Joe Frazier vs.
George Foreman, billed as ''The Sunshine Showdown'', was a professional boxing match in
Kingston, Jamaica contested on January 22, 1973, for the
WBA,
WBC and ''
The Ring'' heavyweight championships.
Background
In a matchup between two undefeated future hall-of-famers, undisputed heavyweight champion Joe Frazier and the number one-ranked heavyweight George Foreman reached an agreement in November 1972 for a January title fight at the
National Stadium
Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...
in
Kingston, Jamaica. Frazier was 29–0 and had won 10 consecutive heavyweight title fights at the time of his match with Foreman, first winning the
NYSAC
The New York State Athletic Commission or NYSAC, also known as the New York Athletic Commission, is a division of the New York State Department of State which regulates all contests and exhibitions of unarmed combat within the state of New York, ...
heavyweight title in 1968 and defending that title four times before knocking out
Jimmy Ellis to claim the vacant WBA and WBC titles in 1970 that had been stripped from
Muhammad Ali. Frazier's most notable defense would come against Ali himself in what was billed as the "Fight of the Century". After defeating Ali by unanimous decision, Frazier captured ''The Ring'' heavyweight title and became recognized as the
lineal champion
In combat sports where champions are decided by a challenge, the lineal championship of a weight class is a world championship title held initially by an undisputed champion and subsequently by a fighter who defeats the reigning champion in a mat ...
. Between his first Ali fight and his bout with Foreman, Frazier successfully defended his title twice against fringe contenders Terry Daniels and
Ron Stander
Ron Stander (October 17, 1944 – March 8, 2022) was an American professional boxer, who fought from 1969 to 1982. The highlight of Stander's pro career came on May 25, 1972 when he challenged for the world heavyweight championship in Omaha, Neb ...
. Following his knockout of Stander, Ali attempted to gain a rematch with Frazier, but Frazier ultimately agreed to face Foreman. The undefeated Foreman had accumulated 37 victories in just four years and was ranked number one by both the WBA and WBC at the time of landing his first title match against Frazier.
The fight
The fight lasted only two rounds, with Foreman scoring a technical knockout at 1:35 of the second round to dethrone Frazier and become the new undisputed heavyweight champion. Foreman brutalized Frazier for the duration of the fight, scoring six knockdowns over the champion. In ABC's television re-broadcast,
Howard Cosell
Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...
made the legendary exclamation: "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!" Less than two minutes into the fight, Foreman stunned Frazier with a series of punches and then sent him down to the canvas with a right uppercut. Frazier was able to get back up but Foreman would continue his dominance and with seventeen seconds left in the round, Foreman caught Frazier with an uppercut that brought him to his knees. Shortly after Frazier rose from that knockdown, a combination from Foreman put the champion on his back and he barely made it out of the round.
Frazier went out for the second round but Foreman knocked him down again shortly after the round began with an overhand right. Foreman then looked toward the champion's corner and was reported to say to Yancey Durham, Frazier's long time trainer, that if he did not step in and stop the fight, Foreman was going to “kill” Frazier. This was followed by a fifth knockdown, and then just as quickly Frazier fell a sixth time after a powerful right. By this time
Angelo Dundee
Angelo is an Italian masculine given name and surname meaning "angel", or "messenger".
People People with the given name
*Angelo Accattino (born 1966), Italian prelate of the Catholic Church
*Angelo Acciaioli (bishop) (1298–1357), Italian Rom ...
, who was at ringside scouting the bout, was pleading for the bout to be stopped. Referee
Arthur Mercante, Sr.
Arthur Mercante Sr. (January 26, 1920 – April 10, 2010) was an American boxing referee. His career lasted from the 1960s until 2001. Mercante's son also became a noted referee. In his youth, Arthur Mercante Sr. was a member of the Merchant M ...
finally called a halt to the bout after the sixth knockdown, and Foreman was declared the winner at 1:35 of the second round, to become, at the time, the third-youngest heavyweight champion in history (after
Floyd Patterson
Floyd Patterson (January 4, 1935 – May 11, 2006) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1952 to 1972, and twice reigned as the world heavyweight champion between 1956 and 1962. At the age of 21, he became the youngest boxer in hi ...
and
Muhammad Ali).
Aftermath
Foreman would successfully defend his titles twice in dominating fashion. First he knocked out
José Roman in the first round on September 1, 1973. He would follow this by knocking out another future hall-of-famer in the second round in
Ken Norton. Foreman would lose the titles in his third defense, against Muhammad Ali in one of the most famous fights in boxing history dubbed "
The Rumble in the Jungle
George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali, billed as ''The Rumble in the Jungle'', was a heavyweight championship boxing match on October 30, 1974, at the 20th of May Stadium (now the Stade Tata Raphaël) in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of t ...
."
Following a retirement and comeback, he then became the oldest world heavyweight champion in history when he knocked out
Michael Moorer
Michael Lee Moorer (born November 12, 1967) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2008. He won a world championship on four occasions in two weight classes, having held the WBO light heavyweight title from 1988 t ...
in 1994 at 45 years old.
Frazier returned to the ring in July 1973, where he defeated
Joe Bugner
József Kreul Bugner (born 13 March 1950) is a Hungarian-born British- Australian former heavyweight boxer and actor. He holds triple nationality, being a citizen of Hungary and a naturalised citizen of both Australia and the United King ...
by decision in a twelve round bout. This set up a second fight with Ali in January 1974, which Frazier lost by decision. He would fight for the heavyweight title one more time before he retired, facing Ali in the “
Thrilla in Manila” in 1975 in an unsuccessful attempt to regain what he had lost to Foreman.
In subsequent years, Cosell's shout of "Down goes Frazier!" became something of a catchphrase (usually in a humorous context), most notably by
Keith Olbermann
Keith Theodore Olbermann (; born January 27, 1959) is an American sports and political commentator and writer.
Olbermann spent the first 20 years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and r ...
, who would often use it while narrating clips of people or animals stumbling, tripping or otherwise falling down.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frazier, Foreman
1973 in boxing
World Boxing Association heavyweight championship matches
World Boxing Council heavyweight championship matches
1973 in Jamaica
January 1973 sports events in North America
Boxing in Jamaica
Boxing on HBO
Boxing matches