South Carolina Honors Smokin' Joe Frazier

PHILADELPHIA, PA, September 23, 2010 (Press-News.org) The Order of the Palmetto is the highest civilian award bestowed by the State of South Carolina. It is the highest honor given to those individuals who have exhibited a lifetime of service and achievement. Past recipients have been General William Westmoreland, Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr., civil rights leader Rosa L. Parks, and authors Pat Conroy and James Dickey.

A private dinner will be held afterwards at 8pm. For information on tickets, contact John Trask III at 843-812-2210

Joe has a huge reservoir of goodwill and many of his supporters plan on attending the ceremony on September 27. Heavyweight Champion, Larry Holmes, Heisman Trophy winner, George Rogers, longtime Madison Square Garden photographer, George Kalinsky and artist Leroy Neiman are just a few of the well wishers expected to attend.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Smokin' Joe Frazier was born on January 12, 1944 in Beaufort, SC one of twelve children. He grew up in poverty working on a farm helping his father, Rueben, and his mother, Dolly. It was on this farm that Joe, working to assist his one armed father in various chores developed boxing's most devastating left hook.

As a boy on the farm, Joe often told his family and friends he would one day be the heavyweight champion of the world- fashioning a punching bag out of a burlap sack stuffed with (among other items) socks and corn husks. Around the age of 16, after an argument with a white boss on the farm ensued one day, Joe in his words, "got on the dog (Greyhound Bus) and headed North to Philadelphia, Pa. Once there he started to train under the tutelage of Yancey "Yank" Durham who noticed his impressive left hook; Durham coached Frazier to a victory as the novice champion of the Philadelphia Golden Gloves tournament in 1962. That same year Frazier began a three-year run as the heavyweight champion of the Middle Atlantic Golden Gloves league.

Exhibiting his trademark toughness, he fought with a broken thumb and essentially only one hand and won a gold medal in Tokyo for the United States' Olympic team in 1966 becoming the first U.S. heavyweight to win gold for this country.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight title due to his refusal to be inducted into the military during the Vietnam War. Frazier boycotted the 1967 WBA heavyweight elimination tournament to find a successor to Muhammad Ali, although Frazier was the top-ranked contender at the time.

On February 16, 1970, Frazier became the undisputed world champion when he defeated WBA champion Jimmy Ellis at Madison Square Garden by a fifth-round knock-out. Ellis had beaten Jerry Quarry in the final bout of a WBA elimination tournament for Ali's vacated belt, the very tournament Frazier had declined in which to participate.

On March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden, Frazier and Ali met in the first of their three bouts which was widely called the "Fight of the Century" in pre-bout publicity and the press feeding frenzy. With a worldwide television audience, and an in-house audience that included luminaries such as Frank Sinatra (as a photographer for Life magazine to get a ringside seat), comedian Woody Allen, singer Diana Ross, and actors Dustin Hoffman and Burt Lancaster (who served as "color commentator" with fight announcer Don Dunphy), the two undefeated heavyweights met in the kind of media-frenzied atmosphere not seen since Joe Louis' youth.

Frazier had trained exhaustively for Ali under the specialized tutelage of famed coach Eddie Futch. Futch, brought in by head trainer Yank Durham, specifically developed a strategy based on Ali's tendency to throw the right-hand uppercut from a straight standing position after dropping the hand in preparation to throw it with force. Eddie Futch instructed Frazier to watch Ali's right hand and, at the moment Ali dropped it, to throw a left hook at the spot where they knew Ali's face would be a second later. Frazier's staggering of Ali in the 11th round and his knock-down of Ali in the 15th round were both executed precisely in this way.

Frazier lost a number of early rounds but took Ali's combinations without backing down. As Ali started to slow in the middle rounds, Frazier came on strong, landing hard shots to the body as well as the powerful left hooks to the head by virtue of Futch's instructions.

Consequently, Frazier won a clear, 15-round, unanimous decision. Ali was taken to the hospital immediately after the fight to have his badly swollen jaw x-rayed, and Frazier spent time in the hospital during the ensuing month, the exertions of the fight having been exacerbated by his existing health problems, such as hypertension and a kidney infection.

Trainer and strategist, Futch, took over the lead role in Joe's corner in 1973 when Yank Durham died. Futch, had already proved invaluable to Frazier as an assistant trainer, helping modify his style. Under his tutelage, Frazier adopted the bob-and-weave defensive style, making him more difficult for taller opponents to punch while also giving Frazier more power with his own punches. While Futch remained based in Los Angeles, where he worked as a supervisor with the U.S. Postal Service, he was flown to Philadelphia to work with Frazier during the final preparations for all of his fights.

Joe defended the title several times before being knocked out by former Olympian George Foreman.

Joe Frazier is one of the great heavyweight champions of all time. He did not get the acclaim Ali did, nor the acclaim that he deserves, but the fact remains that without Joe Frazier there would have been no Ali. Despite an intense animosity over the years, Joe, forever "the bigger man"was quoted not along as saying "there's no love there, between Muhammad and me. But I like to respect people right. I think I've done that and I'll continue to do that. Maybe we can sit down together and break bread someday before we shut our eyes. I never had any problems talking and laughing with people."

Whether they will break bread and laugh one day together is unkown, but what is known is that Muhammad Ali understands Smokin' Joe's greatness, describing him as follows, "Fighting Joe Frazier is the closest thing to death that I know of. Of all the men I fought in boxing, including Sonny Liston and George Foreman, the roughest and toughest was Joe Frazier. ... If God ever calls me to a Holy War, I want Joe Frazier fighting beside me."

Frazier's overall record is 32 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw, with 27 wins by knockout. He won 73 percent of his fights by knockout, compared to 60 percent for Ali and 84 percent for Foreman. He is a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.

Joe has a huge reservoir of goodwill and many of his supporters plan on attending the ceremony on September 27. Heavyweight Champion, Larry

Holmes, Heisman Trophy winner, George Rogers, longtime Madison Square Garden photographer, George Kalinsky and artist Leroy Neiman are just a few of the well wishers invited and expected to attend.

Smart Marketing Group is a marketing company focusing on design and execution of integrated marketing and niche strategies. Smart Marketing Group is also Smokin' Joe Frazier's business and personal management. Les Wolff, CEO of SMG, has 45+ years of sales, management and marketing experience in sports marketing to small business management.