Just after he died, I read an article about him in TV Guide, which acknowledged what a great boxer he was, but lamented that it was Muhammad Ali who really paved the way for all the trash talking about one's opponents in modern sports. Listen to any old clip of someone asking Rocky Marciano, or Joe Louis, or really any fighter before Ali, and they invariably made polite, respectful comments along the lines of "well, he's a great fighter, and I'm sure he's going to give me a tough match, but I'm confident I'll beat him." Something like that. They were good sports.
Contrast that with Ali talking shit about Joe Frazier, calling him a gorilla, and so on. It's all the more surprising when you learn how respectful Frazier had always been of Ali. When Ali was barred from boxing in 1968, he fell on hard times, and Frazier gave him money, testified before Congress and wrote to President Nixon to have Ali reinstated in boxing. Frazier also said publicly that he was just holding the title, it was really Ali's, and if Ali were let back in, he would be glad to hand it back.
When Ali was reinstated, Frazier's thanks for his graciousness and support was to be mocked, insulted, and publicly told by Ali that Frazier's title didn't mean anything. You can see why a very pissed off Joe Frazier fought so hard against Ali in 1971, and defeated him. It was a well-deserved karmic defeat for Ali; his treatment of Joe Frazier had been utterly shameful.
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