Foreman vs Frazier for The Heavyweight Tile in 1973 (Video)

The Reason For My Faith ^ | 2/26/21 | Chuck Ness

[OneVike]

It was a short fight that lasted only 7 minutes, but it was a classic, because it shocked the world. Frazier was supposed to win. Instead the boxing World finally had to admit that Foreman's punches were devastating.

George Foreman, and Joe Frazier are two world class boxers who's careers extended through the end of the golden age of boxing. They both gave credit to our Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation when they were at the height of their careers, and never wavered from their faith.

So, it's only fitting I share this classic boxing match on my blog for you. Two of God's gladiators going at it in the ring. Anyone remember this January 22, 1973 heavyweight title match between then Champion Joe Frazier and the challenger George Foreman?

I was 16 at the time, and it wasn't covered on the radio, because by that time there was too much money to be made off of the new pay per view thing they called HBO. I remember older boxing fans I knew being angry, because before HBO you could catch the great fights on radio. To them, HBO killed what was great about boxing.

Mind you, this was the early "70"s so the vast majority of Americans still used rabbit ears to get a good picture. Cable was still in it's early stages, and unless you lived in or at least near a bigger city you were out of luck.  I grew up In Duluth MN, but not only those in the downtown area had access. So all of a sudden, we had to wait for the paper to to give us all the information on a big fight. It would eventually be televised on The Wide World of Sports.

Well, the fight lasted only two rounds, with George Foreman scoring a technical knockout at 1:35 of the second round. In a huge upset, he become the new Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World. These two men, and a few other boxing greats, of the time, were heroes to me. Two of the greatest, and unlike so many today, or like Ali of their time, these two men were humble and gracious to everyone. I stumbled upon this video looking for something else on an old HD I use for storage. So I decided to share it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

George Foreman and Joe Frazier fought twice, the one George took the belt from Joe in the 1973 fight, and a rematch in 1976 that Frazier lost to George by another TKO. They were opponents twice, but never rivals. They had the utmost respect for each other, and their friendship lasted to the day Frazier died.

Their bond was so close that when Frazier died, Foremen could not bring himself to see his friend buried. George's explanation for not attending the service was, in his words, “I loved this one,” referring to his two-time opponent.

George Foreman is the last surviving boxer from that great era. His respect for Frazier was unrivaled in how he looked at other boxing greats.  He stated that Frazier was the only opponent he was ever afraid of, and his praise continued by calling Frazier “a machine, a giant killer.”

[OneVike]

Yes, not just because of his accomplishments and devastating power, but also because of his longevity I put him in the top five of all time.

Always a gentleman and a true blessing to see him fight

[discostu]

Tyson is the only one on that list to deserve to be in the same sentence as Ali, Frasier and Foreman. The rest, including Lewis frankly, are also rans in boxing history.

[Vlad0]

Here are the top Top 10 (12, 20) lists that Google offers up.

GiveMeSport.com:

1: Muhammad Ali
2: Rocky Marciano
3: Joe Louis
4: Jack Dempsey
5: George Foreman
6: Mike Tyson
7: Joe Frazier
8: Larry Holmes
9: Lennox Lewis
10: Gene Tunney

TheFightCity.com - Top 12 Heavyweights of All Time.

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Jack Johnson
4. Harry Wills
5. Rocky Marciano
6. Joe Frazier
7. Larry Holmes
8. Jack Dempsey
9. George Foreman
10. James J.Jeffries
11. Lenox Lewis
12. Sonny Liston

(Evander and Tyson are both given honorable mentions)

Ranker.com

1. Mohammed Ali
2. Joe Lewis
3. Mike Tyson
4. Rocky Marciano
5. Larry Holmes
6. George Foreman
7. Joe Frazier
8. Sonny Liston
9. Evander Hollyfield
10. Jack Johnson
11. Jack Dempsey
12. Lenox Lewis
13. James J. Jeffries
14. Ezzard Charles
15. Jersey Joe Walcott
16. Gene Tunney
17. Harry Wills
18. Sam Langford
19. Max Schmelling
20. Max Baer

The Boxing Insider.com: The 10 Great Heavyweights of All Time

1. Mohammed Ali
2. Joe Lewis
3. Larry Holmes
4. Jack Johnson
5. Rocky Marciano
6. George Foreman
7. Lenox Lewis
8. Jack Dempsey
9. Evander Holyfield
10. Joe Frazier

Tyson makes #6 on one. Doesn’t make the top 20, top 10 or top 12 on the others. Over-rated.

Lewis makes #7, #12, and #11 and #9. Appearing on all lists.

I’m telling you his stature is rising as people watch the fights and look at the records.

And of course, he did knock out Mike Tyson in the 8th round. (And Tyson is one year younger than Lewis, before you get started with the age excuse.)

There does seem to be universal acclaim for Ali as the Greatest of all time.

Foreman is also uniformly ranked high: 5, 9, 6, 6 on these lists.

Frazier also high, but not quite the equal of Foreman who tops him on 3 of the 4 lists: : 7, 6, 7, 10

And, yeah, I guess your point is “the greats fighting the greats” is shown by this survey, so maybe the Golden Age does deserve it’s name. Sonny Liston is arguably part of that generation, he appears several times, and Larry Holmes is on all the lists and did fight (and TKO) Ali late in his career.

[discostu]

No Lewis’ status is dropping as the era of boxing, the end of boxing as a sport that mattered to America, is fading from memory. Between too many federations, rampant corruption, “champions” who won’t defend their belt, and the rise of MMA boxing is dead. It was already dying by the time Lewis showed. Not his fault. Don King’s fault mostly. But that’s how it is.

Tyson is an interesting one. He was probably the greatest puncher boxing ever saw. But he was actually a crap boxer. Anybody he couldn’t kill in the first round or two would beat him, he had no technique and no stamina. He came out, pounded you with those cannons, and if you withstood that blast you would beat him. Basically Foreman only more extreme. Foreman at least had some technique. So where should he be on any list? I guess that depends on if I’m listing boxers or fighters. He was one of the best fighters to enter the ring, so if that’s the list top 10 for sure. If it’s a boxer list forget about it.