Following his easy win over Terry Daniels in January of 1972, Joe Frazier seemed to more interested in his singing career than being a boxer. He and his group ‘The Knockouts’ performed in different locales, and to decent reviews. He had no intention of giving Ali a rematch, and was frank about it. While Muhammad was on the ‘comeback’ trail, Joe fought only once more in 1972, against Ron Stander on May 25 in Omaha, Nebraska. Frazier’s lack of preparation was obvious when he weighed in at 217 1/2 lbs., but easily knocked out Stander in four rounds.
In November of 1972, Joe agreed to fight 1968 Olympic heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kingston, Jamaica on January 22, 1973. Foreman was the number one-ranked contender by both the WBA and WBC, and the next in line for a title shot.
At just 12 years old, I was hardly a boxing fan. The thing I remember most about the fight was waking up the next morning, and hearing a local Philadelphia sports reporter named Charley Swift, announce on the radio that my mother had on top of the refrigerator in our kitchen, that Joe Frazier had been knocked out. He said that George Foreman, who I knew nothing about, had stopped the local Philadelphia favorite in just two rounds.
I honestly don’t remember the first time I saw the actual fight on tv, but it’s hard to avoid the brutality of it. Foreman knocked Frazier down SIX times in two vicious rounds, with the referee finally calling a halt to the massacre at 1:35 of round 2. The fight is famous for Howard Cosell’s ringside call of “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!” , in one of heavyweight boxing’s most savage defeats of a reigning heavyweight champion.
Joe would come back six months later when he traveled to England to face Joe Bugner on July 2, 1973. Frazier put him on the canvas in the second round, and won a twelve round decision. With Foreman now the champ, Joe now changed his focus on a rematch with his nemesis Ali, and in January of 1974, they finally did meet again in the ring.
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