After years of campaigning and fundraising by fans, boxing legend Joe Frazier will finally have a statue in his adopted home of Philadelphia thanks to donations from Bernard Hopkins and Golden Boy Promotions.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art steps were made famous in the 1976 Rocky film written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. In an interview with Riverhorse for the Joe Frazier documentary, Joe Frazier told director Mike Todd that those steps were part of his daily training run and routine in preparation for the Fight of the Century. Frazier shared his route with Stallone and the fictional boxer Rocky immortalised those steps. In 1980, Stallone gifted the statue of Rocky Balboa, a leftover film prop from Rocky III, to the City of Philadelphia and to this day both the Rocky Statue and the Rocky Steps (as they’ve become known) continue to be a top visitor draw in Philadelphia.
In “Joe Frazier: When The Smoke Clears,” Philadelphia boxer Bernard Hopkins and others share their frustrations over the fact that the City of Philadelphia has failed to honour its most famous boxing son, Joe Frazier, in favour of a fictional character. But later this year, the much anticipated Joe Frazier statue will finally be unveiled after reaching the fundraising target of $150,000 with thanks to BHop and Golden Boy Promotions.
Read the full story: BadLeftHook.com
Watch BHop and others talk about the statue controversy in “Joe Frazier: When the Smoke Clears”
