

with Howard Cosell,

and Ali created the
mayhem he created

playing on Joe's raw emotions,

that ignited the fight,

and it ignited the
interest in the fight.

Stand up, man!

-Set down, Joe.
-Why you think I'm ignorant?

-Set down, Joe!
-Huh?

-Set down.
-Why you think I'm ignorant?

-The brothers are here.
-You in this too?

Set down quick, Joe!

It's a great piece
of, uh, television.

[Cosell] There is no
question in my mind

that Joe Frazier
is not clowning.

[Bentt] When you hurt somebody
who looked out for you,

tried to, um, get your
license back for you...

Come on, brother. Really?

I would say to Joe, "Joe,
you, you pay him no mind,

he's just talkin' shit
because that's Ali.

He wants to get your goat."

He says, "I'm gonna get his goat. I'm
gonna get his goat. I'm gonna get his goat.

I'm gonna get his goat."

[bell ringing]

[Cosell] The bell for round one,

the action begins.

[Bentt] The second
Ali-Frazier fight,

there was a ghost standing
right next to Joe,

and that ghost

was the person who
was knocked out

at the hands of Big George.

It's not easy to overcome.

[Cosell] And that
was a good right!

Joe was staggered there.

Ali shook Joe.

Referee Tony Perez
thought he heard the bell.

[Cosell] Referee Tony Perez
separates the fighters,

calls for the end of the round,
but I didn't hear a bell.

Then the fight resumed,

and there was talk afterwards

that Ali would've
knocked Joe out

if Perez hadn't
made that mistake.

No, I mean, let's
do the numbers,

41 rounds of boxing,

and Ali never knocked Joe down.

[Joe] The problem was that we were trying
to find a referee to break up that mugging

around my neck
with his left hand.

The fight is about to end,

and it is over!

Muhammad Ali has won the fight

on a unanimous decision!

I don't think that
was that far off.

You know what I mean?

I would say I fought.

I throw a more
effective punch anyway,

so I, I got no
argument about nothin'.

You ever hear Joe
Frazier crying?

Stand-up guy.

George was the champ,

so Ali-Frazier II

was more for bragging rights

and the right to fight
George Foreman next.

George Foreman was just...

it's hard to convey to people
just how he was demolishing

individuals who got
in the ring with him.

Both Joe Frazier and
Ken Norton beat Ali,

and George Foreman
barely broke a sweat.

When I fought Muhammad
Ali in Africa,

fear had all just disintegrated.

I had no longer any
fear for anything.

This was gonna be the
easiest fight of my life.

When Joe Frazier
fought Muhammad Ali

in Madison Square Garden,

he would've died

before he allowed
Muhammad Ali to beat him.

When I fought Muhammad
Ali in Africa,

I fought a Joe
Frazier reincarnate.

I thought George was gonna
catch him a little earlier.

The guys that fought Muhammad

they let him have his way.

Let him move when he wanted

throw punched when he wanted.

No.

No.

[crowd roaring]

And so while Ali has
regained the mountaintop,

Joe is almost, I
think, forgotten,

but you have their rivalry.

It's mythical.

It's... it's literary.
It's cinematic.

Joe Frazier had kind of

rehabilitated
himself a little bit.

He beat Quarry. He beat Ellis.

That got Frazier back

in a position where they could
sell the third Ali fight.

These two men and their
styles were so compelling...

[crowd cheering]

...that people had in
the back of their mind,

"Wow, this is still something
we should pay attention to."

Without Joe Frazier,

there wouldn't have been no Ali.

Imagine if, after winning
the Rumble in the Jungle,

Ali says, "I'm done."

That's a perfect narrative,

but, you know, life doesn't
really work that way,

so Ali-Frazier one more time.

[Ali] Here's the way he
looks when you hit him.

Come on, gorilla! We in Manila!

[laughter]

Ali's treatment of Joe Frazier,

the demeaning portrayal of Joe,

hurt a lot more people than Joe.

It involved

a lot of unfortunate comments

around his appearance,
his intelligence...

the sort of thing that
racist white people

would say perhaps in private

about a Black person,

Ali's saying in public.

