The True Philadelphia Heavyweight Champion

Joe Frazier got short changed in both "real world versus Rocky" line ups. Therefore, he gets an entire post with videos for each confrontation in the "Gauntlet." I chose specific locations to make it seem like Joe had traded places with Balboa throughout the film franchise. However, I'm old and forget things now, making that less obvious than it should have been.

Hopefully, I can remember anything that happened while playing, otherwise there will only be a string of images. As of writing this, I haven't read his autobiography yet. Thought I did read his training book, and given the state of my "to read" pile, I should be finished with it by the time this posts.

Rocky Balboa

We start off substituting Joe Frazier for Spider Rico in the bout at the start of the first film in a Philadelphia Gym. There are a lot of similarities between Rocky and Smokin' Joe. Running through Philly including up the Art Museum steps and training by punching sides of beef in the slaughterhouse he worked in both came from Frazier. (And possibly Stallone's character's hidden blindness in one eye in Grudge Match.) Both men were known for swarming body attacks and fight ending left hooks. The big difference is that Rocky is fictional, and boxing movies feature WAY more thrown punches than actual bouts. With Joe's ability to bob and weave through them, he took the lead early, knocked the Italian Stallion down in the third, and after softening him up with a few of those left hooks, out onto his face in the fourth.

Apollo Creed

A fancy arena (Probably MSG since the Spectrum wasn't an option, and the Garden is where Joe briefly silenced the Louisville Lip) is the site for Frazier taking Rocky's big break against the world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed. The Master of Disaster hangs in there longer than Rock did, but even though he was based on Ali, movie fight logic means he doesn't last as long as the real thing. Frazier took two rounds to get the measure of his opponent this time before he starts Smokin'. Creed could rise after falling in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds, but his second fall in the sixth was his final. (No, I have no idea why the video quality drops sometimes. Life can be rough.)

Clubber Lang

This battle was in Clubber's home town of Chicago in the Aragon Ballroom... I think. (I really should take notes when I'm trying to make a story line.) For a change, Joe Frazier has a rare height and reach advantage. Ironically, using a boxer known for swarming and hooks, this was the match I really learned to work off the jab. Somehow, that seemed appropriate for a man who valued the fundamentals so much. (See, I did read his training book.) Doing that allowed battering the over zealous Lang from the very start of the fight, much like Balboa did in their second match up. The second round opened with one of Frazier's well used mid section assaults that brought Clubber to the ground. After chasing him for much of the round (speeded up in playback for file storage reasons) Smokin' Joe sent Mr. Lang, and the Windy City crowd, home early with the most feared left hook in boxing.

Ivan Drago

Set in a HUGE STADIUM it was to be an international clash for the ages, with Frazier taking Apollo's place in the first fight, since he had beat the Count of Monte Fisto in their initial meeting. Smokin' Joe bobbed and weaved around the massive fists of the Siberian Express, or withstood punishment no man should be able to. Over and over he worked his way inside to unleash massive blows to the big Russian's midsection, slowly wearing him down. It reached the point where Drago was clearly wounded and winded, missing punches more often than landing them and allowing Joe's counters to slam into his ribs and stomach. When a wild hook went clean over Frazier's head, the answering uppercut to the body was clearly sending Ivan down to the floor...

Then the game cheated and froze up. After ten exhausting rounds I certainly wasn't doing that again in the middle of the night.

Tommy "Gunn"

Joe Frazier is one of the fighters whose image was not licensed for bare knuckle matches. Therefore the bout against the ungrateful pupil was held in...um... 

one of the smaller venues who's name and reasoning eludes me... and its fuzzy because technical issues abound in this set. Given Morrison's/Gunn's performance in other gauntlets and given Frazier's abilities, this should have been a single round match. However, I was still all pissy from the game shutting down instead of conceding a loss against Ivan. Therefore, Smokin' Joe proceeded to beat the living tar out of Tommy, enough to knock him down twice in the second, but not finish it. A merciful (if damaging), full blast left hook ended the punishment in the third round. 

Mason Dixon

I had calmed down enough for a normal fight, in Vegas just like the movie. (Hey, I remembered one!!) Dixon always puts up a good battle and again showed he can last. The winning of rounds went back and forth for a while. Joe fought smart, working off the jab and fighting defensively up until his greater power began to wear down the young champion. Then Frazier went back to swarming tactics, cutting "The Line" and knocking him down once in the seventh. The eighth and final round started with Dixon being floored with that famous left hook. He made it to his feet, but Smokin' Joe landed other staggering lefts, assaulted his midsection and finished the round by showing his right hook could be just as fearsome as his well renowned other hand.

