AllMovie

Now considered one of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time, "Smokin'" Joe Frazier (1944-2011) lived a truly remarkable life. Though he was born into the most disadvantageous of circumstances, surrounded by poverty in the pre-Civil Rights era South, Frazier soon moved to Philadelphia as a young man and began fighting his way up through the ranks as an amateur boxer - later participating in Olympic boxing, where he won a gold medal. In the years that followed, Frazier went pro and participated in a series of history making fights with opponents including George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, whose overtly political attitudes Frazier did not share. In fact, their rivalry became a symbol of the political divisions tearing apart the country during the Vietnam Era.