Awards

• Commended for Top 10 Sports and Recreation: 2021, Editor Pick 2021
• Winner of Top 10 Sports and Recreation: 2021, Editor Pick 2021

Overview

Just in time for the fiftieth anniversary of The Fight of the Century (Ali–Frazier I), Sparrin’ with Smokin’ Joe provides a penetrating, at times brutally candid, look at legendary champion Joe Frazier. While the more flamboyant, media-accessible Ali continues to receive the lion’s share of the ink on their epic rivalry, Glenn Lewis rectifies that imbalance by focusing on the man whose ferocious fighting spirit enabled Ali to be viewed as truly great. Based on several months Lewis spent in the gym, on the road, and in verbal tussles with the Frazier as part of his inner circle in 1980, the book includes compelling, never-before-heard anecdotes that give new insight into Frazier and make readers reevaluate their impressions of Ali. Lewis argues that Joe actually won their second fight and even questions whether the wrong man got the mantle as “The Greatest.”

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9781538136799

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Reviews

Although he ranks among the greatest professional boxers, Joe Frazier never seemed to escape the glow of his charismatic nemesis, Muhammad Ali. Their rivalry was psychological as well as physical, and lasted long after they left the ring. In this remarkable on-the-scene account, Glenn Lewis creates a memorable, sensitive portrait of Smokin' Joe. It's a father-son story, a story of pride, courage, deep faith, resentment, defeat and victory. You don't have to be a boxing fan to love this book.--Paul Moses, former city editor of Newsday and author of An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York's Irish and Italians Glenn Lewis gives us one smokin' page after another in taking us through the boxing life of one of the greatest heavyweight champions ever, Smokin' Joe Frazier, and of his unparalleled rivalry with Muhammad Ali.--Randy Gordon, former editor-in-chief, The Ring Magazine, and former New York State Boxing Commissioner Glenn Lewis delivers some unforgettable action-packed rounds of storytelling: The complicated, but loving tale of a father and a son. The long, bitter rivalry of a boxing great and The Greatest. The rollicking ride of a young sportswriter and a superstar athlete on the cusp of his twilight years. But what lands most indelibly, with the power of a patented Frazier left hook, is a portrait of an underappreciated American legend who never gave up in the ring or beyond, and always came out smokin'.--Jere Hester, Editor in Chief of The City Fighting, family, race, resilience, and the ever-looming presence of Muhammad Ali -- Glenn Lewis provides full context for this intimate portrait of the great Joe Frazier. Lewis views Frazier with clear eyes and genuine heart. In these pages, we feel the fire that burned within Smokin' Joe.--Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone Even if you're not a boxing fan, you'll love this sizzling book. It's a real eye opener into the lives and minds of two great fighters and the people around them, with never-before-known nuggets. Relive 'The Fight of the Century' and their two other venomous brawls. Go down to ringside with Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, Woody Allen, and even Burt Lancaster. Spectacularly human and a real page-turner.--George Arzt, Former NY Post political reporter, Fox-5 News editor and Press Secretary to Mayor Edward I. Koch

