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Everyone knows the name Rocky Balboa to be synonymous with the city of Philadelphia, but fewer in this country have heard of “Smokin'”Joe Frazier — the real-life heavyweight champion whose story inspired Stallone’s knockout franchise.
Hopefully, that’s all about the change. The city officially unveiled a bronze statue of Frazier at the bottom of the Art Museum steps today — taking the place of where the Rocky statue stood for 20 years.
“We will forever remember that the city got right what it had gotten wrong for a long, long time,” Mayor Cherelle Parker said during the unveiling ceremony. “We’re building a legacy that reflects the diversity of our city, we’re telling our history, and we’re telling the truth in the prime location.”
“Now Joe Frazier is attached and connected to and will permanently be here at our Philadelphia Museum of Art,” she added.
The “new” Frazier statue is not actually new. Artist Stephen Layne designed the piece in 2015, and it lived for a decade outside Stateside Live! at the sports complex. Its relocation is the latest chapter in the long-running saga over the Rocky statue and its place at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Questions on where the Rocky statue should be located and its artistic merit have long been contentious. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to move Balboa’s likeness inside the museum for a special exhibition, erect another movie replica on top of the steps and put yet another at the Philadelphia International Airport.
While all the shuffling of a monument based on a fictional hero can seem a bit silly, the new location for Frazier’s statue hits deeper. This artwork is based on a real person, and real people — family members, friends, colleagues and young fans — whose lives Frazier touched were present at the ceremony.
“Joe Frazier wasn’t a movie character, he was the real deal,” Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr. said. “He was a Black man who came from humble beginnings, who put the work in. Long before these steps became famous, Smokin’ Joe was running them. He was training here. He was building himself here. The city was part of his journey, and he became part of the soul of this city.”
As Young noted, it was Frazier’s legacy that helped shape that underdog, resilient spirit that defines the city. While moviegoers cheered the fictional Rocky for using the museum steps as a training ground or punching raw beef at a meatpacking plant — those were things Frazier actually did.
Jacqueline Frazier-Lyde, Frazier’s daughter and a former professional boxer herself, emphasized her father’s hustling spirit at the ceremony.
“When my pop was eight years old, he was an inventor,” Frazier-Lyde said. “He made his bag. He took a burlap sack, put sand, my grandfather’s ties, you know, all kinds of whatever—rocks, whatever, corn husks — he made his own heavy bag. So I’m saying, whatever you got, you take it.”
The Italian Stallion himself is onboard for this move.
“When I shared with Sylvester Stallone that we were moving Joe Frazier here,” Parker noted. “Sylvester Stallone said that is what is supposed to happen.”
The importance of platforming Black stories and Black history was referenced over and over again at the celebration.
“Less than two miles east of here, they’re trying to erase our history,” said Ryan Boyer, business manager for the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, referencing the Trump administration’s effort to remove signs related to the history of people held in slavery at the President’s House on Independence Mall. “This is righting a historical wrong, and we’re going to do it.”
Valerie Gay, chief cultural officer for the city of Philadelphia, noted that this unveiling was a “soft launch” as the statue is still unfinished. Its former concrete base will be replaced with granite, and the city will be installing educational panels that tell Frazier’s story.
The mayor also cited efforts to raise money for the renovation of Frazier’s former North Philly gym on Broad Street and Glenwood Avenue.
“I told Judge Lynne Carter about six to eight months ago that we were working on something special,” Parker said. “I told her she needed to get ready for Philadelphia to reclaim itself as the number one boxing training city in the nation, but we can’t do that without facilities.”
“Smokin'” Joe’s statue is currently standing proudly at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where visitors can line up and take a photo with the boxing legend.
“He was a five-foot-nine heavyweight fighting the fight of the century, six-foot-three, the Louisville Lip,” Boyer said, referencing Frazier’s career-defining fight against Muhammad Ali. “And he shut that lip with that left hook, because that is the Philadelphia grit and determination, and that’s what we are.”
