Quote:
Originally Posted by cordoba
I read that the city of Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky Bilbao, a fictional boxer, but no statue to Joe Frazier, all time great heavyweight boxer from Philadelphia, and the real boxer who (along with Rocky Marciano) Stallone based his character on.
As to the OP's point - big athletic black dudes go straight into the NFL these days. Larry Holmes has said that him, Foreman, Ali, Norton, Frazier would all be in the NFL today.
The ones that do like to fight choose the UFC now. Derek Lewis was discovered by Geroge Foreman at his local gym but decided to go into MMA, despite boxing being much more favorable to his skill set. The current UFC heavyweight champion - Francis Nganu - has Deontay Wilder punching power, and started off as a boxer, but chose MMA/UFC.
Boxing is still wildly popular in the UK, and parts of Eastern Europe such as Poland and the Ukraine.
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Good post and explanation.
The statue of Rocky is probably more about the steps that were immortalized in the film, and mostly a tourist attraction, rather than Rocky as a hero of the city. Frazier also has at least one statue, though this one was relatively recent:
