Customer Reviews

Smokin' Joe: The Autobiography of a Heavyweight Champion of the World, Smokin' Joe Frazier

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First things first: I am a huge Muhammad Ali fan; and, I am a huge Joe Frazier fan. On top of that, I am fascinated by the lives of boxers. It seems that to become a great boxer, one must go through a bitter struggle to get to the top of that profession.

Like other great boxers, "Smokin'" Joe Frazier had a hard life, and one at which one wrong turn at the crossroads could have derailed his life.

Written in 1996, when "Smokin' Joe" was 52 and still bitter at Muhammad Ali's name tauntings of him when they were professional heavyweight fighters in the 1970s, this book was quite a revealing book about Joe's life.

Most of you who will read this review must be, to some extent, familiar with the boxing history between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. In this book, Frazier goes into astonishing details about his recollections which made me feel as if he were here next to me talking to me himself.

The book also connects Joe's past to his present and gives you clarity on how he developed as a man. He is very inspirational in how he explains how he rose to the top from his poor upbringing, though poor only in terms of money, not pride, committment to his family, or belief in himself: areas about himself that were a wealth of possibilities as long as someone believed in him.

The book begins with his childhood in South Carolina and he gives you a feel about what he was like and how close he was to his father and the relationship he had with women, his friends, and experiences he had while living in a racially segregated South.

Piece by piece, step by step, "like a train", Joe literally takes us on the train ride of his life clearly explaining many fascinating details about his early fights. What impressed me was his attention to detail about his opponents. I had no idea that Oscar Bonavena was shot to death in Reno because of his affair with a woman who's husband owned a Reno. I never noticed the connection about how trainers would also fight trainers through their boxers and how fights of the 60s would directly connect fights of the 90s.

There's a lot of that in this book.

Then of course, there is the relationship between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. They always had an amazing chemistry between each other. The perfect complimentaries in all aspects of life. Having Read Ali's Autobiography and Smokin' Joe's Autobiography, they both present themselves the same way they presented themselves in the ring. Joe was step by step in your face while Ali was multidirectional in his autobiography.

In this 200 page book, at least 50 pages and two complete chapters are dedicated in detail about the relationship between him and Ali. If you read it, it sounds as if Joe was still angry at Ali while he wrote this. But I learned in this book that Joe Frazier is a deeper person than most give him credit for. I really didn't read anger in his words of contempt towards Ali; rather a "hard-love" and maybe even some hurt and justifiable hurt of the personal bashing Ali directed at him.

The book goes into amazing details some of the verbal exchanges they shared even while in the ring, nights prior to fights or other personal confrontations they had over the years.

A lot of it is even humorous despite being serious. There's a great passage about Joe Frazier's taunting Ali in private about his pseudo-wife at the time Veronica Porsche when they fought "The Thrilla in Manila."

If you've seen Joe Frazier fight, the book reads with the same intensity of his boxing style: penetrating and persistant.

You can't help but admire this man for his ethic and philosophy on life.

For those of you who think Frazier has "deep psychological hatreds towards Ali," that's a bunch of, as Frazier would put it, "scamboogah talk."

As recently as June 9, 2001: Joe was quoted as saying after his daughter lost a woman's boxing match against Ali's youngest daughter: "-``It's over. I just don't want no more problems...If I see him tomorrow, I'll say, 'Hey man, let's get along. Forgive me and I'll forgive you.' I'm tired of the harsh, dirty words. I don't want to go back to that no more.''

This is a must read if you love boxing, especially the historically most important years of boxing: The 1970s,when Ali and Frazier were two of the 3 (Foreman too) top masters of this Sport.

I rated this book so well because it deserves every star. Frazier makes himself heard without using a bad attitude and keeping up his Mr Nice Guy cherade. I enjoyed the criticism of Muhammad Ali Frazier displayed. He told all how Ali could only bring the public on his side by racially abusing frazier and making him seem like a bad image to the african american public. Ali used fraziers words against him as frazier clearly says "I am the peoples champion" while Ali or Clay as frazier names him made his words sound like "I am the white peoples champion". Although Frazier is a perfect gentlemen he has a vicious bite to his story and isnt afraid of displaying his actual feelings. Although I am a loyal supporter of Muhammad Ali, I feel Frazier really is the Greatest and should be considered a role model to all boxing fans.

I admit that this book is hardly good literature. Yet I enjoyed reading it again and again.

Though I followed boxing at one time, I am really not a big fight fan. But I love stories about people who put their heart and soul into what they do, and Joe Frazier certainly did that.

He describes his impoverished childhood, his flirtaion with a life of petty crime, and then his getting into boxing from the ground up and working his way to the Olympic gold medal and eventually the heavyweight championship of the world.

He also gives a glimpse of what happend after his boxing career was over and his opinion of some of the 1990's boxers.

But much of the book was devoted to his wars with Mohammed Ali (who he refers to as Cassius Clay or "Butterfly"), both in and out of the ring. He talks about how badly he was stung by Ali's calling him an "Uncle Tom" (not black enough) and then calling him a Gorilla (as in subhuman; too black, too uncultured).

Because I am not African American, I can't fully understand the sting of what Ali did to him (in the guise of promoting the fights) but it is clear that he was still bitter about it. That's a shame too, as Joe Frazier is clearly one of the best boxers to ever live, and one of the two boxers to beat Ali while he was at or near his prime (Norton is the other one).

Oh yes, I picked up a cool "new" (to me) word: "scamboogah". I like it!

