Where does the time fly! January 22nd, 1973, Kingston, Jamaica. Forty years gone by as the anniversary of George Foreman winning the Heavyweight Championship of the world against Joe Frazier! It goes by in a fistic flash and it sure did that particular night as George Foreman, at his very peak, and probably never, ever, any better than that night, destroyed defending Champion Joe Frazier.
My brother and I often talk of that night. He is of the firm opinion that Foreman on that night was possibly the best big man that ever was and that on that night it was hard to fathom who could have kept up with George Foreman.
We watched the fight with Dear Old Pops, may he rest peacefully, by way of closed circuit television. Dear Old Pops took us pretty well to all of the closed circuit fights and some live pro shows down the road at Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens with the likes of Clyde Gray, George Chuvalo, Gary Summerhays, and Nicky Furlano. The arenas were usually packed for those closed circuit fights and back then the patrons, most of whom, including Dear Old Pops, had more than their share of ?pops? and were hardcore boxing fans. They knew their boxing and knew it dating far back. There was a comradeship of good time to those events. The shows were electric in atmosphere and God forbid if there was any closed circuit broadcast issues or interruptions. Things could get nasty in a hurry. Hell, that was part of the fun as long as the screen got sorted out in time!
Harrison Reese, a local amateur Light Heavy standout and HUGE Frazier fan was, pre-fight, telling everybody and anybody he had a few hundred bucks on Frazier to destroy Foreman. The live amateur card was done, the lights went out and a huge screen draped down from the rafters. Fight time. Pre-fight and Yank Durham, Champion Joe?s trainer, was talking about Joe stopping Foreman in the first round and a ?You better believe it? from the Champ Frazier. We did not know much about Foreman other than he was big and by the record, 37-0 with 34 knockouts, looked like he could hit. He had certainly made short work of Boone Kirkman, George Chuvalo, and Chuck Wepner?but then they were not Joe Frazier. No sir, they were not Joe Frazier! We also knew that there was NOBODY in the crowd expecting anything but a big Frazier win. Kenny Norton, a Frazier sparring partner at the time, did not have Foreman lasting five rounds as pre-fight he had commented ?he (Foreman) stinks.? The only person who seemed to have Foreman winning was Howard Cosell who believed that a whole lot of people would be shocked the following day. Shocking it was. It was not a fight. It was a mugging the likes that had not been seen in its brief but violent nature since Liston destroyed Patterson.
Before the bell for the first round a wealth of fistic talent by way of Sandy and Dick Sadler and the Old Mongoose, Archie Moore, scurried out of Foreman?s ring corner. Foreman, in complete disrespect of Champion Frazier, launched a massive missing lead right hand immediately off the sound of the bell. Dear Old Pops: ?Whoa I like that fucker?sometimes you can get lucky with that, right off the bell.? Dear Old Pops always liked that right hand lead off the bell. In his mind it was the first message that you had ?balls? because everybody knew it was a sin to start off with that devil risk lead right hand shot.
A few seconds in and Foreman had cranked off two big right hand uppercuts, Moore style, aiming towards Frazier?s heart and short rib section. Foreman was pushing Frazier back as if Frazier was a small heavy bag to reset for another big shot! That first knockdown, I still recall, as being a glancing shot off Frazier?s temple. Joe got up and Big George was going to pay for that and pay for it big because up to that point Frazier was slinging big left hooks and one was bound to find its mark. The second knockdown was the one. We knew at that point that something special was taking place. Frazier, and all those fantasy dream fights of who would have won, Frazier or Marciano, Frazier or Dempsey, were being shunted aside as Foreman landed a massive uppercut with about seventeen seconds left in the first. Six knockdowns in total and before the end of two rounds and who could forget as iconic a fight broadcast comment as that soothsayer of the night, Howard Cosell shouting, ?Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!? Arthur Mercante, as good a ref as possibly there ever was, gave the undefeated Champ Frazier every possible chance and how Frazier got up, shot after shot, is testimony of the greatness that was within. Smokin? Joe Frazier!
Former Champ Frazier appeared on the Dick Cavett Show a few weeks after that shocking loss. Cavett had a soft spot for fighters and for Joe. As for Frazier he showed on the Cavett show, as he always did, what a Champion was in and out of the ring. There were no excuses and his was that of a dignified champ. Foreman would go on, soon enough, to destroy Ken Norton but even in that destruction he did not exhibit the same stance and balance, the same economy of rifle shot jab. His form was already slipping. As for us, well we were still recovering from the fact that we would never see Ali vs. Frazier number two. Number one was the biggest sporting production EVER and it was all gone by way of this Foreman.
Yes, time gone by in a forty-year hurry. What excitement to be if another great American Heavyweight were to rise up. Excitement like those good old closed circuit days! Could we possibly expect such a thing!
