Boxing great Joe Frazier has liver cancer

Former heavyweight champion "Smokin' " Joe Frazier has been diagnosed with liver cancer and placed under hospice care, according to several media reports.

Frazier's business manager, Leslie Wolff, told The Associated Press that the 67-year-old Boxing Hall of Fame fighter's illness was diagnosed four or five weeks ago. Doctors haven't given Frazier an estimate on how much time he has to live, but Wolff said he was in and out of the hospice during October and has been receiving hospice treatment the past week.

"We have medical experts looking into the all the options that are out there," Wolff said. "There are very few. But that doesn't mean we're going to stop looking . . . I've got everybody praying for him. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope for a miracle."

News of Frazier's illness stunned the boxing world. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who was Muhammad Ali's promoter for his second and third fights with Frazier, including the legendary "Thrilla in Manilla," first learned about it when contacted by Newsday Saturday afternoon.

"That's really distressing news," Arum said. "I always admired Joe because he was a real standup, no-B.S. guy. I mean, he really was terrific. I was very close to him. I also worked with him on his fights with Jimmy Ellis and Jerry Quarry. Then, I was very close with him during the time I was promoting his son Marvis."

Asked if he'd had any clue Frazier was ill, Arum said: "No, I did not. I've seen him from time to time over the last few years, but I've had very little dialogue with him. Usually, when I want to invite him someplace, I do it through Marvis."

When Ali and Frazier met for the first time on March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden, it was a landmark cultural happening that attracted dozens of celebrities. Frazier won a unanimous 15-round decision, landing a left hook in the final round that knocked Ali down for just the third time in his career.

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Frazier's reign lasted three more fights until a second-round TKO against George Foreman in 1973, getting knocked down six times. He lost his second nontitle fight to Ali in 1974. He then failed to answer the bell for the 15th round the next year in their epic battle in Manila when trainer Eddie Futch kept him on the stool because Frazier's eyes were swollen shut.

Frazier retired after being stopped in the fifth round by Foreman on June 15, 1976, at Nassau Coliseum. He tried a comeback five years later in Chicago that resulted in a majority draw with Floyd Cummings, but there was no turning back the clock.