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Ali leads tributes for Joe Frazier

Updated on: 09 November,2011 10:05 AM IST |
PA Sport |

Former world heavyweight champion leads tributes to Frazier -- the man who handed him his first defeat -- after the 67-year-old lost his battle with cancer

Former world heavyweight champion leads tributes to Frazieru00a0-- the man who handed him his first defeatu00a0-- after the 67-year-old lost his battle with cancer

Joe Frazier

This morning tributes poured in from throughout the world of boxing and beyond. But it is his fights with Ali for which Frazier is best remembered.

Epic battle: Joe Frazier knocks out Muhammad Ali at the Madison Square
Garden, in New York in 1971. Pic/AFP

Frazier beat Ali on points in the so-called 'Fight of the Century' in 1971, but lost in two further meetings including the epic 'Thrilla in Manila' in 1975.

Muhammad Ali

Ali said: "The world has lost a great champion. I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration. My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones." The pair had an at-times fraught relationship, dating back to taunts Ali directed at his rival in the build-up to their famous trilogy of fights. But they were reported to have been on better terms in recent years.

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