Former Heavyweight Boxing Champ Joe Frazier Dies

(CNN) -- Joe Frazier, the hard-hitting boxing heavyweight who handed the legendary Muhammad Ali his first defeat, died Monday, shortly after being diagnosed with liver cancer, his family said in a statement.

The former heavyweight champion, who was 67, became a legend in his own right and personified the gritty working-class style of his hard-knuckled hometown, Philadelphia -- a fitting setting for the "Rocky" film series, starring Sylvester Stallone as hardscrabble boxer Rocky Balboa.

"You could hear him coming, snorting and grunting and puffing, like a steam engine climbing a steep grade," Bill Lyon wrote in a Philadelphia Inquirer column about Frazier, nicknamed Smokin' Joe.

"He was swarming and unrelenting, and he prided himself that he never took a backward step, and he reduced the Sweet Science to this brutal bit of elemental math: 'I'll let you hit me five times if you'll let me hit you just once.'"

"We The Family of ... Smokin' Joe Frazier, regret to inform you of his passing," the statement said. "He transitioned from this life as 'One of God's Men,' on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

"I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration. My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones," Ali's statement said.

"My condolences go out to the family of the late great Joe Frazier," read a post on Mayweather's official Twitter feed. "#TheMoneyTeam will pay for his funeral services."

“Both could have sued, especially the journeyman Wepner, because Rocky was almost a ripoff of his life as a fighter. The rags to riches story and finally getting a shot at the title. Ali fought Wepner for the title.”

I’m no legal expert, but I doubt there would be much of a case. All are public figures, though Wepner marginally. Their lives are open season, to a point. It was enough to earn an “inspired by” credit, certainly. As with all inspiration, if you change it enough and mix different ones around thoroughly, it becomes difficult to seperate claims. It becomes your own.

You also oversell its debt Wepner’s life. Firstly, the movie fight was an exhibition, not for the title. Secondly, Rocky was a washout bone-cracker for the mafia. Did you see his last fight before national exposure? It was in a makeshift church gym, for which he won a few bucks. Wepner was a real professional who had fought Foreman and Liston prior to Ali. Also, Rocky went the distance (which was extremely important plotwise), whereas Wepner was TKOed.

There’s also the fact that “Rocky III” takes off from Wepner’s match against Andre the Giant. That’s quite obvious, as is the basic premise of the original.

“Even if he received no money, wouldn’t you think that at the end of the credit it would have said ‘Thanks to Chuck Wepner, for inspiring me to write the story of Rocky’. Stallone didn’t want to give him a cent, so he didn’t mention him.”

I can’t deduce Stallone’s reasons. Maybe that is why he did it, and maybe Wepner could have won a suit. Either way, I don’t think he’s entitled to anything. What he inspired was so basic, and in my opinion no one loved the movie back then or keeps it a classic to this days because the basic idea is so great. A million bad movies could be made with a starting point of “flashy black champ gives hulking white longshot a chance.”

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