George Foreman’s moment of glory
A boxing machine crushes Joe Frazier
By Martin Armbruster
01/22/2023 06:31 am
Joe Frazier has big plans in 1973. The world heavyweight champion is looking forward to a second duel worth millions with Muhammad Ali. Only one challenger named George Foreman stands in the way. A formality for the co-expert? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! In Jamaica 50 years ago, Frazier is completely lost in a veritable boxing carnage.
Redundancy in the sense of language theory means mentioning information several times, although this is actually not necessary in order to understand the overall context. For Howard Cosell, on the fourth Monday of January 1973, redundancy was the order of the day. The American, it seemed, had to repeatedly relay the information his reporter’s eyes had just registered to the image-processing site in his brain beneath his toupee. “DOWN GOES FRAZIER!” Cosell yelled into his ABC mic. “DOWN GOES FRAZIER!” And a third time: “DOWN GOES FRAZIER!”
Indeed: Joe Frazier, the undefeated world heavyweight champion, defeater of Muhammad Ali, had fallen to the ground. His challenger in the fight for the boxing title of all classes had promoted him there. In the first round. It wasn’t the only time Frazier buffed ring dust that night. One round and five knockdowns later, the fist duel was over. The new champion’s name was George Foreman.
Howard Cosell uttered the legendary words, “DOWN GOES FRAZIER!”
(Photo: imago images/ZUMA Wire)
Joe Frazier was favorite on January 22, 1973 – 3.5-1 favorite to be precise. At least that’s how the bookmakers in Las Vegas had sent him into the race. Certainly: George Foreman had won Olympic gold for the USA in Mexico City in 1968, then as a professional he smashed 37 opponents to pieces. Alone: Except for the iron-hard Canadian George Chuvalo – whose best “punch” according to boxing expert Larry Merchant was “the left cheek against the right glove” of the opponent and who was taken out of the fight standing by a compassionate referee against Foreman – except for just this George Chuvalo found no opponent of rank and name in the fight record of the rough-hewn Texan from Houston.
A champ at its peak, but then…
Frazier, on the other hand, only defeated Muhammad Ali in the “Fight of the Century” in March 1971, even felling the “greatest” in the final round with his patented left hook. “Smokin’ Joe” has been enthroned at the top of the heavyweight division for five years, his life clock showed 29 years. A champ at its peak. The then 24-year-old Foreman was only to be a way station on the way to a blockbuster revenge against Ali. Already in the first duel with his archrival, Frazier had skimmed off a lot: 2.5 million dollars. For the targeted “Superfight II” there were even larger sums in the room.
After all: Money could also be made against Foreman, Don King made sure of that. The flamboyant promoter with the high-voltage hairdo had persuaded a group of sponsors supported by the Jamaican government to pay in advance. Frazier was guaranteed an $850,000 stock exchange, plus 42.5 percent of the revenue from ticket sales and pay-per-view. Foreman got $375,000 and 20 percent of the money pie. The national stadium in Jamaica’s capital, Kingston, was chosen as the setting for the “Sunshine Showdown” on the Caribbean.
Frazier tried to break Foreman’s fighting spirit before the first gong. “I’ll stomp you on the ground, George,” warned the world champion after the official weigh-in, as he scowled at his challenger. But Foreman, whose eyes could be as friendly as they were fierce, was indifferent to the mind games. He glared back. In a soft voice, Foreman spoke to a press session about the defending champion’s fighting style and his chances for the title. “He only knows one way of fighting. He comes straight at you and is very open about it.” So it was.
Foreman holds out early missile motionless
When the gong sounded in Kingston in front of 36,000 spectators, Frazier, who was 1.82 meters tall and weighed 97 kilograms, rolled towards “Big George” (1.93 meters/99 kilograms) in the usual steamroller style – and was initially successful. Within half a minute, Frazier’s infamous left hook slammed into Foreman’s right cheekbone. However, the inexperienced US boy put the bullet away without moving. With his long left leading hand, Foreman kept the smoking Joe at bay, slowly but surely pushing himself into striking distance. With just over a minute on the clock, Foreman threw his compatriot against the ring ropes, hitting him with a terrifying right uppercut to the body, then a hard-hitting left hook to the head. The body hit was the aha moment, Foreman reported afterwards. “I saw him flinch. There was a funny look on his face. That’s when I knew I had him. From there it was just a matter of time.”
Less than 40 seconds later, another right uppercut exploded in the champion’s face – down goes Frazier. The man from Philadelphia, blessed with almost supernatural abilities to take things, struggled straight away, but never found his way back into the fight. Foreman, who once said boxing is “like jazz” (with the addition: “the better it is, the fewer people can appreciate it”), mutated into a death metal-playing crushing machine in Jamaica. Again he put Frazier in the corner, again he struck down the one-time butcher with his right upper-club. Knockdown two was tantamount to a bolt shot. As if deprived of all spirits, Frazier sagged – and yet got up again. Of course, “Smokin’ Joe” ran out of coal. “He doesn’t know where he is,” said Cosell, describing the defending champion’s condition. As referee Arthur Mercante counted out the shaky Frazier, Foreman stood in the neutral corner with a cold expression on his face. Ready and willing to continue his work. Frazier didn’t stay on his feet for long. Practically with the gong at the end of the opening round, he fell on his rear end for the third time.
“This title does not belong to me. It belongs to the people.”
The one minute rest between rounds wasn’t nearly enough for Frazier to recover. The soon-to-be ex-world champion stepped back into the ring on Pudding’s legs – a homo erectus on call. Foreman sent his hopelessly inferior opponent onto the boards three more times. So gruesome was the spectacle that “Big George” looked into Frazier’s corner with pleading eyes. “Stop it, I don’t want to kill him,” he called out to Frazier manager Yank Durham. However, even after the sixth fall, he made no move to throw in the towel. At least Referee Mercante had seen enough and stopped the carnage.
George Foreman didn’t spit out any big tones after his impressive show of force in Jamaica. “This title does not belong to me. It belongs to the people. I was only allowed to borrow it for a while,” said the new world champion modestly. Joe Frazier never managed to borrow the heavyweight title again. And Foreman’s reign ended the following year. In the legendary 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle,” Muhammad Ali dethroned the knockout machine. It wasn’t until 20 years later that Foreman regained the hiking crown – at the record-breaking age of almost 46. In Las Vegas, a right straight from the boxing grandfather hit the chin of world champion Michael Moorer, who was 20 years his junior, cutting his connection between his brain and his legs. “It happened…it happened!”, exclaimed HBO commentator Jim Lampley. Relatively redundant.