Word: fraziers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Frazier, a breed apart, end up at the same sad place...
...together in a clinch, and no one can break them. They are connected forever, hyphenated. Dempsey-Tunney. Graziano-Zale. They end up with one name. They end up, pretty much, with each other. Back in gyms and rings last week, refusing to go away-that is, stay away-Ali-Frazier is having a hard time ending...
...astounds Joe Frazier that anyone has to ask why he fights. "This is what I do. I am a fighter," he says. "It's my job. I'm just doing my job." Joe doesn't deny the attractiveness of money. "Who wants to work for nothing?" But there are things more important than money. "I don't need to be a star, because I don't need to shine. But I do need to be a boxer, because that's what I am. It's as simple as that...
...years ago Ali was God. I remember going to Madison Square in late 1975 to see the third Ali-Frazier fight, where all the good people wanted Ali to win and all the bad people rooted for Frazier. It was that simple. There was more noise in that building than I had ever heard before, or have ever heard since. Twenty thousand sang the chant in the Garden that night--"Ali, Ali, Ali"--and they were joined by at least 20 million more around the world...
...fans were innumerable then, matched only, perhaps, by his endless repertory of skills--his job, his right lead, his defense, his will power, his heart. That fight against Frazier was a ritual, with its strong, confident start, its painful and disillusioning middle, and its powerful, miraculous end. Ali used himself up that night. After the battle he said, "That was the closest thing to dying that I know...