Like Father, Like Son
For those not all that familiar with boxing, you probably only know Joe Frazier as “the guy who beat Ali”. Yes, that is quite an accomplishment considering “Smokin’ Joe” was the first but to me even more memorable was his fight against George Foreman. In that fight, the undefeated Frazier, two years removed from his star-making performance against Ali, was knocked down six times on the way to a TKO loss in the second round.
As for Joe’s son, Marvin, now that’s a completely different story. Marvin, who retired before winning 20 fights, didn’t have his father’s heart, charisma, or boxing skill. The one thing he did posses, however, was the Frazier name, which earned him quite a bit of hype before he was exposed by another Ali-killer, Larry Holmes. Despite an embarrassing loss to Holmes, someone still thought it would be a smart move to put him in against a prime and very hungry Mike Tyson.
The results were disastrous for Marvis. As for the card above, it is a must-have for any true boxing fan and unfortunately will no longer be available for reasonable prices due to Joe’s surprising death last week. Much love to Ringside Boxing for producing such an amazing boxing set.
November 14, 2011 at 4:49 am
I love early Tyson fights.
I’m glad I got my Fraizer auto 15 years ago when they were still really cheap.
http://thoughtsandsox.blogspot.com/2011/11/im-still-here.html
November 15, 2011 at 3:24 am
I’m afraid I will have to totally disagree with your summation of Marvis Frazier. Although you can say with some accuracy that Marvis did not have the punching power, or the boxing only drive of his Dad, he did have the Frazier heart, is a wonderful person (“charisma”?), and in many ways was a more skillful boxer than his Dad. As an amateur Marvis was 56 and 2 and was crowned the amateur Heavyweight Champion of the world in 1980. As a professional, although he did lose to the two best heavyweights of his era (his only two losses as a professional), he was 19 and 0 otherwise with victories over James Broad, Joe Bugner, Bonecrusher Smith, Rose Ribalta, and James Tillis. For more information on his career and the upcoming book about his life, visit: http://www.meetmarvisfrazier.com, or just Google “Meet Marvis Frazier”.