Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier has liver cancer and is under hospice care.
The 67-year-old boxer was diagnosed four or five weeks ago and doctors have not yet told him how long he has to live. ‘We have medical experts looking into all the options that are out there,’ Frazier’s manager Leslie Wolff said. ‘There are very few. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop looking.’
Wolff, who has been Frazier’s manager for seven years, said the boxer had been in and out of the hospital since early October and receiving hospice treatment for the last week.
‘We appreciate every prayer we can get,’ Wolff said. ‘I’ve got everybody praying for him. We”ll just keep our fingers crossed and hope for a miracle.’
He added: ‘We are doing everything we can … but I would be a liar if I did not tell you it is very serious.’
Wolff said Frazier, who won the Olympic heavyweight boxing gold medal for the United States in 1964 in Tokyo and held the world heavyweight boxing crown from 1970 to 1973, was in a ‘very painful and serious situation’.
But he added: ‘Joe is a fighter. Joe doesn’t give up.’
Legendary boxing promoter Don King called Frazier a giant among men.
King said: ‘He was a great gladiator and a great fighter. When Smokin’ Joe came to the ring you knew you had someone who was coming to fight. He edified himself and qualified himself as a champion among champions in his fights with Ali. My prayers are with him.’
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