Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion famed for his trio of bouts with Muhammad Ali including the epic Thrilla in Manila, has died. He was 67.
Frazier died Monday in his Philadelphia home of liver cancer. He was diagnosed four or five weeks ago and had been in a hospice for the past week, his business manager, Leslie Wolff, said over the weekend.
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"We thank you for your prayers for our father and vast outpouring of love and support," Frazier's family said in a statement.
"I will always ...
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In October of 1980, Muhammad Ali was preparing to fight for an unprecedented fourth heavyweight title against his friend and former sparring partner Larry Holmes. To say that the great Ali was in the twilight of his career would be generous: Most of his admiring fans, friends and fight scribes considered his bravado delusional. What was left for him to prove? In the weeks of training before the fight, documentarians Albert and David Maysles took an intimate look at Ali trying to convince the world and perhaps himself, that he was still "The Greatest". At the same time, they documented the mild-mannered and undervalued champion Holmes as he confidently prepared to put an end to the career of a man for whom he had an abiding and deep affection for. In the raw moments after Ali's humbling in this one-sided fight, it was not fully comprehended what the Maysles brothers had actually captured on film, and due to unexpected circumstances the Maysles footage never received a public screening or airing. However, in the intervening years, the magnitude of this footage is now clear. An era ended when the braggadocio and confidence were stripped away in the ring, and the world's greatest hero was revealed to be a man. Here for the first time is the unseen filmed build up to that fight, accompanied by freshly shot interviews by Albert Maysles with members from both the Ali and Holmes camps, as well as others who were prime witnesses to this poignant foolhardy attempt at courage. watch
Laila Ali gave birth to a baby girl on Monday morning, the former boxer tweeted.
"Sydney arrived on...read more