I'm gon' keep this
gorilla with me

every day until the fight.

It reinforced

the stereotypical view
that some people had

of Black people,

slow-moving, shuffling...

[mumbling unintelligibly]

[Don King] This is indeed
a proud moment for me

to welcome the people of the
world to the saga of our lifetime,

Superfight III,

the Thrilla in Manila.

[Arum] The Marcoses,
who ran the Philippines,

knew nothing about boxing.

They wanted Ali
specifically in a big fight,

because they had a big problem

with the Muslims in Mindanao,

and they felt that they
could calm everything down

if they brought over this
great Muslim to fight

in the Philippines.

The fighter that they
wanted him to fight

was Joe Frazier.

Muhammad stayed at the palace

and I stayed at the hotel.

I wasn't into politics, no.

I was into sports

being a champion and
getting the job done.

[Don Dunphy] And
here's Joe Frazier

coming into the ring.

[Hauser] The feeling
was that Joe was shot,

that Ali'll dance around
for eight, nine rounds,

knock Joe out,

and will go on to
the next fight.

[Dunphy] It's 15 rounds,
and here is round one!

[Bernstein] The
Thrilla in Manila

was a fight in three parts.

The first part of the fight,
it looked for all the world

like Ali was exposing Joe

as a fighter who just
had lost his ability

to fight in the upper echelon
of the Heavyweight Division.

Muhammad was handling Joe for
three rounds, four rounds...

[crowd shouting]

...and then, all
of a sudden, boom!

[crowd erupts]

I don't think I've ever
seen a sporting event

turn as dramatically

as that fight turned
in those middle rounds.

Frazier is very strong!

[crowd shouting]

Joe came into that fight
fueled by absolute hatred.

Ali took more punishment

than I think anybody would
ever be able to take.

Joe Frazier landed
hellacious shots,

and somehow Ali withstood them.

All of a sudden, the
fight turned again,

because Joe Frazier
just ran out of gas.

[Dunphy] And Ali
is scoring on him.

He had vision
problems in both eyes,

and Ali, as exhausted as he was,

was able to summon up the energy
to land those straight shots

as Frazier was coming in,

and the Frazier head movement was less
than it had been earlier in the fight.

13th round, Joe can't
see out of his left eye.

Muhammad was trying to
cement, you know, the victory,

throws a right hand...

Joe's mouthpiece goes flying.

[crowd shouting]

Essentially, it's
target practice.

There's a moment in the corner

where Joe drinks the water

and spits the water out,

and the water is completely red.

It's not water
anymore, it's blood.

Eddie Futch had
let the fight go on

after the 13th round

in the hope that
things might change.

They didn't.

[crowd shouting]

[Dunphy] Frazier is hurt.

He was getting hit again
and again and again.

[crowd shouting]

After the 14th round,

Ali and Joe went back
to their corners.

[bell ringing]

Both men had been... brutalized.

Uh, Joe was getting hit

by punches that he
couldn't see coming.

My right eye got closed

the left eye I
couldn't see out of.

[Dunphy] The doctor comes
up and looks at Frazier.

I think it's gonna be over!

In the most difficult
moment to stop a fight,

on the biggest stage
you could possibly have,

Eddie Futch had the
courage of his convictions

to realize Joe was in trouble

and in danger of
being hurt, badly.

[Joe] He said, "Now let's
call it." "I told him, "No."

He said, "No, wait
a minute now."

"Don't do my job."
I said, "All right."

[Dunphy] It's all over!

[cheering]

[Boyd] One can't stand up

and one can't see.

I heard that Muhammad wasn't
going to get up off the stool

but that's not my corner

and I wasn't over
there to see that.

Whew.

Oh, my god.

That's a supremely
human moment, man.

We can see the child in Joe.

We can see the lover in Joe,

the beast in Joe,

and we can see the human
hurt animal in Joe.

[♪]

[Bernstein] Eddie
Futch called the fight

because he just couldn't see
Joe Frazier continuing on.

While it wasn't popular
with Joe Frazier,

and Joe had difficulty with it,

Eddie Futch, he
never felt regret,

because he knew it was
the right decision.

