Back
during his run as a leading sports columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, Larry Merchant also dabbled in managing
boxers. Well, kinda sorta but not really, as Merchant was part of Cloverlay,
Inc., a consortium of investors united to support the professional endeavors of
one Joe Frazier, who died on Monday from liver cancer.
“When
Joe won the gold medal at the '64 Olympics in Tokyo, he came home and went to
work in the slaughterhouse where he had worked since he had come to
Philadelphia where he had come to learn how to fight as a teenager,” explained
Merchant. “He couldn't afford to train full-time. So here was a gold medal
winner in the heavyweight division, which Ali was the star of at the time, and
some community leaders- including church men and lawyers and political people-
got together and formed Cloverlay out of 80 shares for $250 a share, $20,000 so
that Joe could quit his job and train full-time.”
“And
they also made a plan for his financial future as part of that- if there would
be a financial future, which of course there was. I bought a share, invested my
$250 sort of as a stunt as a columnist so that I could write about Joe as ‘my
fighter.’”
As
he took a gig with the New York Post a few years later, he eventually cashed in.
“I
left for New York about two years later when Joe was into his professional
career. He had about a dozen or 15 fights and I sold the share for $2,000-
which was a huge win,” recalled Merchant. “But two years later, it was worth
$14,000 and over the years, Joe always kidded me about selling him short.”
Yeah,
Merchant is like that guy who sold his Apple stock in 2000.
Laughing at the thought, Merchant says, “Well, you take a win when you can get
it. Mainly, it was because I didn't think the readers in New York would get the
gag as much as the readers in Philadelphia of my being part of the management
team of a fighter I was covering.”
Of
the lasting image he has of “Smokin’ Joe,” Merchant, who has always preferred
rugged bangers to stylists, stated, “You see a lot of Joe Frazier-type fighters
on the lower echelons of boxing, guys that don't bring a lot of pure boxing
skills to the game and very few rise to the top. Somewhere along the way, they
get nailed or don't train hard or some boxer outwits them. In Joe's case, the
test came at a fight at the Madison Square Garden, his first there,
against real tough, strong Oscar Bonavena and Bonavena knocked him down
twice in a round and at that time, you had a three-knockdown rule and there
might have been a minute or more left in the round and that looked like, ‘This
is it. We found out that Joe Frazier didn't have the right stuff to be at the
top echelon.’ But he survived the round and went on to win the fight. At that
time, you could say, ‘OK, we're looking at a potential [Rocky] Marciano or [Jack]
Dempsey here.’”
Merchant
was there at the Garden the night of March 8, 1971 when Frazier kicked off his
historic trilogy with Muhammad Ali. There will most likely never be a night
quite like this ever again, not just in boxing, but in sports.
“It
seems doubtful. ‘Ever again’ is a long time,” he said, laughing, “but the world
stopped. Two undefeated champions, Ali had been embargoed from boxing for more
than three years because he refused to go in the Army during the war in
Vietnam. He was reviled by many figures, many people. He was a polarizing
figure. People either loved him or adored him or they thought he was everything
that was wrong with the anti-Vietnam and the pro-black racial movements at that
time, so there was a clear dividing line. Joe and he were polar opposites in
and out of the ring and that will ring through the ages.”
This
truly was the “Fight of the Century.” While the rematch between Joe Louis and
Max Schmeling might have had more historical or political importance, for pure
spectacle, nothing will match this event, won by Frazier, who put an
exclamation point on the proceedings by flooring Ali in the 15th round with his trademark left hook.
“I
can still feel the visceral vibrations in the crowd in that fight. The fight in
which there were hundreds of politicians and hoodlums in their black suits and
ties at ringside, many stars of show business, etc. How often has a fight been
building for years? We have something like it on a somewhat lesser cosmic count
with [Floyd] Mayweather and [Manny] Pacquiao but this is the heavyweight
championship of the world. This was the most famous athlete in the world, Ali,
and the expectations could have not have been higher and both the fight, as a
fight and as a drama, exceeded the expectations.”
