outside Stateside Live! in South Philadelphia<\/a>, where it stood for the past 10 years.<\/p>\nAn unveiling ceremony for the statue was held Monday morning. Frazier’s daughter, Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde; Stephen Layne, who created the Frazier sculpture; Mayor Cherelle Parker; and other city officials were all in attendance. <\/p>\n
City officials stated that the statue represents Frazier at the peak of his career and that the relocation honors the former Heavyweight Champion of the World\u2019s enduring impact on Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe Frazier represents the very best of Philadelphia\u2014discipline, resilience, humility, and heart,\u201d said\u00a0Mayor Cherelle L. Parker. \u00a0\u201cRelocating his statue to the Philadelphia Museum of Art honors a true Philadelphian whose life embodied the values our city is known for and places his legacy in a space that resonates with people around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Joe-Frazier-Statue-Unveiling-Art-Museum-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
The statue relocation was made possible by the Art Commission of Creative Philadelphia in partnership with members of Joe Frazier\u2019s family, the Smokin\u2019 Joe Frazier Championship Foundation, Joe Hand Promotions, and the statue artist Stephen Layne.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about honoring World Heavyweight Champion Smokin\u2019 Joe Frazier not just as a champion, but as a man who worked hard, stayed grounded, and gave back to his city,\u201d said\u00a0Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde, daughter of Joe Frazier and professional boxing champion. \u201cOur family is proud that his legacy will be shared in a place of cultural significance that reflects everything he stood for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Frazier was born January 12, 1944, in Beaufort, South Carolina, but would later live and train in Philadelphia, where he operated his own boxing gym in his later years.<\/p>\n
The Hall of Famer won the Olympic gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Games. He then turned pro in 1965.<\/p>\n
Frazier was the first man to beat Muhammad Ali, knocking him down and taking a decision in the so-called “Fight of the Century” in 1971. He would then go on to lose two more fights to Ali, including the epic 1975 “Thrilla in Manila.”<\/p>\n
Frazier passed away on November 7, 2011, at the age of 67, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after a brief battle with liver cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A statue honoring the late boxing legend Joe Frazier has found a new home. Crews relocated the statue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,2023,501,156,111,139,69,6583,53510],"class_list":["post-501883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-boxing","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-museum-of-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}