Joe Frazier

Hall of Fame

⭐ International Boxing Hall of Fame

Joseph William Frazier was born on January 12, 1944, in Beaufort, South Carolina, the twelfth of thirteen children born to sharecropper parents. He spent his early years picking cotton and cucumbers in the fields of the South Carolina Lowcountry before leaving the state as a teenager, first to New York and then to Philadelphia, where he found his calling at the Police Athletic League gym under trainer Yank Durham. Frazier won the 1964 Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in the heavyweight division and turned professional that same year, going on to become one of the most devastating punchers and relentless pressure fighters the heavyweight division has ever seen. On March 8, 1971 — in what was billed simply as "The Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden — Frazier defeated the previously unbeaten Muhammad Ali by unanimous decision in one of the most celebrated bouts in boxing history, knocking Ali down in the 15th round. The Ali-Frazier trilogy remains the most storied rivalry in heavyweight boxing, with Frazier winning the first fight, Ali winning a rematch in 1974, and Ali stopping Frazier in the brutal "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975 — a fight both men later described as the closest they had come to death. Frazier held the undisputed heavyweight championship from 1970 to 1973 and finished his career with a record of 32 wins (27 by knockout) and 4 losses. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. Born and raised in Beaufort, South Carolina.