Joe Frazier

Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight boxing champ who died of liver cancer Nov. 7 at 67, won’t go down as the greatest fighter of all time. Muhammad Ali, the man with whom Frazier sparred so epically, owns that distinction. Frazier lived, bitterly, in Ali’s shadow. But if Ali defined Frazier, well, Frazier made Ali too. If not for Frazier’s greatness–his left hook crumbled opponents, and he defended his heavyweight title four times from 1970 to ’73–Ali could not have been called the Greatest. Frazier escaped Jim Crow poverty to become champion of the world, yet Ali would call him an Uncle Tom. Ali may have been the better fighter. But at times, Frazier was the bigger man.