I'm not mad about it

because I can see

I can walk, I can talk,
I can have a good time.

[Prince] That night,
Marvis was in Manila.

Muhammad called Marvis
into his dressing room,

and when Marvis got the
apology from Muhammad,

"Tell your dad he's
a great champion

and a great man,

and I said everything I said

just to promote these
incredible fights,"

Marvis came running back
into his dad's dressing room

to tell him,

and Joe lost it,

and said, "You ain't
Joe Frazier, son.

Why ain't he apologize to me?"

But he is great.

I don't know no
other fighter today

besides myself

who can beat Joe Frazier.

Going beyond the result,

which says "KO-14"
in the record book,

you could almost
look at that fight,

on some very primal level,

as a draw.

I don't think there
were any... winners.

It was the bull and the matador.

It was... everything
anybody could ever want

in a combat.

These guys were
made for each other.

You look at Manila,

and it's an advertisement

for everything that's
best about boxing,

and also for everything
that's worst about boxing.

They both left everything
in that 20-foot ring.

[Boyd] Going forward,

life for Ali, life
for Joe Frazier

will never be the same.

They're beyond their prime.

It's not going to be glamorous

and celebratory

and spectacular.

They end that fight
as two old men.

Joe fought Foreman again.

They didn't even sell
all the tickets there.

[Cosell] Look what he's done!

He's shaved his head!

"Champ, what happened
in the second fight?"

He says, "The second fight,
I trained to kill him."

I said, "Smoke, I'm telling you,

when I watched you fight him,
your midsection was thicker."

"No, Bo, my weight was right."
I said, "Smoke, listen."

[Cosell] Joe Frazier weighed in
at a surprising 224.5 pounds,

eight and a half more pounds
than he's ever carried.

My working is always forward.

I don't know how to back up. That's
the only way I know how to fight.

"Then, when I
stepped in the ring,

I looked at him,
and I backed up."

Joe Frazier never
backs up in a fight.

He said, "On that
particular night,

I was backing up, waiting,

'cause I didn't want to
get hit with them punches."

[Cosell] Frazier
against the ropes.

[crowd cheering]

Foreman was
absolutely devastating

when he fought a smaller guy.

I was blind in this eye here.

I wear two contact lenses now.

I tried to move for a while

[Cosell] Frazier,
trying to fight back.

But then he knocked
the lens out.

I knew what Joe
was going through

when he was fighting
with one eye,

why he stayed so close to him.

I know how Joe Frazier
passes eye tests, too.

He's the one who told
me how to pass it.

[Cosell] One right
hurts Frazier.

Frazier! Frazier's down!

[crowd roaring]

Frazier is down from a right!

He said, "You don't switch
eyes, you switch hands."

I would cover with this hand,

then when you say,
'switch eyes, '

I would switch hands,

"and the doctor would
never say nothin'."

[Cosell] Frazier taking
it from George Foreman!

Foreman kno...

Foreman again with the right!

The second knockdown
in the round.

[chuckling]

The only thing I did wrong was
sign that contract two times.

[laughing]

That was the wrong
thing I did, okay?

[Cosell] Harold Valan
says the fight is over!

Frazier as game as ever,

but now, inevitably,

the boxing career
over for Joe Frazier.

Joe Frazier would
want to be remembered

as a great World Champion,

the people's champion.
He loved people.

His heart

was as big as the
Empire State Building.

I'm pleased with,
with Joe Frazier,

and I'm pleased with the public,

and pleased with the plan,

and, uh, I think,

for the consideration that
you have for me, uh...

I think that it's time for
me to put it on the wall,

and go ahead and just
boogie, boogie, boogie.

[funk music playing]

[engine revving]

[♪]

[instrumental playing]

[Hand Jr.] In 1978,

I would've been a
junior in college,

in a small school in
Northeastern Pennsylvania,

and Joe was singing at a lounge
in Scranton, Pennsylvania,

so, uh, of course, all
my friends were like,

"Are you kidding me?
Yes, we're coming,"

and that commercial
had just come out,

the Miller Lite commercial.

