Smokin’ Joe Frazier is the featured boxer in this edition of the Top 5 Notable Wins series, and with Frazier, picking 5 is a really tricky business – much trickier than with the previous installments involving fellow heavyweight champions and Hall of Famers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
Frazier first claimed a portion of the heavyweight title when he defeated Buster Mathis for the vacant NYSAC title in March 1968. Frazier would ultimately win a unification bout against WBA champion Jimmy Ellis in February 1970, where he also picked up the vacant WBA title. This gave Frazier all of the major titles of his day, but one obstacle still loomed – Muhammad Ali, who had been in exile after having his license revoked. Ali had never lost inside the squared circle, and still had a valid claim as heavyweight champion, and this ultimately paved the way to the epic first meeting between Ali and Frazier, known to this day as the Fight of the Century.
This edition of Rummy’s Corner will provide a brief chronological recap of Smokin’ Joe Frazier’s five most notable victories during his long and illustrious career. This is the third video edition of a new ongoing series that will evaluate the top five notable victories of some of the most famous and successful pugilists who ever laced up the gloves and stepped inside the squared circle. There are no shortage of great champions in boxing history, and the early focus of this new series will primarily focus on heavyweight greats of the past. But we will also ultimately be exploring a slew of other champions from various different weight classes.
Determining the Top 5 most notable wins in a boxer’s career something that is not always something where everyone will agree, since individual taste and personal preference factor in heavily. And these five wins alone certainly do not define the entirety of Joe Frazier’s career or greatness – but these victories do largely help define Frazier’s greatness by highlighting some of his career’s signature moments.To get one man’s opinion on the 5 most notable victories in the career of the great Joe Frazier, please watch and enjoy the video. And if you missed the previous editions that focused on Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, please check those out as well, and please stay tuned for future editions of the “Top 5 Notable Wins” series.