In this fascinating account . . . Lewis charts Frazier's rise from southern farm boy to 1964 Olympic heavyweight boxing champion, and argues that the Frazier-Ali rivalry that followed was arguably the greatest individual rivalry in all of sports. . . . Lewis's access to Frazier's family, meanwhile, offers insight into the fighter's personal life and his influence on his son . . . Lewis brings a painstaking level of detail to his breakdown of the famous rivalry. This is a knockout.--Publishers Weekly Joe Frazier was always overshadowed by Muhammad Ali, in the ring and out, but his gifts as a fighter have been getting more appreciation in recent years. Now, with Glenn Lewis's Sparring with Smokin' Joe, readers get a glimpse of why Frazier was equally memorable as a man--one for whom life, knockdowns and all, remained nothing but a party.--Paul Beston, author of The Boxing Kings: When American Heavyweights Ruled The Ring Although he ranks among the greatest professional boxers, Joe Frazier never seemed to escape the glow of his charismatic nemesis, Muhammad Ali. Their rivalry was psychological as well as physical, and lasted long after they left the ring. In this remarkable on-the-scene account, Glenn Lewis creates a memorable, sensitive portrait of Smokin' Joe. It's a father-son story, a story of pride, courage, deep faith, resentment, defeat and victory. You don't have to be a boxing fan to love this book.--Paul Moses, former city editor of Newsday and author of An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York's Irish and Italians Glenn Lewis gives us one smokin' page after another in taking us through the boxing life of one of the greatest heavyweight champions ever, Smokin' Joe Frazier, and of his unparalleled rivalry with Muhammad Ali.--Randy Gordon, former editor-in-chief, The Ring Magazine, and former New York State Boxing Commissioner Glenn Lewis delivers some unforgettable action-packed rounds of storytelling: The complicated, but loving tale of a father and a son. The long, bitter rivalry of a boxing great and The Greatest. The rollicking ride of a young sportswriter and a superstar athlete on the cusp of his twilight years. But what lands most indelibly, with the power of a patented Frazier left hook, is a portrait of an underappreciated American legend who never gave up in the ring or beyond, and always came out smokin'.--Jere Hester, Editor in Chief of The City Fighting, family, race, resilience, and the ever-looming presence of Muhammad Ali -- Glenn Lewis provides full context for this intimate portrait of the great Joe Frazier. Lewis views Frazier with clear eyes and genuine heart. In these pages, we feel the fire that burned within Smokin' Joe.--Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone Even if you're not a boxing fan, you'll love this sizzling book. It's a real eye opener into the lives and minds of two great fighters and the people around them, with never-before-known nuggets. Relive 'The Fight of the Century' and their two other venomous brawls. Go down to ringside with Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, Woody Allen, and even Burt Lancaster. Spectacularly human and a real page-turner.--George Arzt, Former NY Post political reporter, Fox-5 News editor and Press Secretary to Mayor Edward I. Koch

Fighting, family, race, resilience, and the ever-looming presence of Muhammad Ali -- Glenn Lewis provides full context for this intimate portrait of the great Joe Frazier. Lewis views Frazier with clear eyes and genuine heart. In these pages, we feel the fire that burned within Smokin' Joe.--Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone Even if you're not a boxing fan, you'll love this sizzling book. It's a real eye opener into the lives and minds of two great fighters and the people around them, with never-before-known nuggets. Relive 'The Fight of the Century' and their two other venomous brawls. Go down to ringside with Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, Woody Allen, and even Burt Lancaster. Spectacularly human and a real page-turner.--George Arzt, Former NY Post political reporter, Fox-5 News editor and Press Secretary to Mayor Edward I. Koch

