by Derek Bolender on Nov 11, 2011 at 3:00 pm ET
The world was deeply saddened this week when the news came.
On Monday, Nov. 7, boxing legend Joe Frazier passed away from liver cancer at the age of 67.
UFC site coordinator Burt Watson was closer to Frazier than most. He worked for him. He was not only Joe's manager, but also a great friend. The two were practically family.
"I'm still kind of in shock," Watson told MMAjunkie.com Radio (
www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "He was definitely more than just what the boxing world and the sports world knew of him. He was a person. He was a real man. I spent almost 15 years with Joe."
Whether you were a family member, a friend or a fan halfway across the world, it didn't matter. Everybody who knew Frazier on some level felt something in the aftermath of his death.
"Smokin' Joe" was one of the best heavyweight boxers ever – a 1964 Olympic gold medalist, a Hall-of-Famer who amassed a career 32-4-1 record with 27 knockouts in a career that spanned from 1965 to 1976 (with a one-fight comeback in 1981).
Under the tutelage of Yank Durham and later Eddie Futch, Frazier became a destructive, aggressive force in the ring with one of the best left hooks ever seen. Frazier employed an old school, get-in-your-face," crowd-pleasing style. He didn't just beat his adversaries; he obliterated them.
Despite a long and storied career, he will forever be linked to Muhammad Ali and the thrilling and brutal trilogy they shared, which included the "Fight of the Century" and the "Thrilla in Manila."
Those weren't just fights. They were events that transcended sport. Now they're cultural landmarks permanently woven into the fabric of history.
"The world has lost a great champion," Ali said in a public statement following the news of Frazier's death. "I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration."
A gallant warrior and a larger-than-life icon is now gone.
To Watson, Smokin' Joe was just "Joe." And he was a better man outside the ring than a fighter within its confines.
Watson took some time to reflect on the life of Frazier this week while fulfilling his duties related to the UFC on FOX card, which takes place Saturday at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
In some ways it's fitting the week Frazier passed Watson is behind the scenes making sure the heavyweight championship fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos goes off without a hitch.
Watson originally met Frazier out of the blue during a limousine ride decades ago. A second chance meeting would come, and the pair became fast friends from that point forward and began to spend a lot of time together.
"We started hanging out, and it was one of those things where, hey man, you have got to either hire me or leave me the hell alone," Watson joked. "He gave me my break. And he gave me my break when he didn't have to. He gave me a break because he felt it. He trusted me. He trusted me heart. I trusted him, his heart."
Watson would wear many hats during his time with Frazier. Some days he was security. Others he acted as a personal assistant or quasi-psychologist. Anything he needed.
"We would go places just because he wanted to go," Watson said. "And we would walk in, and people would sit and look and would be awed and surprised it was him walking in to wherever we would go. But that's just the person he was. He didn't separate himself. He didn't take himself from the community. He gave more of himself back to people than anything monetarily. I don't think there's a person in Philadelphia that met Joe Frazier that didn't realize how real and genuine he was.
"Joe was one of the few super superstars that never took himself out of reality, took himself away from the people he loved, the people that made him famous. He stayed in the neighborhood. Everyone could touch him. A lot of times superstars, when people become superstars, for certain reasons they have to live that way. Joe never took himself out of that realm."
Watson got to see first hand what it was like to accompany a superstar around the globe, to be there when he fought in his monumental battles in the ring.
The trilogy with Ali, like millions of others, holds a special place in his heart.
"I think that's probably going to take us through the rest of history," Watson said. "That's what made history, the trilogy with Muhammad Ali and him. But he also became his own figure. He became Joe Frazier. He became kind of a people's champion. And there are a lot of people that admire and like Joe Frazier not just because he fought Muhammad Ali, but like him because of his style, the way he fought, the way he got his fame, the way he handled his fame, the toughness, the grittiness, the lunchbox-carrying boy from South Carolina."
Throughout his rollercoaster journey with Frazier, Watson accumulated countless photographs from their experiences together. And he has even more stories to tell.
One involved a meeting with Nelson Mandela in 1990 following his release from a 27-year prison sentence. Mandela would go on to become the President of South Africa in 1994.
"When he (Mandela) was getting out (of prison), his two wishes were to meet Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali," Watson said. "When he got out, his first trip was to the United Nations in New York. They called us. They asked if Joe could come. Joe said he'd be honored. We talked about what to give him. And Joe said, 'We'll give him the belt.'"
It was a green World Boxing Council championship belt Frazier had previously earned. And it was about to become one of Mandela's possessions.
Watson and Frazier drove up to New York to the United Nations building, walked down the stairs and into a room full of New York City police. They sat down and waited.
"About 10 minutes later, Nelson Mandela and his guy walks in the room," Watson said. "And, it was him. He walked in the room and he saw Joe, and he lit up.
"Joe was going to have him take a picture with that belt because he was a boxing fan. When they took that picture, I actually took the belt and put it around Nelson Mandela's waist while they took the picture."
Roughly nine years later, Watson ran into Mandela again.
"He did not remember me," Watson said. "(But) when I mentioned Joe Frazier's belt, he lit up, and he remembered – because he still had that belt."
These are the kinds of memories Watson will cherish forever.
The hustle and bustle he had with Frazier is something Watson still enjoys except now it has been taken to another level encompassing an entire roster of UFC fighters.
What would Frazier say if he could pass along a pearl of wisdom to the UFC fighters and the boxers of today?
"You work hard, you get it," Watson said. "You work harder, you keep it. And when you get it, you don't let it go to your head, baby, because it lasts as long as you hold onto it.
"History has a way of making you a part of it without you even asking for it. So you don't have to do anything crazy to make history. It'll take care of itself. It'll do that for you. All you've got to do is be you and do what you do best and get the job done, plain and simple."
May he rest in peace.
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