Ali, others pay respects to Frazier

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

With his championship belt and a pair of gloves draped over his casket, Joe Frazier was going one more round.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson asked mourners to rise, put their hands together and for one last time “show your love” for the former heavyweight champion.

Muhammad Ali obliged.

Wearing a dark suit and sunglasses, a frail and trembling Ali rose from his seat and vigorously clapped for “Smokin’ Joe,” the fighter who handed Ali his first loss.

Ali was among the nearly 4,000 people who packed the Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia, where Frazier spent much of his life, for a two-hour “joyful celebration” in honor of the boxer. He died last week of liver cancer at the age of 67. Also attending were former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes, fellow Philadelphia fighter and longtime middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins and promoter Don King.

His body ravaged by Parkinson’s disease, Ali was accompanied by members of his family and wife, Lonnie, who rubbed his back while he was seated and held his hands as he entered and left the church.

Jackson delivered a stirring eulogy, describing Frazier as someone who “came from segregation, degradation and disgrace to amazing grace.”

“Tell them Rocky was not a champion. Joe Frazier was,” he said, referring to the hometown character from the boxing movie, “Rocky,” whose statue stands at the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “Tell them Rocky is fictitious, Joe was reality. Rocky’s fists are frozen in stone. Joe’s fists are smokin’. Rocky never faced Ali or Holmes or [George] Foreman. Rocky never tasted his own blood.

“There deserves to be a statue of Joe Frazier in downtown Philadelphia.”