THRILLA IN MANILA GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY 15: JOE FRAZIER’S PROFESSIONAL CAREER
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 02 Oct 2025
After Joe Frazier won the lone American gold medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, he turned professional. He was helped by his trainer Yancey “Yank” Durham and acted as his manager until Durham’s death in August 1973.
Frazier fought his professional debut against Woody Gross by winning via first round technical knockout in August 1965. He fought three more fights that year and won all of them by stoppage all within three rounds or less.
Later that year, Frazier encountered a training incident which left him legally blind in his left eye. When the pre-fight physical checkup was done he was able to read with his right eye.
When it was time to read with his left eye he covered his right eye with his hand but quickly shifted to cover the defective left eye when it was time to read. Thus he was able to pass his physical examination without the physician noticing his eye defect as he wrote in his autobiography.
In his second bout, he was floored by Mike Bruce and was counted a mandatory eight count by the referee Bob Polis. But when Frazier got up he recovered by landing a flurry of punches on Bruce and won by third round knockout.
In 1966 when Frazier’s pro career was on the rise, Durham contacted Eddie Futch, that time one of the most revered trainers in boxing. Durham then sent Frazier to Los Angeles to train under Futch as Durham arranged three fights for him there. He fought Al Jones and Eddie Machen and prevailed over them by knockout.
But he was not able to stop George “Scrap Iron” Johnson who survived ten rounds with Frazier who won by unanimous decision. It was told by The Ring Magazine that Johnson bet all his purse that he would last up to the tenth round.
Futch became a full time member of Frazier’s team as assistant trainer to Durham and he became a chief adviser on matchmaking. It was Futch who suggested that Frazier would boycott the 1967 WBA Heavyweight Elimination Tournament to find a successor to Muhammad Ali who was stripped of his title for failing to join the military draft for the Vietnam War.
They reasoned out that Frazier being the top contender should automatically fight for the championship without undergoing elimination.
Futch proved to be a big contributor in improving Frazier’s fighting style by developing the bob-and-weave defensive technique making him difficult for taller opponents to hit and his punches became more powerful.
Futch was based in Los Angeles where he worked as supervisor in the US Postal Service and had to fly to Philadelphia during the final stages in the training for Frazier’s fights.
After Durham died of a stroke in 1973, Futch was asked to succeed as Frazier’s head trainer and manager. That time he was training Ken Norton who lost his rematch with Muhammad Ali less than two weeks before Durham died. Norton’s manager demanded that Futch had to choose between Norton and Frazier. Futch therefore decided to train Frazier and the rest is history.
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