One last drink for Frazier

At Con Murphy's bar inside the Windsor Suites, where Joe Frazier lived, bartender Danny Bender just after midnight Tuesday morning poured a drink that Frazier ordered.

Courvoiser brandy and ginger ale - on the rocks.

He placed it on the bar and said the bar stool by the drink was "for Joe tonight."

"That's just in honor of Joe," Bender said.

Bender said Frazier, who died Monday night, would come regularly to the bar at 17th and the Parkway and talk to anyone who approached him. He said Frazier gave the bar a huge autographed photo of himself - the boxer wearing a black cowboy hat, fists in a boxing pose - when Con Murphy's opened in March 2009.

The bar employees never got around to putting up the color photo, and Frazier would always ask: "When are you guys going to hang up my picture?"

The photo went up on Saturday.

Other locals who knew Frazier also grieved upon hearing of his death.

Undefeated welterweight Mike Jones of Mt. Airy, who fights at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 3, began his career under the tutelage of Frazier and his son, Marvis.

"Smoke was a great inspiration to me when I first started," said Jones, using Frazier's nickname. "It's sad day for Philadelphia. Joe Frazier was an icon in this city. He did a lot of good by me. He will forever be missed.

"He taught me that the boxing game was very serious. He also said, 'You get your brain shook, your money took, and your name on the undertaker book in this game.' He just put it in perspective that you have to look out for yourself in this boxing game."

Said light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins: "This is a very big loss for Philadelphia. He was a force in the ring but also willing to help the youth."

Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield said no one worked harder than Frazier.

"Joe was a good fighter," Holyfield said. "He was aggressive. . . . When you have someone as big as Joe Frazier, it's a big loss, pretty much what life is about.

"Frazier was a very structured guy, gave all that he had. He was one of those guys that was just the best. Very structured."

Boxing promoter Joe Hand said Frazier was a pleasure to work with.

"I asked him to do anything when we worked together, and he would," said Hand. "I didn't know anybody that had the desire, the heart of Frazier. He worked hard. He trained hard."

Through his spokesperson, Mark McDonald, Mayor Nutter said: "Joe Frazier was the quintessential Philadelphia boxer. He represented the heart and soul of boxing in Philadelphia. He carried himself both in the ring and out with dignity and courage, and he was a true ambassador for our city.

"I enjoyed him as a fighter, and I really liked him as a person. The entire city mourns his passing, and we keep him and his family in our prayers."

Eagles broadcaster Merrill Reese said that Frazier was one of the most approachable people he ever met.

"He was friendly to everybody," Reese said. "He loved being recognized. He talked to people all the time. He had a great smile. He was a source of pride for the city as the heavyweight champion of the world."