THRILLA IN MANILA GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY 13: JOE FRAZIER’S HUMBLE BEGINNINGS AS AN AMATEUR FIGHTER
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 15 Sep 2025
The arch rival of Muhammad Ali, Joseph William "Joe" Frazier was born on January 12, 1944. He was the twelfth child of Rubin and Dolly Alston-Frazier in Beaufort, South Carolina. He grew up in Laurel Bay, South Carolina. It was said that in the early 1950s, Frazier's father bought a black and white television, and the family and their neighbors watched boxing matches on the television. Frazier's mother would then sell drinks for a quarter as they watched boxers like Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Willie Pep, and Rocky Graziano fought on TV.
One night, Frazier's uncle, Israel, noticed his sturdy physique. "That boy there... that boy is gonna be another Joe Louis", he commented. Joe was inspired by his uncle’s remarks and the following day, he stuffed an old burlap sack with rags, corncobs, a brick, and Spanish moss. He hung the makeshift heavybag from an oak tree in the backyard. "For the next 6, 7 years, damn near every day I'd hit that heavybag for an hour at a time. I'd wrap my hands with a necktie of my Daddy's, or a stocking of my Momma's or sister's, and get to it," he said in his autobiography.
Frazier's amateur career was impressive. He won the Golden Gloves heavyweight championships in 1962, 1963, and 1964. The only blemish in his amateur career in three years was dealt with by Buster Mathis. Mathis was Frazier’s biggest stumbling block in making it to the 1964 U.S. Olympic boxing team. They fought in the finals of the U.S. Olympic trials at the New York World's Fair in 1964.
Their fight was for three rounds and they wore 10-oz gloves with headgear, but the boxers who fought in the Tokyo Olympics would not wear headgear and would use 8-oz gloves. Frazier was anxious to get his revenge at Mathis for his sole amateur defeat. But then again, the judges decided it in favor of Mathis. "All that fat boy had done was run like a thief- hit me with a peck and backpedal like crazy," he said in his autobiography.
Mathis had his trunks worn so high that when Frazier would hit Mathis with legal body shots, the referee would erroneously tag them as below the belt. In the second round, the referee penalized Frazier with two points for allegedly hitting an illegal blow. According to him, in a three-round bout a fighter could not afford a points deduction like that. He returned to Philadelphia and was so frustrated and even considered quitting boxing.
Duke Dugent and his trainer, Yank Durham, convinced him to reconsider his decision and recommended that Frazier would accompany the team to the Tokyo Olympics as an alternate in case Mathis got injured. Frazier consented and became the sparring partner with any of the Olympic boxers who wanted to practice with him. He took on boxers of different weights, middleweight, light heavyweight, he boxed all of them who would want to spar with him. Mathis on the contrary was relaxing and fate had it for Frazier that Mathis got injured.
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