♪ When you order a beer
Do like Smokin' Joe ♪

♪ Order Lite beer from Miller ♪

♪ And say no more ♪

Joe starts singing
a couple songs,

and I guess during a
break, somebody yells out,

"Do the Miller Lite commercial!"

And he goes, "All right."

♪ 'Cause Lite's less filling ♪

♪ Hey, that really
knocks me out! ♪

Before the end of the night, he probably
sang that Miller Lite commercial,

like, 15 times...

[cheering]

...and then sat down with
all my college buddies,

and drank beer with us
the rest of the night,

and we'd go, "Joe, sing
that commercial again."

♪ Lite tastes great ♪

[Hand Jr.] And he'd sing the commercial,
and he made my friends that night, you know,

feel that if they were friends of mine,
they were friends of Joe Frazier's,

and, uh, that's why I loved him.

[funk intro playing]

[Barbara St. Lee]
In the early 1980s,

I got to work with
Smokin' Joe Frazier

as a Knockout singer,

and it was a real thrill.

I'm still riding on a cloud.

I know a lot of
people used to say,

"Oh, Joe can't sing,"

but when you went to the show,

and saw that this man
was really singing,

and he was really
expressing himself

through his lyrics,

you could feel his expression,

that he was taking
you from the gym,

taking you from when
he was growing up,

taking you from now,
performing the song.

He was, like,
telling you a story

of what he did
throughout his life.

You could see

that it's just something
that touched his soul,

and he wanted others
to feel the same way...

touch the soul of
you, and you, and you,

that meant so much to him.

[Prince] White America
always thought Joe Frazier

was this blue-collar working man,
but, man, he was the king of swag.

He was way more swag
than Ali ever was.

[Witherspoon] When he comes
in, the room shines up,

electricity just start
spreading everywhere.

It was always about
the best suits,

and the colors that
popped, and the gold chain,

and the gold ring,

and that hat

that nobody could
sport like Smokin' Joe,

and a big wad of cash,
always down in his sock,

sometimes both his socks,

and he took a lot
of pride in that.

If you are a star,
you shine everywhere.

[Bernstein] There was a
benefit in Atlantic City.

Joe Frazier and the Knockouts

were gonna come on right
after my wife and her sister,

the Rocco Sisters,

and Connie was coming
down some stairs,

and she had one of those combs
that had, like, a tip on the end

that you would tease your hair
with, so it was very sharp,

and her heel caught
on one of the stairs.

She lunged forward,

and stabbed Joe
Frazier in the stomach.

He went down to one knee,

and uttered this
immortal line...

"The bitch stabbed me!"

[laughing]

And so security rushed
in, and, of course,

she was horrified, and
everyone was horrified,

but they had to
run out on stage,

so she ran out on
stage after the...

[laughing] ...after
the incident.

You can't make that up.

[reporter] It's
4:30 in the morning,

and former Heavyweight
Champion Smokin' Joe Frazier

is running through the
frigid streets of Chicago

on what he hopes will
be his comeback trail.

Not bad for an old man, huh?

When fighters well past their
prime continue fighting,

like Ali did with Berbick,

what Joe did with Cummings,

they can say whatever they want,

it's pride, they still have
it, they want to feel young...

there's only one
word why it happened,

and that word is "money."

[reporter] He's coming out of
retirement after five years

to fight Jumbo Cummings,

a relatively unknown 30-year-old

who spent 12 of those
years in prison for murder.

[Bentt] Joe with Jumbo Cummings,

and Muhammad with
Trevor Berbick,

they were fights that should
not have been sanctioned,

but in boxing, that's allowed.

Why is that?

But, you know, I
get it. I get it.

But I, um... I don't get it.

Removed from Manila
by six years,

it just demonstrated

how much that fight took
out of each of them as well.

Happy ending, you knew that
wasn't going to happen.

[announcer] The
decision, a draw!

[crowd booing]

It's hard for an athlete
to leave the game

when they're on top.

I got a chance to go down

as the greatest
athlete, not boxer,

in the history.

I can make so many people wrong.

Obviously, it didn't
work out well.

It-it just was not a good
evening, on every level.

[man] No, no! Oh, no!

