Heavyweight champ Joe Frazier dies at 67

PanARMENIAN.Net - Joe Frazier, the former undisputed heavyweight champ famed for his epic fights against Muhammad Ali, died after a brief but brave battle with liver cancer. He was 67, AFP reports.

The family issued a news release confirming Frazier's death late Monday, November 7 night.

The boxing icon won an Olympic gold medal in a brilliant career that spanned almost 20 years but he was best known for fighting Aliin a famed 1970s trilogy of bouts, including the epic "Thrilla in Manila."

He had been under home care after being diagnosed a couple of weeks ago with the advanced liver cancer that took his life, a family friend said.

Frazier, nicknamed "Smokin' Joe," captured two major heavyweight titles while taking on all comers, including Ali, George Foreman, Jerry Quarry, Joe Bugner, Oscar Bonavena and George Chuvalo.

Frazier was a huge part of the heyday of boxing's heavyweight division in the 1970s. He finished his storied career with 32 wins (27 knockouts), four losses and one draw.

His four losses came at the hands of just two other legendary fighters from that era: Ali and Foreman.

Frazier was the first man to defeat Ali, with a unanimous 15-round decision in 1971 at Madison Square Garden, in what was dubbed the "Fight of the Century".

A member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, Frazier was the lone American fighter to win a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

In recent years, Frazier turned to singing, forming a back-up group called the Knockouts.