Ghosts of Manila - Mark Kram [95]
Watson got caught in the financial crossfire between Joe and Florence, and got fired for it. “I hold no grudge,” says Burt. “He’s a lonely, bent guy in some ways, close and then not close, cheap and then not cheap. He trusts no one. Ali’s influenced Joe so much he’s determined the man he is today. A couple of ghosts, if you ask me. One is still in the ring in Manila, the other doesn’t even know there was a Manila. It was a bad reckoning for both, that day.”
Frazier had years before tried to break a sword on the head of Eddie Futch, too; not easy to do. Eddie had opposed his return with Jumbo Cummings and drew Joe’s anger when Eddie, as just an adviser, told Joe that Marvis was too green to face Larry Holmes. Joe told others: “He never did anything for me except collect fifteen percent of my purse. Eddie can’t train nobody. He was just there to wipe me down.” This was not about Marvis, Eddie knew, it was the Frazier-Ali thing, that last round in Manila that Joe wouldn’t forget. Eddie bided his time.
In Vegas for the Marvis-Holmes fight, they went on a radio show together. Eddie refused to confront him, then Joe got bolder and bolder, until Futch opened up on him. He told him of his relationship with Yank Durham, how Yank followed what he said on all matters. “But Yank was my friend and your manager,” he said, “and I never wanted to take credit. I made more money than you think.” By now, Frazier was off balance, he was hearing new information. “And why did you call me every time a decision was needed?” Eddie asked. Joe backed off, and they just skirted the edges of Manila, neither now wanting to escalate the argument. Even so, when Frazier was in a mood usually brought on by a comment about Ali, he would excoriate Futch. He had been too soft to have been in charge. Yank would have sent him out for the fifteenth in Manila. “Don’t talk to me about Eddie Futch,” Joe said. “He became a big hero with the press. Such a caring man. Don’t talk to me about him.” Nobody had; it was as if he had been talking to himself.
Frazier seemed to have become increasingly unpopular in Philly. Marvis and Joe’s daughter Jacqui, a lawyer, handle his business, and they have alienated the local press and organizations with their demands attached to access and money. For his part, he feels the press gives him no respect. He was much ridiculed over an action he took concerning a land deal Cloverlay made long ago. Joe had received $80,000 from the syndicate as his share of the sale. Now, he was claiming in a suit that he had been robbed of the land. He sent letters to seven hundred homeowners, for years entrenched in a township, saying that he owned the land and wanted payment for it. They had a lot of fun with that one, some of them parading with signs reading: “Hey, Joe, we won’t go!” It was a frivolous action that reinforced the idea that he was none too bright.
In 1998, at 3:30 A.M., he was arrested for driving under the influence. He was acquitted the same year. Then he filed a civil suit against the city for racial profiling. At trial recently, Joe took the stand. “What have I done to deserve this?” he asked. “Philadelphia police and I have grown up together.” He began to sob. He said he had had root canal surgery earlier in the day, and he was taking pain medicine, cough drops and Listerine to keep his mouth fresh. Handcuffed, he said, he was made to kneel for thirty minutes in back of the police car, causing pain and aggravation to old boxing injuries. The cop said he had bloodshot eyes, “slurred speech” (an upset there; did he expect to hear an ancient