In the late 1960s and early ‘70s heavyweight champion Joe Frazier was a formidable fighting machine, laying waste to anyone who had the temerity to challenge him. His calling cards…relentless pressure and a sledgehammer left hook.
However, by the time “Smokin’ Joe” defended his title against strapping George Foreman in January 1973, he was in decline. The young challenger did the unthinkable, destroying the previously indestructible Frazier inside of two rounds.
A scribe who covered the fight described Frazier’s once-vaunted left hook as a “dying fish flopping on the shore.” Foreman concurred. “You mean that thing was his left hook?