RIP Smokin' Joe!

Smokin' Joe Frazier has passed away at the age of 67.

Years ago my brother was a big collector of sports memorabilia and went down to this big show in Atlantic City. They had all the living 500 home run hitters at the time. Ted Williams, Joe D, Eddie Matthews, Willie Mays and the other guys. It was in the Atlantic City convention center. Now my brother had a photo with all of them on it that he was bringing up to get signed. But he also had a boxing glove that he was collecting all of the signatures of the heavyweight champs. Now the line for the baseball guys was about a thousand people long. I mean you had Joe D and Teddy Ballgame. So he went to wait on that line. But he sent me to the line where they had the boxing guys.

Which had nobody on it.

It was a side table with Larry Holmes, Floyd Patterson, Ezzard Charles, Leon Spinks and of course Smokin Joe Frazier. I got the glove signed and just hung around bullshitting with the champs. Larry Holmes was totally out of it. He was like Giggy the dog that Lisa Vanderpump carries around on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Periodicly he would lean forward and we would all go "Yeah Champ?" and he would say something like "I like eggs." It was trip.

I fell into a conversation with Joe Frazier and he was one cool guy talking to an everyday kind of guy like me. I told him of my favorite memory of him. He said "What the Trilla in Manila or the first Ali fight in the Garden?" I said to him "No the Mike Douglas show." And he burst out laughing.

You see I remember this one time Ryan O'Neal was pumping this boxing movie he was in, I think it was called "The Champ" or something like that. He was going on and on about it and how hard he trained and kinds of crap like that. So they set up a ring in the street and got a young up and coming Philly fighter to spar with him. That fighter was Joe Frazier.

So they ring the bell and Ryan is dancing all around and acting like a putz and Joe is just standing there and blocking punches. Never threw a left. At the end of the round O'Neal starts jumping around like he won the Olympics or something. Joe just cashed his check.

He loved to bullshit about that. He was a great guy. Humble and unassuming.

May he rest in peace.