Not only is Sparring with Smokin' Joe one of the best books having to do with Frazier, and hence his trilogy with Ali, but one of the better boxing books of recent years, a testament to the reporting of Lewis, a director of journalism at York College and professor of print journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.--BoxingScene.com There is no shortage of material in boxing literature about the epic rivalry of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, but most of those accounts center on Ali. This compelling blend of reportage and narrative nonfiction changes the focus to Frazier, delving into his career in the ring and his life after his third fight with Ali, the iconic Thrilla in Manilla, as well as exploring the brief boxing career of Frazier's son Marvis. Drawing on interviews conducted by journalist Lewis with Joe, Marvis, and others in the Frazier entourage in 1980, the book offers insightful portraits of both father and son, capturing not only Joe's love for Marvis, but also the former heavyweight champion's arguable mismanagement of his son's career by attempting to force the younger Frazier into adopting the same kind of brawling, ever-advancing approach that defined Joe's style. Along the way, Lewis reprises the high and low points in Joe's own career, offering a convincing argument that Frazier should have been awarded the decision in his second Ali bout and sensitively describing the effects on Frazier of Ali's cruel taunting of his rival, especially the absurd claim that Joe was an Uncle Tom. This Maileresque combination of personal reflection, boxing analysis, and sports biography is a must read for fight fans, especially those whose understandable idolatry of Ali have kept them from seeing Frazier as a notably complex, generous, and loving man.--Booklist, Starred Review In this fascinating account . . . Lewis charts Frazier's rise from southern farm boy to 1964 Olympic heavyweight boxing champion, and argues that the Frazier-Ali rivalry that followed was arguably the greatest individual rivalry in all of sports. . . . Lewis's access to Frazier's family, meanwhile, offers insight into the fighter's personal life and his influence on his son . . . Lewis brings a painstaking level of detail to his breakdown of the famous rivalry. This is a knockout.--Publishers Weekly Joe Frazier was always overshadowed by Muhammad Ali, in the ring and out, but his gifts as a fighter have been getting more appreciation in recent years. Now, with Glenn Lewis's Sparring with Smokin' Joe, readers get a glimpse of why Frazier was equally memorable as a man--one for whom life, knockdowns and all, remained nothing but a party.--Paul Beston, author of The Boxing Kings: When American Heavyweights Ruled The Ring Although he ranks among the greatest professional boxers, Joe Frazier never seemed to escape the glow of his charismatic nemesis, Muhammad Ali. Their rivalry was psychological as well as physical, and lasted long after they left the ring. In this remarkable on-the-scene account, Glenn Lewis creates a memorable, sensitive portrait of Smokin' Joe. It's a father-son story, a story of pride, courage, deep faith, resentment, defeat and victory. You don't have to be a boxing fan to love this book.--Paul Moses, former city editor of Newsday and author of An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York's Irish and Italians Glenn Lewis gives us one smokin' page after another in taking us through the boxing life of one of the greatest heavyweight champions ever, Smokin' Joe Frazier, and of his unparalleled rivalry with Muhammad Ali.--Randy Gordon, former editor-in-chief, The Ring Magazine, and former New York State Boxing Commissioner Glenn Lewis delivers some unforgettable action-packed rounds of storytelling: The complicated, but loving tale of a father and a son. The long, bitter rivalry of a boxing great and The Greatest. The rollicking ride of a young sportswriter and a superstar athlete on the cusp of his twilight years. But what lands most indelibly, with the power of a patented Frazier left hook, is a portrait of an underappreciated American legend who never gave up in the ring or beyond, and always came out smokin'.--Jere Hester, Editor in Chief of The City Fighting, family, race, resilience, and the ever-looming presence of Muhammad Ali -- Glenn Lewis provides full context for this intimate portrait of the great Joe Frazier. Lewis views Frazier with clear eyes and genuine heart. In these pages, we feel the fire that burned within Smokin' Joe.--Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone Even if you're not a boxing fan, you'll love this sizzling book. It's a real eye opener into the lives and minds of two great fighters and the people around them, with never-before-known nuggets. Relive 'The Fight of the Century' and their two other venomous brawls. Go down to ringside with Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, Woody Allen, and even Burt Lancaster. Spectacularly human and a real page-turner.--George Arzt, Former NY Post political reporter, Fox-5 News editor and Press Secretary to Mayor Edward I. Koch

Author Information

Glenn Lewis is Director of Journalism at York College, CUNY and Professor of Print Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Lewis is also a veteran journalist and author who has written about sports, health, media, business and societal trends. His sports and celebrity profiles have appeared in numerous publications including Sport, Car & Driver, Publishers Weekly, Family Weekly, US and The Philadelphia Inquirer, among others. He spent several months in the gym, on the road and at boxing matches with Joe Frazier during a crossroads in the legendary heavyweight champion’s life and career. Lewis is an on-air media and journalism expert for Fox 5 TV-News. He lives in New York City.

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