He Lent Ali Money — Then Ali Destroyed His Reputation

He lent Muhammad Ali money during Ali's exile, testified before Congress on his behalf, and fought for his right to return to the ring. Ali repaid him by branding him before the entire world as the establishment's man — the opponent of everything Black America stood for. For Joe Frazier, a sharecropper's son who had been driven out of the segregated South at fifteen, that public betrayal cut deeper than any punch he ever absorbed. This is the full story of Smokin' Joe Frazier: the twelfth child of a one-armed farmer from Beaufort, South Carolina, who built his first heavy bag out of rags, corncobs, and Spanish moss, fought through a broken thumb on his way to Olympic gold in Tokyo in nineteen sixty-four, and on March eighth, nineteen seventy-one, became the first man in history to defeat Muhammad Ali — winning the Fight of the Century by unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden. He was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. The Ring magazine named him Fighter of the Year three times. Boxing historians rank him among the ten greatest heavyweights who ever lived. He defeated Ali in the ring before two of the most punishing fights ever staged — including the Thrilla in Manila in nineteen seventy-five — took everything the sport could throw at him, and retired with a record of thirty-two wins, four losses, and one draw. The only men who ever beat him were Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. And yet, by the final years of his life, the millions earned across those historic fights had been dramatically reduced. A disputed land deal involving a signature he insisted was forged may have cost him a stake in property later estimated to be worth one hundred million dollars. The lawsuit he filed against his own business partners faded from the headlines without a widely reported resolution. A bronze statue meant to honor him in Philadelphia was declined by the city, which chose instead to erect a monument to a fictional movie boxer. His gym on North Broad Street was sold. His foundation for troubled youth was shelved. In late September of two thousand and eleven, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He passed away on November seventh, two thousand and eleven, in Philadelphia. He was sixty-seven years old, and he had known his diagnosis for roughly four or five weeks. This documentary tells the complete arc of his life — from the sharecropped farmland of South Carolina and a childhood injury that permanently bent his left arm, through Golden Gloves titles, Tokyo gold, the Fight of the Century, the Thrilla in Manila, and the long, painful years that followed. Joe Frazier never stopped getting up. This is the story of what that cost him.