Joe Frazier intimidated Ali. No one else had wanted to fight Ali with the single minded dedication and focus that showed. Joe’s confidence shook Ali and his trash talk was simply a facade to hide his fear.
-
-
He sensed he could get away with it because Joe was slow & awful black.Comment
-
- -Ali played the race card big time in the first fight knowing thems fightin' words.
He got a fight alright as Joe tore him a new one while Ali had to fight for his life.Comment
-
-
Joe was so black you could still see his outline in regular darkness as a deeper shadow. Eventually, the plantation owners had learned to breed their own new stock, a lighter shade more handsome, then breed that generation, too. But Joe's kinfolk stayed black as coal through the decades, pepper of the earth, and men of the spade.Comment
-
Ali was a comedian.
Comedians go "too far." That's what they do. Tony Hendra (National Lampoon, the guy who sang a John Lennon parody, "Magical Misery Tour") wrote a book about this: "Going Too Far." Also, comedians love sick jokes and if there's no laugh, they mockingly say "Too soon?"
Ali loved being part of a good comedy team. Him and Howard Cosell. Why didn't he joke with other sportswriters as much? Howard was perfect.
Joe Frazier also made for a good straight man. Sonny Liston was Ali's first comedy partner. Sonny was the first one to get Ali coming to his house and yanking his chain. Frazier was the second, with Ali taunting him outside a hotel window.
In between, no, Ali & Norton, Ali & Foreman, Ali & Cooper...no chemistry for comedy. You might remember that he could barely crack a joke on Earnie Shavers, calling him "The Acorn," and he simply had nothing when it came to a fighter who was already a joke like Jean-Pierre Coopman, or a bland nice guy like Joe Bugner.
Ali grabbing the rubber gorilla toy? Yes, that was "going too far." Even Sam Kinison admitted he went too far once in a while. Ali did regret the gorilla bit, and I think he privately apologized to Joe, but you couldn't blame Frazier for forgiving, then getting angry all over again, and repeating the pattern.
In the ring Ali was a boxer. Outside, he did magic tricks, recited comic poems, entertained, and went too far once in a while with the insult humor.Comment
Comment