Post Script-

Yes, I did complete Joe Frazier's excellent autobiography. It reads with the same straight forward and engaging style he used in interviews. Therefore, I had no choice but to re-do the Ivan Drago fight. 

Back to the big stadium they went.

It was ten rounds of moving away from Drago's monstrous right, and getting inside where possible to lay down a swarm of punches, mostly to the body. There was less countering, more power, and more head shots mixed in than the Moore battle. Smokin' Joe took control in the later rounds and poured on the pressure

I had the camera all set to record the victory in "real time" using the better slow motion instant replay within the game and followed by the reaction and celebration shots. It worked perfectly when the big Russian fell to an uppercut combination in the twelfth round.

It worked considerably less perfectly for the knockout blow, when I grabbed the camera the wrong way and accidentally turned it off instead of starting to record. By the time I fixed it, I was forced to use the manual instant replay I usually do to capture Frazier's final assault on the body and finishing hooks.

As it was well after two am once again, in what had become a needed to my derange way of thinking waste of time. I had neither the skill or the energy to go another dozen rounds to film it properly.

Reading his book had me trying out Smokin' Joe against other opponents on various weekends in between, mostly for my own enjoyment. (Translation, I didn't try filming anything in these bouts that never made it past the fifth round.)

Big George Forman still had knockout power and boxing skills in his forties, but didn't face anyone with the abilities of the heavyweights during his prime. Joe made his way inside easily, repeatedly...and always smokin'.

Frazier survived several stunning blows from James Thunder, holder of the record for fastest knockout, worked under his long reach, and chopped the man down.

Floyd Patterson had speed and height advantages, but Smokin' Joe had greater reach, power and a much stronger chin. Patterson went out after a combo of uppercuts to the the stomach and the jaw.

And once Joe got inside Primo Carnera's gangly range, he could do what he wanted, finishing him off with a left hook to the ribs that rippled through the big guy's entire frame and bent him in half sideways.

Fighting the man who broke Ali's jaw was a different matter though. Ken Norton's power, size and solid defense turned it into a war of attrition. Joe Frazier's willingness to "take one to give one" was on full display. Once Norton took a comfortable lead on points, he very nearly stopped throwing punches and covered up any time Frazier got close to working his way in to try swarming. 

Slowly but surely, Joe got to "smokin'." Norton began to tire, and Frazier's barrage of punches  never let up, maintaining the power and pace he was known to. Eventually his shots broke through the cross armed defense and resoundingly closed out the night in the ninth round.

But lets step back to the night of the second Drago fight attempt.

Smokin' Joe deserved better than a game glitch and personal screw up robbing him of a filmed victory celebration twice. Given it was late and I was tired (the mission statement of my boxing game posts) Joe faced Butterbean, the "King of the Four Rounders" from my USA Tuesday Night Fight days... 

And proved why that artificial "royal" title meant absolutely nothing when compared to "Heavyweight Champion of the World" in considerably less than four rounds.

However, as I finished reading his life story, I felt showing a victory celebration against an opponent the champ himself would likely refer to as a "tomato can" was unworthy of the Joe Frazier. 

Once again my need to avoid hurting the feelings of a digital representation of an individual I never could have met reared its head. On yet another late weekend night, (dangerously close to this post going live) with camera at the ready, and knowing the difference between the "record" and "off" buttons, Joe Frazier took on the man known by many as the hardest puncher in heavyweight boxing history, Ernie Shavers.

There was a great deal of back and forth trading blows in the first five rounds, but by that point Frazier was truly smokin'!

Joe took command of the fight in the sixth continuing his attack, content to have his head shots missed or blocked, in order to open up Shavers's mid section.  

Those powerful body blows knocked Ernie Shavers to the canvas in the seventh round.

Assured of another victory, Joe Frazier opened up a full assault, ignoring his own defense, and blazing forward with a continuous swarm of punches to the face and torso in the eighth round. This put Shavers down...

And when he rose again, Smokin' Joe attained victory, proving there is far more to boxing than "punching hard" He ended the fight, the evening, and yet another post of me babbling on about a some dumb old video game with his legendary left hook.

Guess what? 

My slacking off will reach even greater heights with one final boxing video game post for this set, next time!