Frazier Would Apologize If Ali Does, