Joe Frazier Quotations

I grew up in Beaufort, South Carolina, in a six-room farmhouse with a couple of leaning posts to keep it from fallin'. I came up in a time when men were men.

My family's support and the negative environment of the day toward blacks in South Carolina became the forces that led me out of the South - first to New York, then to Philadelphia, where I found opportunity in the form of a PAL gym and my trainer, Yank Durham.

Had my own car at twelve years old. Left school in the tenth grade. Married when I was sixteen. Ain't hard to figure out; I was a man at a very young age.

I went to see President Nixon at the White House. It wasn't difficult to get a meeting because I was heavyweight champion of the world. So I came to Washington and walked around the garden with Nixon, his wife and daughter. I said: I want you to give Ali his licence back. I want to beat him up for you.

Ali even told me in the ring, 'You can't beat me - I'm your Lord.' I just told him, 'Lord, you're in the wrong place tonight.'

I've achieved 'the American dream.' I feel it's my duty to help others achieve their vision, too - especially the youth.

My left eye went when I was young. I was working the speed bag, and some steel went in the eye and scratched it to pieces. I was kinda blind in that eye.

I don't think a man has to go around shouting and play-acting to prove he is something. And a real man don't go around putting other guys down, trampling their feelings in the dirt, making out they're nothing.

Since I was a boy of five or six, I had it in my mind I would be a world boxing champion.

The way I fight, it's not me beatin' the man. I make the man whip himself.

When you work for me, you don't say good things about Ali.

Trust me. Sometimes God comes down and puts his hand on you if you're too big in your thoughts.

I don't want to be no more than what I am.

I want to hit him, step away and watch him hurt. I want his heart.

Twenty years I've been fighting Ali, and I still want to take him apart piece by piece and send him back to Jesus.

Boxing is the only sport you can get your brain shook, your money took and your name in the undertaker book.

Life doesn't run away from nobody. Life runs at people.

Preaching don't mean you are a true man. You got to go out and do.

This is just another man, another fight, another payday.

Ali always said I would be nothing without him. But what would he have been without me?

When I go out there, I have no pity on my brother. I'm out there to win.

I wasn't a big guy. People thought the big guys would eat me up. But it was the other way around. I loved to fight bigger guys.

When I was a boy, I used to pull a big cross saw with my dad. He'd use his right hand, so I'd have to use my left.

I had my Olympic gold medal cut up into eleven pieces. Gave all eleven of my kids a piece. It'll come together again when they put me down.

Work is the only meanin' I've ever known.

I hated Ali. God might not like me talking that way, but its in my heart.

We're in Manila. Come on, gorilla; this is a thriller.

He's good. I think he's still a young man. If he stays here and works with us on the basics, we'll make him better than good.

My mom allowed me to take an old burlap bag and fill it with moss, corn stalks and rocks, then hang it from a tree and spend an hour a day punching my heavy bag.

I was never, ever once angry in the ring.

We got it on, ... The fight itself was a tough fight for both of us. It was hard.

Fightin' George Foreman is like being in the street with an eighteen-wheeler comin' at you.

You can tell he's been in the gym just as much as he played hockey,

This ultimate fighting stuff is something I don't agree with. Once a man is down, you have to let him have a chance to prove how good he is.

It was all about the ring. That's where you got your brains shook and the money took.

I wanted him like a hog wants slop,

Ali would not be Ali unless I had come along. Him and me had three fights.

I want to hurt him. If I knock him down, I'll stand back, give him a chance to breathe. It's his heart I want.

I know my destiny. I was born into animosity, bigotry and hatred. We had water for white folks, and water for coloured folks. White lines, black lines. I came from Beaufort in South Carolina, and it was tougher than Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

I couldn't go to school with whites. Now there are schools that educate everyone.

I don't mind people want to think Muhammad is the greatest fighter around. Everybody wants to make him great because of his mouth, that he was the best. He was good, but that doesn't make him great. I proved that.

There's one thing I don't ever think about: losing ... Instead, I think about how I'm going to win, and how I can do it the quickest way.

Work is the only meanin' I've ever known. Like the man in the song says, I just gotta keep on keepin' on.

Champions aren't made in the ring, they are merely recognized there.

Fighting George Foreman is like being in the street with an 18-wheeler coming at you.

I don't want nothing comin' at me that I can't stop.

If I said 'Fall down', he's gonna fall down. I'm still his father.

A sound body keeps a sound mind.

There are places on a man's head that are as hard as a rock. Your head's actually stronger than your body. And you don't have too many instruments up there workin'.

I had a job to do in the ring, and the businessmen around me had a job to do outside the ring, I did my job by beating up most of the guys they put in front of me and staying in shape, but the people I trusted didn't do their jobs.

Joe Frazier's life didn't start with Ali. I was a Golden Gloves champ. Gold medal in Tokyo '64. Heavyweight champion of the world long before I fought Ali in the Garden.

When I go out there, I have no pity on my brother. I am out there to win.

You got 3 things going against you: you're good, you're left-handed, and you're black

Ali kept calling me ugly, but I never thought of myself as being any uglier than him, I have 11 babies, somebody thought I was cute.

His mouth made him feel like he was gonna win. Not his hands, I had my hand. He had his lips.

I loved fighting... It gave me the opportunity to prove myself, to stand up and say, 'I'm the best. I matter. I am.'

The boxing game has been good, so we need to give back. We have to teach young men how to be men.

I hit him with body shots that would have brought down cities.

Ali always said I would be nothing without him, but who would he have been without me?

I got a burlap sack, put a brick in the middle, and filled it with rags, corncobs, some Spanish moss, and sand. I hung that sack off the branch of an oak tree. I'd wrap my hands with a necktie of my daddy's and punch at it. My mom gave me an hour a day. My brothers and sisters said, "Nah." I said, "You'll see."

Joe Louis is the greatest heavyweight champion of all time. Rocky Marciano is second only to Louis. Where do I rate Ali? Somewhere below me. I beat him, and if I could beat him, no doubt Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano could have beaten him.

Courage is how bad you want it.

If I lose, I'll walk away and never feel bad because I did all I could. There was nothing more to do.

If you cheat in the dark of the morning, you'll get found in the bright lights of the night.

You can map out a light plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you're down to the reflexes you developed in training. That's where roadwork shows - the training you did in the dark of the mornin' will show when you're under the bright lights.

Champions aren't made in the ring, they are merely recognized there. What you cheat on in the early light of morning will show up in the ring under the bright lights.