Fight Night will go on without Frazier

On Thursday, boxing legends such as Jake LaMotta, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, trainer Lou Duva and a slew of D.C. heavyweights and VIPs will undoubtedly pack the Washington Hilton for one of the area’s biggest charity hits of the year: Fight For Children’s 22nd Annual Fight Night. But this year, sadly, the event will be without one of its regular attendees — former world heavyweight champion, Smokin’ Joe Frazier. “We knew he was in the hospital and knew that he wasn’t going to be at Fight Night for a couple of weeks but still, everyone here is really feeling the loss,” Fight For Children’s Jeff Travers told Yeas & Nays on Tuesday afternoon. 

“We started this thing in 1990 and like with snowfall we can say that he’s been coming for as long as we’ve been recording the legends who have been at Fight Night. He’s been there from the very beginning and has been a real fixture of this event in a great way,” he continued.

Frazier’s work with at risk youth resonated with Fight for Children’s founder Joe Robert. “Frazier has always been a hero to Robert because of his commitment to helping kids. Robert saw that he could give kids a path to a better life and I think that is one of the reason’s why he started Fight For Children when he did,” Travers shared.

Frazier told us during an interview last year that he attended Fight Night every year to “help the needy and not the greedy,” and Travers believes would want the show to go on. So it will, along with a special tribute to the late champ. “We don’t want to make it somber at all, we just want to celebrate all of his great contributions over the years,” said Travers.

In addition to celebrating Frazier, Travers told us Fight Night will also recognize fallen soldiers on the eve of Veteran’s Day. “We’re auctioning off a special collector’s edition custom chopper called Salute to our Heroes and a portion of the proceeds will go to organizations that help children of fallen soldiers get a great education.”

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