I forget if Joe said it on Howard Stern, or my old man said it while Joe was being interviewed, "Ali was cursed with Parkinson's for bad mouthing Frazier the way he did, after all Frazier did for him." I heard Joe on Stern a few times, always real, always entertaining. While Joe ascends to heaven, Ali lives in hell.

joe was a friend of the show and howard did a good job with him. always good times.



thats fucken cold, i love it. i get where you're coming from but i doubt joe ever saw the big picture in it all. regardless...he was a force and a true champion.

Joe saw a guy that he went out of his way to help, swerve him and treat him like trash. There is a difference between selling a fight and berating a man.

yeah the gorilla bit...if that shit went down today there would be a total uproar.

North Philly will miss you, Smokin' Joe.

I used to run trains by his old gym off Broad Street.

I remember Frazier being on Stern and the group was trying to get him to badmouth Ali. He wasn't biting much, but even he got a good giggle when Stern said Ali won the fight, but Frazier won the war.

Ali was a self promoter above everything else. If burying a basically decent bloke like Joe got Ali over more, he was OK with that.

Smokin' Joe was my favourite heavyweight.