Ali, Frazier, in
terms of their career,

their life as professional
boxers is over,

and there's nothing spectacular
or glamorous about it.

Life sometimes is not
kind, but it's always real.

[♪]

[Hand Jr.] Joe
definitely lived his life

on North Broad
Street at that gym,

and, you know, people
could walk in there

every day and say hello.

Joe bought the gym
after the Foreman fight.

It was $87,000.

It looked like some of the movies I'd watch
on TV, street life, it's North Philadelphia,

ghetto.

When I walked in, I just thought,
"This is what greatness is."

I sit down and teach these guys.

I'm not gonna be afraid to go and
tell them what's wrong with it.

'Cause I've been there.

And Joe came, was, "Hey, hey,

you gotta put more weight
on your left leg, Tim."

Putting the weight in
between my knee and my ankle,

putting it down there,
and then turn, bam!

So my left hook, he taught
me how to do that, yeah.

Take the room away
from him, Mark!

Goddamn breathe on him!

On the top of the gym
was a roof, a rooftop,

so he decided that, uh,

he was gonna turn that rooftop
into a bachelor's loft.

[Averona Jr.] When you walked
in Joe Frazier's office,

he had a great big desk.

He would call his back
office "The Dungeon."

He had a little refrigerator.

We had liquor back there.

Then he would lift his, his
couch up, like Godzilla,

and, just picked it up,

and he had all these guns
piled on top of each other.

[Slone] The second story
was just a big warehouse,

and at the back of that was
a dormitory for fighters.

It had no hot water.

The opposite side
of the steel door

was crack addicts.

And we put six beds in
the back of the gym,

a heater, and a kitchen.

And then, it's cold water,
and, you know, it was drafty,

which I was fine with, 'cause it was, it
was really... it made you fight harder.

[fighters grunting]

When Joe comes into the
gym, first thing he does

is walk up them steps, go
to his music, hit play,

come back downstairs,
and, "Let's work."

[Averona Jr.] Joe Frazier
had the Fighting Fraziers,

and he just put everything
he could in his fighters.

They couldn't be him,

but they all wanted
to be like him.

[Joe] What time is it?

[men] It's fightin' time!

What time is it?

It's KO time!

Come on! Let's go! Let's go!

Marvis Frazier had a
good amateur record,

and Marvis Frazier was
a very tough fighter.

[commentator] The referee,

the only man who
can stop the fight.

Round one!

Larry Holmes is a
serious fighter.

[commentator] And here's
Marvis, with the hands down!

Marvis got a little cocky,
and he dropped his hands.

[commentator] That
could be a big mistake!

Marvis Frazier's career
probably got accelerated,

maybe because of
the-the opportunities

for money fights,

partially because of who he was.

[crowd shouting]

When Marvis gets hit,

you could see in Joe's eyes

how he was hurtin' for his son.

Had to be very difficult for Joe Frazier to
experience that, you know, in the corner.

I think they pushed
Marvis a little too fast,

'cause it was easy,
it was fun for Larry.

Larry just was playing,

like, he was playing,

and, to me, that
was embarrassing.

Joe loved Marvis.
They were so close.

[Witherspoon] I would wait,

"My name is Marvis
Frazier. My dad is Joe."

Try to build it up a little bit more,
and maybe they could've got two million,

but they did it, and
this is the result, so...

But that's the name of the game

win.

[♪]

[commentator] Tyson
comes out slugging.

He comes out smoking,
like Marvis's father, Joe.

They said Marvis tried to
fight like Joe Frazier,

"Joe's not a good trainer

'cause he trains
everybody this way,"

and Joe's answer was,

"You better be able to fight like
Joe Frazier if you wanna make it."

[commentator] Uppercut,
and Marvis is hurt.

Yeah, he's hurt. He's down.

I don't think Marvis
ever disappointed Joe,

even in the fights he lost.

You know, Joe was
super proud of him.

When you saw Marvis
Frazier with his father,

there was such
respect and admiration

and love from
Marvis towards Joe.

It was something
very, very special.

