George Foreman vs Joe Frazier - 8 Falls in 7 Rounds

[Music] looking back it's hard to believe that joe frazier was at one time the favorite with the odds set at three and a half to one the magic of frasier's victory over muhammad ali clouded the judgment of even the most intelligent boxing analysts among american experts only 4 out of 31 predicted that george foreman would win nothing could convince boxing fans of the inevitable defeat of smokey joe not the toughest fights a knockout at the hands of oscar bonavena and the dimensions of his legendary challenger or even the regulated eight ounce gloves rarely used in the 70s those gloves were much stiffer and harder and their use was generally prevented in order to protect fighters from serious injuries this fight against george was joe's fifth defense the wbc and wba belts frazier in ali's absence had captured his titles the decisive moment was the duel with the technical and bold but too small heavyweight jimmy ellis joe won and a year later he defeated cassius clay himself who had changed his name and become muhammad ali during a downtime the duel against huge foreman was to become kind of a preparation match for joe for an eventual rematch with ali the event was organized in kingston the capital of jamaica why jamaica for one simple reason tax evasion the farther into the forest the more firewood the u.s government leveraged heavy fees for events in its territory this old version of offshore combat had another good reason the fight was the first ever shown on hbo if this happened in the united states the cost of organizing would increase significantly in addition such a large-scale event pleased the jamaican public there were 36 000 spectators of whom half were local people and all of this despite expensive tickets it is not every day that there is a battle for the title of the strongest boxer in the world so the spectators felt they could fork out the cash the government of jamaica financed the accommodations for the teams of both fighters the organizers made shrewd calculations the super fight would fully recoup all expenses and serve as a starting point for showing boxing fights on the now famous hbo everything went according to plan it was only the result of the duel that was shocking one of the organizers of the mega fight was a young daring but not well-known former criminal don king the enterprising man fussed a lot spoke loudly and tried in every possible way to attract attention to himself before the fight he was in frazier's team and he himself claimed it was thanks to his help that joe received a good check of eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars well george's fee was only three hundred and seventy thousand foreman was a real knockout machine he was noticed in 1968 big george lit up as a sparring partner for sunny liston he fought only 26 times in the amateur ring before gaining victory at the olympics in mexico city then he transitioned to professional boxing working with coach dick sadler and he had several spectacular knockouts however his victories over chuck wepner and george javalo did not convince boxing experts that george was ready for a title fight the lack of a long amateur career influenced foreman's specifications he acted with excessively sweeping blows and was rude neglecting his defense on paper everything looked beautiful two black undefeated americans on a distant island in the caribbean would determine the best boxer on that fateful day in kingston january 22nd 1973 but in practice joe's victory over ali clouded the minds of boxing fans too much and many of them did not give george a chance which he did not forgive them any second now and we may have an interesting alien phrase it quite understandably the favorite foreman comes out punching with the right frazier in his usual style smoking is the way he puts it his job to get inside everything happened very quickly even before the battle frazier looked a little bewildered against the backdrop of such a huge challenger in the first round the champion went ahead and tried to overwhelm foreman with his famous attacks at the jump george calmly held the opponent back checked the distance with a jab and threw out his terrifying right uppercut knocked down you may hear him down goes frasier down goes frasier down goes frasier woman is as poised as can be in a neutral corner he is as poised as can be we have a minute left in this purse frazier made the same mistake which almost cost him a defeat in the battle with bonavena he went on the attack instead of using a clinch knitting his opponent's hands and trying to recover george gladly accepted the fight his right uppercut nearly tore joe's head off 20 seconds before the end of round one it was a second knockdown again and he may be he doesn't know where he is now the round is about and was quickly followed by another a few seconds before the end of the first round it was good for frazier that the rule of three knockdowns was cancelled a few months before these events however that only delayed his defeat for the second knockdown the right again as a whistle again we're waiting for the start now a brown wants to come back in a hurry you'll not find a game of man than joe frazier joe frazier went down three times in the first round a caution from arthur mercanti oh he is all over frasier again he has graced him in the corner he increases these buckles he is about tears down he is down for the fellow named the owner chapulin in october of 1968 in the mexico city arena a quick left from jordan another frasier is down for the fifth time in that fight just a second check the center check craziest thing at the beginning of the second round angelo dundee who was the coach for muhammad ali and joe's mentor yancey durham appeared ringside and begged for the match to be stopped referee arthur mercante senior stopped the beating and asked dundee to in the second leave george foreman it's the heavyweight meanwhile don king analyzing the situation in a ring secretly