A Rinoceros Stomping on a Cobra...

Bob Foster was a tall thin fellow-six feet three inches, and 175 pounds when he fought as a light heavyweight...

As a light heavyweight Foster was known as a big puncher. From the time he won the title from Dick Tiger on a fourth-round knockout in May, 1968, he had scored twelve straight knockouts, including four of them in title defenses.

But the skinny man's punch did not always translate when Foster got in there with legitimate heavyweights. Doug Jones had knocked him out 1962, Ernie Terrell had knocked him out in 1964, and Zora Folley had beat him by decision in 1965.

And I didn't have any trouble beating him either. One reporter described it like a rinoceros stomping on a cobra. Fact is I hit him so hard in knocking him down twice in the second ( and final) round that he sprained his ankle when he fell to the canvas and back in the dressing room he didn't remember he'd already fought me.

That's right. When Foster put back on his high-top boxing shoes, one of his handlers asked, " What are you doin', Bob?"

"Got to fight Frazier, " Foster told him.

After the first knockdown, Foster was so shaky on his legs that I looked toward the referee, Tom Brisco, hoping he'd stop the fight. Instead he waved me on.

For the final knockdown, I hit Foster with a left hook to the body and then another left to the head. He went down as though yanked by a string. He fell into the ropes and then forward. He was out of it, but the poor guy didn't know it. Like a knee-jerk response, he tried to get to his knees before falling over to his right again. It was scary enough to bring Yank and a bunch of medical guys with stethoscopes rushing into the ring as the referee was the finishing the count.

Yank cradling Foster's head when Brisco told him, " Let the doctors take care of him."

"Shut up you stupid son of a bitch." Yank snapped. "Why didn't you stop the fight? This man could be seriously hurt." (1)

-Joe Frazier

Vintage Original Closed Circuit Ticket

Size: 2 1/8 X 5 5/8 inches

Condition: Fine

Price: $ 38.00

2000-2066

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(1) Smokin Joe The Autobiography by Joe Frazier with Phil Berger. pp. 90-91