Originally published March 19, 1982.
People always said Muhammad Ali wouldn't, or couldn't, listen because his mouth roared too loudly. Yet, Ali, 40, has finally retired whereas Joe Frazier, 38, wants to go at least "one more time."
"Ali definitely has gotten the message," said Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, the NBC matchmaker and former physician for Ali. "Frazier still has not quite gotten the message. He is one beating away from getting the message, which is unfortunate."
Ali got the message three months ago when he lost to Canadian champion Trevor Berbick. Frazier, making his first appearance in the ring in five years, also fought in December and wound up in a draw with the mighty Floyd "Jumbo" Cummings. Pacheco wishes Frazier would recognize what the meager media interest in his comeback means.
"It's an embarrassment when no network wants to buy your fight, nobody wants to cover it and nobody wants to see it," Pacheco said. "The failure was a resounding failure the last time. What legitimate promoter would seriously offer you Frazier with anybody?
"He made a statement that he would fight Cooney or Holmes if they gave him six weeks to train. I didn't hear any stampede going in the direction of Philadelphia.
"If there was anything positive from all the hell I raised about Ali, the networks and boxing commissions got a little leery of just licensing a guy indiscriminately because he'd been a great fighter. We were proven right with Ali twice, which was twice too many.
"The only difficulty comes if some ham-and-egger, some retread salesman in Cincinnati, decides he can get enough money together to have Joe come and fight, and it's a town where the boxing commission is just one of those ad hoc committees - the druggist, the fire chief and somebody get together - you might have a fight. But I don't know if Joe would go for that. Joe wants real money, and real money doesn't come in those packages."
Don't get the wrong idea about Pacheco - he admires the stubborn streak in Frazier.
"It's the same quality that made him a great fighter. I say to people, 'Do you think that guy is any different out of the ring than he was in it? 'He's stubborn, he won't quit, he won't believe he's beaten.
"You can't go into jail and ask a prisoner if he's guilty and you can't ask an old fighter if he should quit fighting ... Their identity is that they are boxers. They can try night clubs, they can try song groups, but it's not the same. When you're the champion of the world, that's only a feeling that comes once in a while and then you can't just step down.
"So it's up to us - me, you, boxing commissions, everybody - to keep them from doing it to themselves. Sooner or later, almost every fighter I've done that for has come around and said to me, 'You're right. ' "
For Frazier's sake, maybe someday soon he'll raise his gloves in one final salute. But then, that would mean he agrees with Muhammad Ali, and we all know what he thinks of Ali.