{"id":109926,"date":"2025-09-02T20:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109926\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T20:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:30:11","slug":"heavyweight-legend-joe-frazier-named-the-hardest-puncher-he-faced-he-could-really-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109926\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavyweight Legend Joe Frazier Named The Hardest Puncher He Faced: “He Could Really Hit”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Smokin\u2019 Joe Frazier<\/a> is widely considered to be one of boxing\u2019s best ever heavyweights.<\/p>\n

Frazier rose to stardom during the late 1960s before he became the undisputed heavyweight champion in 1973, a reign that lasted for several years before he was dethroned by George Foreman.<\/p>\n

He racked up victories over a number of the highly ranked heavyweights of his era, including the likes of Jerry Quarry, Joe Bugner<\/a> and Oscar Benavena.<\/p>\n

He also shared the ring with the legendary Muhammad Ali on three occasions throughout the course of his tenure, defeating \u2018The Greatest\u2019 in their first encounter back in March 1971 before he suffered defeats in their second and third bouts in 1974 and 1975 respectively.<\/p>\n

In an interview with FOX Sports<\/a>, Frazier named \u2018Big\u2019 George Foreman as the hardest puncher he ever crossed paths with. paying homage to the late great two-time world heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I have to talk about it (laughs)? It was George Foreman. He\u2019s a big guy. He could really hit. Look back at the details of past champions from those who watch what\u2019s going on in the fight game. There were only two true \u201cheavyweight\u201d champions, George Foreman and me. Muhammad had a light-heavyweight style \u2013 Larry Holmes, too. Kenny Norton was more like a middleweight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreman<\/a> \u2013 who knocked Frazier out in two rounds and then five rounds in their rematch \u2013 began his ascent to the pinnacle of the heavyweight division during the 1970s, defeating the likes of Ken Norton and Ron Lyle during his first reign as heavyweight champion. He would lose to Ali and soon retire.<\/p>\n

When he made a return to the sport in 1987, the thudding puncher would go on to become the oldest heavyweight champion of all time in 1994 by defeating Michael Moorer in sensational fashion to capture the unified WBA and IBF titles. When he retired for good, Foreman boasted 68 knockouts from 76 wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Smokin\u2019 Joe Frazier is widely considered to be one of boxing\u2019s best ever heavyweights. Frazier rose to stardom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-109926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}