PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 The bronze statue of real-life Philly boxer \u201cSmokin\u2019\u201d Joe Frazier has a permanent home outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, replacing the popular Rocky sculpture of fictional fighter Rocky Balboa.<\/p>\n
City leaders joined Frazier family members in unveiling the statue at a ceremony Monday near the foot of the Art Museum steps.<\/p>\n
The 9-foot likeness of Frazier depicts his follow-through after the left hook that knocked down Muhammad Ali in the 1971 \u201cFight of the Century.\u201d <\/p>\n
The statue had stood outside Stateside Live! at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex for the last decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was talk even 12 years ago, 11 years ago when this was first installed, that we would want to move this up to somewhere around here,\u201d sculptor Stephen Layne told KYW Newsradio at Monday\u2019s unveiling. \u201cOne of the most wonderful aspects of it is, instead of it being just considered a sports figure, that it is a cultural icon and a cultural figure. And for that to be in such a wonderful location reinforces that sentiment for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Cherelle Parker, speaking during the ceremony, said the actor who played \u201cRocky\u201d was on board with the move. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I shared with Sylvester Stallone that we were moving Joe Frazier here, Sylvester Stallone said that is what is supposed to happen. So give it up for Sylvester Stallone.\u201d <\/p>\n
Parker said the Rocky statue, which was moved inside the museum for a summertime exhibition, had been the second-most-visited statue in the nation behind the Statue of Liberty. The Rocky statue will later be moved to the top of the Art Museum steps.<\/p>\n
The mayor also said the city would launch a \u201cvehicle\u201d to allow people to contribute toward restoring Frazier\u2019s North Philadelphia gym.<\/p>\n
Frazier, an Olympic gold medalist and heavyweight champion, died of liver cancer in 2011.<\/p>\n
Frazier\u2019s daughter, Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde, said her father\u2019s statue stands near the Philadelphia spot where he used to do calisthenics while training. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want people to know when you come to Philly, you gonna get it,\u201d she told reporters. You\u2019re going to get sisterly affection, brotherly love, and if you need a beatdown, we got that for you too!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 The bronze statue of real-life Philly boxer \u201cSmokin\u2019\u201d Joe Frazier has a permanent home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[52619,69,16707,71,70],"class_list":["post-231352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-joe-frazier","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-art-museum","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}