So what I know about Marvis,
when he had his two big fights,

Larry and Mike Tyson,

Joe, the way he told me was,

it was to kinda help
the Fraziers out

and get a little
love, M-O-N-E-Y,

in his pocket.

He was just in the
process of a divorce.

He was in the
process of moving out

of the mansion that he had,

you know, the house that he
had with his wife, Florence.

[Averona Jr.] Joe
loved his family.

You know, you're with
somebody for so long,

you kinda fall out
of love. You know?

Joe had 11 kids, and...
six different mothers.

Joe and Marvis and those
guys were like this.

Marvis is a God-fearing,
righteous man,

almost the polar opposite to Joe

when it comes to the
party atmosphere.

He'd just say, "Aw, Pop."

He'd say, "Pop. Not again, Pop."

[Watson] Joe took
care of his family.

He made sure, financially,

that he lived up
to his obligations

as a father, as a man.

Once a month,

we would sit in the office
and make up envelopes,

and I've never said
this before to anyone.

I would personally
hand-deliver the envelopes

to... different mothers,

because Joe wanted to
take care of his children.

You know, any time he
made a bunch of money,

he would always make sure the kids
are good and his grandkids were good.

If you have 11 kids, that
costs a lot of money,

and that's gonna drain you,

no matter how much money
you're able to make.

Life is conflicting.
Boxing's conflicting.

Having your father as your
trainer is conflicting.

-Very good!
-Hit! Hit!

Don't worry 'bout it.

Joe had five of his
relatives in the gym,

different weight classes.

The one that he felt
had the most talent

was Hector.

G-Man 'bout to come alive.

Joe called him "G-Man,"

and he fought under Joe
Frazier Jr. professionally.

[commentator] 21-year old
Smokin' Joe Frazier Jr.

[Slone] No fear at all. He'd grown
up on the streets of New York.

Hector was the real deal.

[commentator] And
a big left hook!

And a straight right
and another left hook!

Lopez is on the bottom
strand of the ropes,

and he goes down!

He was messin' with the wrong people,
and he got involved with substance abuse,

and his life went
down the wrong road,

and Joe did not approve at all.

He, uh...

he would tell him, you know,
"I worked my whole life

to make this Frazier
name something special,

and you're fucking it up."

I might go to bed
saying to myself,

"What if you do lose?" You know?

When he got arrested,
that hurt Joe,

so he ended up going to
jail for a long time.

That's a setback for you.

You don't want no setback.

[Slone] Joe, I think,

was way more sensitive
than people realize,

and it hurt Joe so... so bad.

Joe used to always say, when
he was hurt, he was like,

"I just swallowed
a razor blade."

[Watson] Hector would call
when he got busted, he said,

"I'm fighting three and
four times a day, man."

He said, "They're
challenging me.

They're challenging me
because I'm Joe Frazier Jr.

I'm tired."

And he wanted to
talk to his dad.

[Slone] Joe wouldn't talk
to him for a long time.

He didn't take the phone calls, and that's
because he was swallowing razor blades.

In the beginning, he would
visit him, and then he stopped.

[Watson] It really
took a toll on Joe,

and it... it broke
him, uh, as a father.

[Slone] Hector was
his own man, I guess,

and he made decisions,

and, "Oh, I had a disease,"

or whatever it was

that they're calling
for that kind of life.

His downfall

was something that
was the toughest thing

that I saw him go through

during my time with him.

[Slone] And their relationship

never got to where
it should've been

between a father and a son.

[Prince] Muhammad
Ali apologized to Joe

in The New York Times,

and said, "If God called
me into a holy war,

I'd want Joe Frazier
there right beside me."

[laughing]

[director] That's what
he said about you.

Yeah, well, he knows I
wasn't going to back down.

Yeah, that's for sure.

I got so excited,
I called up Joe.

"Champ, I think it's time.
Let's make this happen."

He goes, "You know what, Prince?

You tell that son of a bitch,

why's he gotta speak
to the damn reporter?

Why can't he do
that to my face?"

I was like, "Oh, my God."

There were times when
they'd get together,

and Joe would be civil,

but for the most part,

the hatred was there,
and it remained.

I put an agent spin on it,

just said, "It's not
a sincere apology.

