Champ or Fiction?

Philadelphia is known for its hard working, blue collar work ethic of its people, among other things. Philadelphia is also an underdog city, living in the shadow of New York City.

The most popular athletes in the City of Philadelphia are usually those who embody that same blue collar spirit. Whether it is Mike Schmidt (who was booed too), Allen Iverson, Villanova’s championship basketball team, or the Broad Street Bullies, this city’s favorite sons have either been hard workers, underdogs, or both.

Boxing is no exception. In fact, Philadelphia is a boxing town and boxing might be the sport that best represents the city. In recent history, Bernard Hopkins, from the Germantown section of Philadelphia, has represented the city with an underdog story that took him from being in prison to on top of the boxing world.

However, there is one boxer that has been synonymous with the city now for a few decades. However, this boxer hasn’t won anything. No titles, no championships, nothing. In fact, this boxer is a fictional character.

Rocky Balboa is his name, the star of the six-movie series about the underdog boxer from South Philly. Rocky touched the heart of many people across the country, but especially Philadelphians. Many people view him as the personification of Philly’s heart. There is even a bronze statue of Rocky in Philadelphia, recently moved to a spot in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This is the same art museum that is home to the “Rocky Steps.”

Meanwhile, Philadelphia is home to a true heavyweight champion. This fighter was known for his toughness and his relentless style of fighting. "Smokin" Joe Frazier is a native of Philadelphia, a world champion who dealt Muhammad Ali his first lost. Yet, while Rocky Balboa is a Philadelphia legend, Joe Frazier is a guy people in the city have mixed feelings about at best.

Rocky Balboa has statues; Joe Frazier has a small, rundown gym in North Philadelphia. He’s rumored to live in an upstairs apartment of the building, due to a state of affairs allegedly caused by his poor business decisions.

On the surface, it’s a head scratcher. Why isn’t Frazier more beloved in the city? Why Rocky is loved so much? After some research, it turns out that it’s not a complex issue at all.

Frazier, like many other Philadelphia sports teams and athletes, never quite got over the hump. He did defeat Ali once, but he lost both rematches, and he lost to George Forman twice. After that, he became bitter, and still has a lot of animosity towards Ali. In a late 2006 article for the New York Times, Frazier was quoted as saying "Ali always said I was nothing without him, but who would he have been without me?"

Meanwhile, Rocky was a story about a guy from South Philly going the distance with the unstoppable heavyweight champion. He was an semi-pro fighter, who went toe-to-toe with the world’s greatest. The movie and the character is solely about working hard, staying determined, and never giving up. Many in Philadelphia can relate to this, and many also view Rocky as the perfect representation of Philadelphians.

Mitchell Weiss, a technical consultant from Northeast Philadelphia, said Rocky represents the Mitchell Weiss, a technical consultant from Northeast Philadelphia, said that Rocky represented the city more than Joe Frazier. Weiss added that he didn't know Frazier was from Philadelphia "until about ten years ago," and Frazier wasn't charasmatic as Muhammad Ali or Rocky. "He was a great boxer, he just didn't have any personality," Weiss said.

Another lesson in the Joe Frazier situation can be applied to a current Philadelphia sports star. Like Frazier, Marvin Harrison doesn’t talk much. He just does his business and stays out of the limelight. Meanwhile, other receivers like Terrell Owens are made prominent by the media and very flamboyant. Like Ali, Owens will always be remembered and will go down as one of the most talked about figures of this era of sports, even though it’s for the wrong reasons. Harrison will likely struggle to be remembered outside of the world of football insiders.

I don’t condone many of the things T.O. does, but he does do a great job of keeping himself relevant.

Back to Frazier and Rocky, I think it’s a shame Frazier is in the condition he’s in. He should be someone who is important to the city. Instead he’s just a bitter legend, and unfortunately, he’s merely footnote in Philadelphia sports history to many.

Here's Joe Frazier during his peak.