Lions belong to a class of animals, which is famous for its biting prowess. My father once said that any thing that bites a lion to death is strong. I agree. Smokin' Joe is one such thing. A very strong one!
This 1964 Olympic Heavyweight Champion, as well as an ex-World Heavyweight Champion will kill a lion with one "bite", if it is all it will take to become champion. This his autobiography makes no exaggeration of this fact.
Frazier is one of the most respected heavyweights on Ali's mind. He handed The Greatest his first professional defeat, (in the Fight Of The Century). He is also, the only one to take him to the "door of death", (in the Thrilla In Manila). Although Ali refused to pass through that "door", he didn't forget what he saw. Joe is a ferocious fighter: an armoured car! George Foreman and Muhammad Ali were the only fighters capable of handing him convincing defeats. But each one testified that this Main-Battle-Tank of a man always rises as soon as he hits the canvas.
Ring animosity apart, Joe is one of the few fighters that Ali wanted for a friend. Foreman once feared him; and still respects him. This autobiography is down-to-earth.

Smokin' Joe give a good history of the game in and out of the ring. The politics in this sport is obvious, and Joe lets the reader in on the grind. From his humble beginnings to his determinatin for a brighter future to finally grasping the prize, his end is bridged by his son, Marvis climb to the title fight. Smokin' Joe deserves high props for eduring when most wouldn't, in and out of the ropes! God Bless the Champ.

you know is frazier speaking when you read this book and not his ghost writer for most of the book. i enjoyed the bad talk about Ali, in particular his defense against Ali's saying he was the white man's pawn. frazier's voice comes in loud and clear here. id like to see the documetary that he and his son are producing.

SMOKIN' JOE, the autobiography of heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier, has its share of interesting and amusing stories. Its tone is one of getting the job done, not unlike Frazier's boxing style - he would take several punches just to land one, because one Smokin' Joe left hook was all that was necessary to finish the job. SMOKIN' JOE definitely tells you few things you didn't know, but it left me with the feeling that Joe Frazier wasn't saying everything on his mind. Maybe a more assertive editor or co-author would have gotten the quiet fighter to open up a little more.

SMOKIN' JOE is a surprisingly good examination of one of the greatest fighters of all time - Joe Frazier. Despite his status in many sportswriter's minds as a sort of foil for Muhammad Ali, "the other half" of a great rivalry, most trueblue boxing fans know that Frazier was quite a bit more than that. Smokin' Joe led a quite remarkable life which was a triumph over the odds and showed, among other things, that he was "a champion for all the people."

Ghostwritten by Phil Berger, a very able writer who manages to turn what was undoubtedly a series of taped oral interviews into an enjoyably readable autobiography that communicates much of Frazier's bristling temperament, pleasure-loving attitude and downhome twang, SMOKIN' JOE traces Frazier's life from its dirt-poor roots as the son of a black sharecropper in the Jim Crow South, to his move to Philadelphia, his improbable amateur career culminating in an Olympic gold medal, and his professional boxing career, which reached a dual apex when he first captured the heavyweight title unwillingly vacated by Ali, and then whipped a comebacking Ali over 15 brutal rounds to cement his claim as the best big man on earth. Not surprisingly, a great deal of the book centers on his vitriolic relationship with the man he refers to contemptuously as "Clay" ("That's what his momma named him," Frazier sneers), and fans of Ali will not enjoy his heartfelt railings about the "so-called Greatest."

To be sure, Frazier has a legitimate beef against the man, who sponged money off Frazier during his long court battle with the U.S. Government, then tried to turn the black community in America against him by "whitewashing" him as an Uncle Tom. Frazier smoulders when he recounts how his children were mercilessly taunted on the playground by Ali fans and how he, Frazier, was constantly villified - even by liberal whites - as being some kind of "white man's champion." Frazier insisted then, and insists now, that he was not a champion for black or white America but for all the people, and to call him anything else was not only unfair but cruel - and I tend to agree. Ali was great at a lot of things, and one of those things was being an irresponsible, loudmouth jerk.

On the other hand, when it comes to cruelty, Frazier gives nothing away to his archenemy. He has a real blood-lust that made one reviewer of the book remark, "I loved the book, but I didn't like Frazier." He seems to take genuine pleasure in beating the living hell out of people and can reflect quite calmly on his role in turning guys like Jerry Quarry into brain-damaged vegetables. He also seems to revel in the humiliation of beaten foes like Buster Mathis, Sr., who annoyed Frazier because he lacked discipline (and never mind that his indiscipline gave Frazier his shot at the Olympics), and while granting that he flat-out got his *ss kicked by George Foreman not once but twice, he's as reluctant as any boxer to truly accept responsibility for losing.

SMOKIN' JOE is an enjoyable book as much because of these things as in spite of them. It's fast-paced, cleverly written and unapologetic, and refreshingly, it lacks the politically correct gloss of many autobiographies, which are so carefully calibrated to hide the subject's flaws they end up saying almost nothing. Smokin' Joe has a lot to say, it's just a question of whether or not you've got the chin to hear it.

This is an amazing life story about an unforgettable champion. Read all about Joe's upbringing and what led him to boxing, his dedication and will to win, his personal life, and his real thoughts on Ali. We've all heard Ali's side of the story and know how he portrayed Frazier, this is Frazier's turn to set the record straight - and that he does! Great behind the scenes info and full of anecdotes, this book is well written and entertaining too!

I bought "Smokin' Joe" for something different in human experience to read about - how many of us climb into a boxing ring and get beat up for multiple rounds?
What I found reading Joe Frazier's autobiography (with strong writing help by Berger) was an epic account of a single courageous, determined spirit, who stood-up and got out of a small oppressive southern town, walked forward in risk and never turned back, through a long series of dangerous, furious battles in the ring and within himself. He stayed honest and fair with himself and others through it all. Considering what life gave him, Smokin Joe Frazier earned an inspiring version of the best of the American spirit among us.