Auction Item Details
Lot 291
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Lot Number: 291
Description: 1970 Joe Frazier's World Heavyweight Championship Belt awarded by RING MAGAZINE. Smokin Joe Frazier, who was the first heavy weight Olympian Gold Medalist from the United States, went on to become a World Heavy Weight Boxing Champion. (Note: Ali won the Olympic medal for light heavyweight, not heavyweight). Frazier won the Olympic Gold Medal after defeating the German Hans Huber in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. When Muhammad Ali was stripped of his belt for refusing to be inducted into the Armed Forces, the World Boxing Association (WBA) decided to hold an elimination tournament. The Frazier camp declined the WBA's invitation to participate in this elimination tournament and instead continued on the course that had already been laid out by Yank Durham for Frazier to win the World Championship belt. Because of his display of skills against some tough opponents, both the New York Boxing Commission and the European boxing community regarded Joe Frazier as the world champion and disavowed the WBA elimination tournament which eventually declared Jimmy Ellis as the WBA world champion. In what was considered a unification bout to merge the WBA and New York Boxing Commission/European championships, the undefeated Olympic Gold Medalist Joe Frazier won a TKO (technical knock out) against Jimmy Ellis at the end of the fourth round, at Madison Square Garden on February 16, 1970. Frazier delivered a left hook at the end of the 4th round dumping Ellis on his back. Ellis barely got up on the count of 9 after the bell but when the bell sounded for the 5th round EllisÆ manager Angelo Dundee stopped the fight. Back in the 1960s and the early 1970s, actual, physical boxing championship belts were not automatically given and if so, they were paid for and presented by fight sponsors. The Ring Magazine awarded the official belt for the World Heavy Weight Boxing Championship to Joe Frazier for the February 1970 unification match against Jimmy Ellis. The Ring magazine , which was first published in 1922, was the premier boxing magazine at the time. For unknown reasons, the inscription on the official Ring Magazine championship belt presented to Joe Frazier for the February 1970 Frazier vs. Ellis fight incorrectly describes Frazier's win as occurring in the 15th round by decision, rather than the actual 4th round TKO win.*
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