To Burt Watson, Joe Frazier was more than just one of the greatest boxers who ever lived. Frazier, the former heavyweight champion who died Monday of liver cancer at 67, won perhaps the most significant fight of all time when he beat Muhammad Ali on March 8, 1971, in a battle of unbeaten champions dubbed ?The Fight of the Century.?
Watson, Frazier?s long-time friend and former manager, won?t remember him solely for any of his many accomplishments in the ring. It?s Joe Frazier the man whom Watson will always recall first.
?In my lifetime, Joe Frazier was the first American hero, the first legendary figure in the city of Philadelphia, that people were allowed to touch,? said Watson, who is now the site coordinator for the UFC. ?He made himself available to anybody and everybody, just like the UFC fighters now. When I first started with Joe, we?d go to an average place, a neighborhood bar, a family restaurant, whatever, and people would fall off their seats when they saw Joe walking in.
