The “Sunshine Showdown” between George Foreman and Joe Frazier was one of the most brutal disempowerments of a heavyweight champ. Frazier still amazed.
The world champion, the destroyer with the crushing left hook, undefeated in 29 professional fights to date, had defeated the great Muhammad Ali two years earlier in the “Fight of the Century”.
Frazier was at the top, so what could his opponent George Foreman possibly do to him? The answer to this question turned out differently than many suspected – including Foreman.
Joe Frazier dispatched in the “Sunshine Showdown”
To everyone’s surprise, Foreman was not only the superior man in the ring 52 years ago today, he beat Frazier like a helpless child through the ring, already in the first three minutes “Big George” sent the champion to the ground three times, the second round was even more disastrous, there was no third. “Down goes Frazier!” the legendary exclamation of TV commentator Howard Cosell, became a familiar saying in the USA.
To this day, the “Sunshine Showdown” is arguably the most devastating, brutal disempowerment of a heavyweight champion in modern times – comparable only to Floyd Patterson’s double dismantling by Sonny Liston in 1962 and 1963. In retrospect, however, winner Foreman looks back on his great triumph differently than many would expect.
George Foreman didn’t want to fight Frazier
“If I said I was confident I could beat Joe Frazier, I’d be lying,” Foreman recalled of the first of two fights with “Smokin’ Joe.” Foreman “had to” compete at the time, but “I didn’t want to do it.” But “I trained harder than ever before, and I had rhythm. But was I confident? No, I wasn’t. I didn’t have self-confidence back then.”
Still, Foreman, who, like Frazier, came from a difficult social background, is impressed by what his rival was able to take. “People often talk about how Joe Frazier was knocked down six times in this fight. But the amazing thing is that he got up six times. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Foreman.
When referee Arthur Mercante stopped the unequal fight, “I was so glad it was over”.
Muhammad Ali outwitted Foreman
Frazier, who died in 2011, also proved to be a stand-up guy in retrospect, coming back and fighting several more big fights – all of which he lost, however: in 1974, he lost on points to Ali in the rematch, and in 1975, he lost to the icon in the destructive and life-threatening “Thrilla in Manila” fight.
A final great duel with Foreman in 1976 ended with another knockout triumph for Foreman, who by this time had lost his magic touch: after his defeat in the “Rumble in the Jungle” against Muhammad Ali, he never regained his former strength despite his second triumph over Frazier.
He only managed to regain the world championship throne after his late comeback in the nineties – although this was in turn diminished by his dubious victory over Axel Schulz.
