From: mojave_wolf	Date: November 8th, 2011 08:00 am (UTC)		(Permalink)

I saw he had liver cancer at the beginning of the weekend and meant to blog about him, but never got around to it.

His first and third fights with Ali would both be among my "ten greatest fights I've ever seen", if I made a list, and unless I've forgotten something, the "Thrilla in Manila" would top the list. Period. All weight classes, all styles of fighting. I'm always kinda iffy about using the term "heroic" for sports, but that was a genuinely heroic effort by both fighters. He never quit--his corner stopped the fight even tho he wanted to come out for the 15th round. Even in the ko against Foreman, he was still getting back up, it was just stopped after 6 knockdowns.

And he was fighting the cancer till the end, too. I read in the LA Times this weekend that there were not a lot of options, but they were still looking for something, and prayers for a miracle were appreciated.

A great, gutsy fighter, who in interviews seemed like a really terrific person. Except when he talked about Ali, but Ali was grossly unfair to him. I love Ali, (he was actually my first sports hero) but he did Frazier wrong there. I don't care if he was just trying to sell the fight and get the crowd on his side, some things you don't do, and that particular character assassination was out of bounds (I was about 5 or 6 at the time and didn't really understand the socio-political dimension of the rhetoric; I just knew Ali was supposed to be anti-establishment and my parents hated him and he was cocky and fun to watch). I'm glad they finally sort of patched things up at the very end, and that Smokin Joe got at least some of the recognition he deserved. Between that and having a good, full life, his 67 years were better than most people's.

but yeah, damn I hate that he had to get old and die.