After
premature reports of his death on Sunday night, it was confirmed on Monday that
Frazier had indeed passed away at the age of 67. While he may have felt
overshadowed being the foil to Ali, the sports world paid proper tribute to
this man. “Monday Night Football” reported his death with a news cut-in. “SportsCenter”
made his passing the lead and outlets like Yahoo! made it their cover story. It
truly reminded you of the place boxing once had in our society and Frazier’s
contributions to it.
“I was
happily surprised that he got his full due,” remarked Merchant, on how the
media covered Frazier’s death. “Look, he got a lot of due during his lifetime.
I don't know anybody that didn't love Joe Frazier as an athlete and as a good
guy, so this was a fitting tribute in recognition of a great athlete who had
been part of a long-running, almost mid-century melodrama that is beyond
unforgettable- it's historic.”
SMOKIN'
Some
random thoughts on Frazier in light of his untimely demise...
- I,
like many of you, never actually saw Frazier fight live. I was born about nine
months after the first Frazier-Ali clash but it's like this: if you're a
baseball fan, you didn't have to actually see Babe Ruth in person to know all
about “The Bambino.” While he might have been overshadowed by “The Greatest” (and
who isn't?), Frazier was a guy who was involved in perhaps the most significant
prizefight of all-time, became the first man to defeat Ali as a professional
and engaged in what many believe to be the best heavyweight title fight ever, “The
Thrilla in Manila.”
He
was a standout in the golden age of heavyweight boxing, when being its champion
gave one the designation as “the baddest man on the planet,” likely making him
among the five or 10 most famous people on the planet.
-
Frazier's passing is a reminder of just how big boxing once was in America,
when it was truly mainstream. It was great to see “SportsCenter” make it its
lead story (with an vignette from Jeremy Schapp). Just think about it; when was
the last time boxing ever led off this iconic show? It obviously resonated on
an international scale also, as I was asked to talk about his life and times on
sports radio shows in Australia and Toronto and my colleagues were also called
upon to talk about his passing on other programs throughout the world.
-
This was a hard man and a harder fighter. Yeah, while at his peak, Frazier was
just right around 205 pounds, proof that while today's heavyweights are bigger,
that doesn't necessarily equate to being better. He was the classic pressure
fighter who could overcome one's skill with his unrelenting will, time and time
again.
- I
would've paid money to see a prime Frazier face the best version of Evander
Holyfield.
-
And please, any comparisons to a potential Pacquiao-Mayweather fight being as
significant as Frazier-Ali I is an insult. There are some things that are
bigger and more important than pay-per-view revenue or attendance figures. Frazier-Ali
was a fight that truly resonated with the general public and was a cultural
phenomenon. You didn't need any “24/7”s and the like because boxing back
then was every bit the major sport as the NFL and Major League Baseball in
those days.
Think
about it; “Ol’ Blue Eyes” himself, Frank Sinatra, worked as a ringside
photographer for Time magazine just
to ensure himself the best possible vantage point for this epic. You think
Justin Bieber would do that for Pacquiao-Mayweather? (yeah, I know, I know. I
put a parallel between the “Chairman of the Board” and “The Biebs”).
-
Anyone else remember that classic scene when “Smokin’ Joe” nearly sank while
trying to swim in ABC Sports’ “The “Superstars” competition in the ‘70s? Talk
about “Drown goes Frazier…”
- I
think it's looooong overdue that Philadelphia, which has a statue of a
fictitious boxer (Rocky Balboa), erect one of Frazier. Despite being born in
Beaufort, South Carolina, he was synonymous with Philly. His death to me, along
with the demise of the Blue Horizon, is very symbolic of the fading impact and
importance the sport of boxing has on this city. Long ago, it was known as a “boxing
city.” I'm not sure you can say that anymore.
-
Rest in peace, Joe Frazier. You were indeed the very definition of an honest fighter.