He'd like it to be to his face."

And then Ali, of
course, came back with,

"When you see Joe Frazier,
tell him he's still a gorilla."

I'm gon' keep this
gorilla with me every day

until the fight.

[Slone] His way of saying
who won the fights,

he would compare his
physical abilities

to Muhammad.

[Averona Jr.] Joe Frazier would turn
around and go, "Yo, Bo. Look at him.

He's telling people
he's got Parkinson's.

He don't have Parkinson's.
He's got left-hook-it is."

[♪]

[Prince] I got a call
from Howard Bingham,

"Hey, I'm with Lonnie,
and we want to know

if you and Joe and Marvis will
come to Muhammad's suite tonight

and have dinner with us,"

so I got to catch up with Joe,

and I'm nervous as hell,
man, my palms are sweating.

He looks at me, goes, "All right,
boss man, let's do it. What time?"

As simple as could be,

I have chills right now
from saying it, and...

I'm not gonna start fighting.

I'll just go over and say
"Hello, man." You know.

Seven years of non-stop trying

and pushing and near-misses...

so we meet and head
over to Ali's hotel,

and Joe leans down at one point

to kind of fix his sock...

he's got a holster
with a gun in it.

Like, "What the
heck is going on?"

We get in the hallway.

We're literally three doors
down from Ali's suite,

and Marvis starts laughing,
like a little kid.

He goes, "You really thought

he was gonna come
here and shoot Ali?"

And we knock on the
door, and what a moment!

Joe just kind of
trots over to him.

Muhammad smiling.

Joe puts his hand on Ali's leg,

Ali puts his hand
on Joe's hands.

Joe goes, "Come on, man.
Let me help you up."

And Muhammad's shoulder is
just lying on Joe's shoulder,

with both of them had
tears in their eyes,

and Lonnie looks at me,
and said, "Hey, Joe."

She looks over and
says, "Thank you,

because Muhammad
just found peace."

[Joe] He's handicapped, I'll
help him cross the street.

I'll stop the trucks.

I want the guy to
enjoy life like me.

Enjoy some of the
things that he missed.

Joe had a period in
his life where I think

maybe he was drinking
a little too much,

and there was a little
surliness to him.

That wasn't really
the real Joe Frazier.

[Joe] I've learned to
put a cover over my mouth

by saying things
that I shouldn't say.

A few of them slip out.

The real Joe Frazier

was the Joe Frazier

that took care of everybody
in his neighborhood

and took care of the
people around him.

There's not too many
celebrities out here

that can be down to earth
like Joe Frazier was.

He cared.

If he saw you stranded and
your car was pulled over,

he got out of his car
and got up under the car

to see if he could find
out what was wrong.

And I remember I was 16 years old
when he took me under his wing.

It's just in his DNA to help. You knew
you had somebody covering your back,

and I don't know any other people
really like that, to that degree.

I mean, what he did for me is unbelievable.
When Nelson Mandela got out of prison,

the two people he wanted to meet

was Joe Frazier
and Muhammad Ali,

so I'm sitting in
a room with Joe,

he's thinking, uh, "I
gotta give him something,"

and on the top of the
dresser was his WBC belt.

You know, to have a
championship belt,

that's everything to a boxer,

and Joe gave him
what was left of him,

but Nelson Mandela was trippin'
that he got to meet Joe Frazier.

Every time you go into the ring,

you lose a piece of yourself

you can never get back.

The question is, how much?

[Averona Jr.] I was
worried about Joe

as he started to get older.

His speech was a little slurred,
and his balance was off.

[Slone] There's
no way, you know,

he didn't have some
damage from boxing.

At the end of the day,

the human body wasn't meant
to be beaten like that.

They all pay a price, you know.

Joe is no exception to the rule.

And I don't think
he was fully intact,

but I guess it was worth
the price of admission, man.

He's a legend.

I'm here talking to you.

My mind's all together

my eyes all together

my brain's all together.

The fight game,
nothing but the best.

I couldn't get him for,
like, three, four days,

so I'm starting to get worried,

and I knew he
wasn't feeling good,

but I didn't know
how serious it was,

so I ended up getting
Denise on the phone,

and she was taking care of him.

