Former heavyweight boxing champ Joe Frazier dies

Joe Frazier, the hard-hitting boxing heavyweight who handed the legendary Muhammad Ali his first defeat, died Monday, after he was diagnosed with liver cancer, his family said in a statement.

The former heavyweight champion, who was 67, became a legend in his own right and personified the gritty working-class style of his hometown, Philadelphia — where Rocky Balboa, the hardscrabble boxer in the “Rocky” film series, has come to symbolize that city.

“You could hear him coming, snorting and grunting and puffing, like a steam engine climbing a steep grade,” Bill Lyon wrote in a Philadelphia Inquirer column about Frazier, nicknamed Smokin’ Joe.

“He was swarming and unrelenting, and he prided himself that he never took a backward step, and he reduced the Sweet Science to this brutal bit of elemental math: ‘I’ll let you hit me five times if you’ll let me hit you just once.’ “

Frazier’s family issued a brief statement.

“We The Family of … Smokin’ Joe Frazier, regret to inform you of his passing,” the statement said. “He transitioned from this life as ‘One of God’s Men,’ on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”

Source: CNN