Joe Frazier

Bio

Joe Frazier was 5ft 11in in a division of giants and it never mattered once. He got underneath taller men, bobbed in behind a high guard, and threw the best left hook in heavyweight history until something gave way.

Undisputed world heavyweight champion, and the first man to beat Muhammad Ali — the Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden in March 1971, fifteen rounds, and a left hook in the last that put Ali flat on his back. Whatever came afterwards, nobody can take that night off him.

The three fights with Ali defined both men and probably shortened both careers. Manila in 1975 is the one everybody names, and it is genuinely difficult to watch knowing what it cost them.

He also fought George Chuvalo in 1967 and, like everybody else, could not put the Canadian down — the fight was stopped on cuts with Chuvalo still on his feet.

Frazier died in 2011, aged 67. Pressure fighting has never had a better advertisement.