Friday night I had the opportunity to be at Lagasse’s Stadium at the Palazzo for Smokin Joe Fraziers birthday party.  Lagasse’s presented Joe with the first “Legends” award.  Part of the presentation included clips from the film “Thrilla in Manilla”.  Joe Frazier is best known for his fights with Muhammed Ali, and the rivalry between the two of them.  Frazier first fought Ali in 1971 and that fight was the only fight he won agianst Ali.  The two would meet a couple of more times with the most memorable fight being the fight in Manilla.  This fight was one that would go down in the history books as one of the most exciting fights ever.  It went for an astonishing 14 rounds!

What was most interesting about this evening with Joe was to see how passionate he still is about the sport of boxing.  He still loves the sport, and my guess is if his body had held up he would still be in the ring at 66.  He sat and watched the footage of “Thrilla in Manilla” with us and then added his two cents.  It was great to hear some insider facts from back in the day.  That last fight with Ali, Joe confirmed that he was blind the last three rounds.  He had had a prior training accident that had left him blind in one eye, and Ali had beaten the other eye to the point he could no longer see.  The MC of the event asked how Joe kept going and he said pure instinct.  It was apparent from the movie that these two fighters were willing and able to fight to the death, literally.  Thankfully Joe’s cornerman eventually called the fight, just as the Ali team was getting ready to do the same.

The Legends award was well recieved and in my humble opinion couldn’t have gone to a better man.