She goes, "He's really
sick. He's got cancer."

Lonnie called me
on November 5th,

I was at Joe's highrise, and
he was already in hospice,

and Lonnie said, "We
just saw the news.

This is as bad as I've seen
Muhammad since his mother passed."

The covers were all the
way pulled up on him.

I take my phone out,

and I got a picture
of a woman on there,

so I clicked on it,

and I put it to him,

and I notice that eye
focusing in on it,

and like this, again,

"Oof," he goes, "Bo,
that's an 18-wheeler.

Put that away."
So I put it away.

He said, "When you
take your last breath,"

[deep breath]

"...Lord, forgive me,"

He said, "You'll get
right in Heaven."

That's what he told me.

That was it.

We held, I held his hand...

and then I left,

and then, like, two
days later, he was gone.

[♪]

I was a pallbearer that day,

along with Sonny Averona

and Willie "The Worm" Munroe,

Michael Spinks,

and some of the Frazier
family, Mark Frazier,

and I don't know who
was, who was in charge

of being the pallbearers stuff,

but my hand was the last
hand that pushed it in,

you know, "I got your back, man,
'cause I know you'd have my back."

Muhammad Ali, he wasn't
in great shape himself,

but he stood basically
the whole time,

and clapped the whole time,

with an action and a speed

that I hadn't seen
Muhammad use in long time.

They had a special bond,
and you could see it then.

I wish Joe could've seen
it. Well, maybe he did.

[♪]

Joe Frazier's one of the
greatest fighters of all time.

There's only a few guys you
can even put in that category.

He'd go down, he'd get back up.

Joe Frazier had nothin'
but fight in him.

[Tyrone Frazier] To this day,

it's still, like, man,
this great man passed away.

I'm not putting the words right,

but he just seemed
like a superman to me.

[♪]

The Heavyweight
Champion of the World...

Joe Frazier!

[crowd roaring]

[bell ringing]

[♪]

[commentator] Round one!

[funky song playing]

A superstar, Olympic
gold medalist...

winning a Heavyweight
Championship back then,

he's an icon. Absolute icon.

[cheering]

There were no frills
about Joe Frazier.

He didn't try to
hide who he was.

"I'm Joe Frazier,
and I'm gonna be me."

[laughter]

One of the most unfortunate
things in sports history

is that Joe Frazier
ended up having to live

under the shadow
of Muhammad Ali,

because the Joe Frazier
story on its own

is so extraordinary

that it serves as a beacon

to people who face long odds.

[Cosell] The crowd
is chanting, "Ali!"

And Joe says, "Come
on out and fight."

[Averona Jr.] I loved Joe.

He knew how to get
into your soul.

He taught me how
to appreciate life.

We had dinner with
Denzel Washington.

I saw Lionel Richie
chasing after him.

Pacino, you know, De Niro,

Stallone.

Spielberg came over to us with tears in his
eyes asking if he could get some time with him.

That always made my heart full,

because the funny thing was, Joe really
didn't know who any of these people were.

It's hard to explain what
Joe Frazier's done for me.

He's made me better father,
made me a better citizen,

made me a better person.

I owe a lot to him, and
I'll never forget it.

Thank you very
much, Joe Frazier.

Thank you!

What I do, and who I
know, and where I've been,

is all thanks to Joe Frazier.

For me, what better
life could you have?

For him to give me the
chance that he did,

the people that I met
working with Joe Frazier,

the places that I got to see,

the person that I got to
know, who is Joe Frazier,

to be sitting here
because of Joe Frazier...

unbelievable.

I love Joe Frazier
because of what he did.

From a fighter to a fighter,
he will always have my respect.

Joe Frazier was a
cornerstone of boxing.

[Joe] The fight game
has been good to me.

I've met a lot of people

I've been a lot of places

I've done a lot of things, and

where would I be if
I wasn't a champion?

Fightin' is...

[Cosell] I don't know anyone

who gets the sheer joy of combat

the way Joe Frazier does!

Fightin' is my love.

[song ending with a flourish]

[♪]