Spring Break
Frazier should be idolized in Philadelphia, not Rocky
Joby Martin
Issue date: 7/23/04 Section: Sports
One man, a boxing legend, has come to symbolize the grimy work ethic of our city. His relentlessness, his heart and the gutsy nature in which he clawed his way to the top have become a symbol for this blue collar town.
He is immortalized by a magnificent statue outside of one of the city's most prominent sporting arenas
That man is not Joe Frazier. His name is Rocky Balboa, and he's fake. He's a character, completely fictional, yet he is idolized even after all these years by hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians.
Am I the only one who sees a problem with that?
Don't get me wrong, I love the Rocky movies just as much as the next Philly guy, but wake up and smell the coffee, people. Rocky Balboa never existed, never threw a punch and certainly never won a title.
"Smokin' Joe", trained on the streets of North Philly and beat Muhammad Ali, the greatest fighter of all time.
Frazier won a gold medal. He was a two-time heavyweight champion who successfully defended that title six times. The only men to ever knock down Joe Frazier were Ali and George Foreman. Foreman once said of Frazier, "Joe Frazier would come out smoking. If you hit him, he liked it.
"If you knocked him down, you only made him mad."
And yet a character portrayed by Sylvester Stallone has made him a forgotten man in his hometown.
Frazier's Gym, once a boxing mecca, now stands abandoned, the broken shell of a place that had come to represent Philadelphia's storied boxing history. The building now blends in with the rest of the dilapidated and deserted buildings that line North Broad.
Frazier's legacy is in many ways also abandoned, overshadowed by the media-assisted greatness of Muhammad Ali, slowly suffocating underneath America's waning interest in boxing.
Frazier was undoubtedly one of the five greatest heavyweight fighters of all time. I personally consider him to be the most underrated fighter of all time, overlooked in the greatest era in boxing. The only time he fought Ali in his prime, he landed perhaps the greatest left hook of all time and took Ali's belt. After Ali took the second fight in a 12th-round decision, the stage was set for the "Thrilla in Manila", a fight that most consider to be the greatest of all time.
He is immortalized by a magnificent statue outside of one of the city's most prominent sporting arenas
That man is not Joe Frazier. His name is Rocky Balboa, and he's fake. He's a character, completely fictional, yet he is idolized even after all these years by hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians.
Am I the only one who sees a problem with that?
Don't get me wrong, I love the Rocky movies just as much as the next Philly guy, but wake up and smell the coffee, people. Rocky Balboa never existed, never threw a punch and certainly never won a title.
"Smokin' Joe", trained on the streets of North Philly and beat Muhammad Ali, the greatest fighter of all time.
Frazier won a gold medal. He was a two-time heavyweight champion who successfully defended that title six times. The only men to ever knock down Joe Frazier were Ali and George Foreman. Foreman once said of Frazier, "Joe Frazier would come out smoking. If you hit him, he liked it.
"If you knocked him down, you only made him mad."
And yet a character portrayed by Sylvester Stallone has made him a forgotten man in his hometown.
Frazier's Gym, once a boxing mecca, now stands abandoned, the broken shell of a place that had come to represent Philadelphia's storied boxing history. The building now blends in with the rest of the dilapidated and deserted buildings that line North Broad.
Frazier's legacy is in many ways also abandoned, overshadowed by the media-assisted greatness of Muhammad Ali, slowly suffocating underneath America's waning interest in boxing.
Frazier was undoubtedly one of the five greatest heavyweight fighters of all time. I personally consider him to be the most underrated fighter of all time, overlooked in the greatest era in boxing. The only time he fought Ali in his prime, he landed perhaps the greatest left hook of all time and took Ali's belt. After Ali took the second fight in a 12th-round decision, the stage was set for the "Thrilla in Manila", a fight that most consider to be the greatest of all time.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
juan
posted 5/14/07 @ 7:23 AM EST
i agree with you, but muhammad ali never knocked frazier down, oscar bonvena and george foreman did
Greg
posted 3/09/08 @ 11:47 AM EST
Mr. Martin, I am a stone sculptor and am currently trying to organize funding for just such a statue.
p m
posted 7/08/08 @ 10:39 AM EST
I am working on creating a 30foot cut out of Joe Frazier to sit behind the Rocky statue. I am a graduate student at Uarts and believe Smokin-Joe needs to be vindicated. (Continued…)
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