began to move to george's corner after the fight don left the former champion in a swoon and went to reserve a restaurant to celebrate foreman's victory king acted quickly as a speculator on the stock exchange don felt where the real benefit lies after two days he was already engaged in negotiations for the first defense of the titles of big george it was nothing personal just business king always thought and lived as a businessman he can be loved or hated but his enormous contribution to the developments of boxing cannot be denied a young journalist made a name for himself by saying in the media that he had heard how after joe's fifth knockdown foreman shouted to yancey durham stop the fight or i will kill him but george denied everything this did not stop the journalists however using slow motion they found a short dialogue between yancey and foreman this moment once again shows how the reporters make names for themselves by reporting hype the journalist was in the right time at the right place he caught the hype and received some fame though the quality of his reporting could certainly be discussed for a whole week the young journalist was played in sports news no less than a new champion the guy got what he wanted and then what happened the greatest muhammad ali returned to begin with he defeated frazier and then overthrew big george forcing george to think about his life outside the ring for a long year and a half foreman returned and had a crazy fight against ron lyle shortly before this joe had lost the ali trilogy in the famous thrilla in manila don't feed american spectators with bread just let me see some box office revenge the world boxing council wbc together with the world boxing association wba refused to authorize the second fight of george and joe as a qualifier for muhammad's titles foreman owned the vacant nabf belt which he had won the hardest battle against lyle in the 21st century the nabf title has lost its liquidity but in the 70s the fighter owning this title was in fact a mandatory contender for the main belts the wbc and wba george longed for revenge against muhammad frazier did not want anything he said in the media that no matter the outcome his rematch with foreman would be the end of his career but this fact would not prevent him from being 100 ready to take revenge on foreman for his six knockouts in the first fight the long-awaited revenge took place in new york on june 5th 1976 inside the famous nassau veterans coliseum made in the likeness of the ancient coliseum joe and george posed for photojournalists in the armor of ancient warriors it was an analogy of the battle at the coliseum promotion for the event was a success but the rematch could not be compared with the excitement that was present in their first battle even the promotions for the battle of the gladiators did not help sell all the tickets the reason for this boiled down to the fact that the american public knew there was another gladiator who had defeated both of these fighters both men received 1 million each what else had changed since their first meeting first of all joe had shaved his head the day before the fight the odds of the fighters to win had also changed they were regarded as equal despite the total defeat in the first battle boxing experts were again too skeptical of big george their opinion was influenced by foreman's lengthy downtime and his three knockouts in the fight with ron lyle only the results remained the same joe had made some changes he did not immediately throw himself at his huge enemy frazier worked competently and even carried out several good attacks but george's left hook quickly gained him the upper hand [Applause] [Music] [Applause] round two [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in the second round frazier got in a great left side foreman's legs trembled for a moment fans of smoking joe began to hope for ultimate success however this did not last long in round three george hit so hard with his left that he broke his opponent's orbital bone joe fought to the end but his defeat was inevitable frazier began to miss powerful strikes he looked like an old bull who sees a red cloth but does not want to run to it again he hurt joe frazier [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good right by four [Applause] in round five joe made a fatal mistake he backed away from his opponent in a straight line george did not forgive that mistake he hooked this opportunity and set about developing success joe nearly flew over the ropes from another left hook knocked down [Applause] frazier rose but again flew away into the corner of his ring his trainer eddie fuchs threw out the towel it was over [Applause] eight falls in an incomplete seven rounds the result of the legendary duology of the two heavyweights who were destined to fight in the era of the greatest muhammad ali frazier as promised before the fight ended his career he returned to the ring five years later and drew a duel against felon boxer floyd cummings after that smokey's foot never stepped into the ring again foreman won several victories and unexpectedly lost to the technical jimmy young george also retired he could not achieve revenge against ali but he managed to do something else he returned 10 years later went from obesity to the status of contender for the world crown and became the world champion 20 years after his first victory over joe frazier george went down in boxing history as the world's oldest heavyweight [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] champion [Applause] thank you for watching this video if you liked it please press the like button subscribe to the channel and stay tuned for new episodes about the great legends of the past

Channel: The World of Boxing!

Views: 1,299,638

Rating: 4.7846155 out of 5

Keywords: Boxing, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, George Foreman vs Joe Frazier

Id: 9DNJEnNbOxo

Length: 15min 7sec (907 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 15 2020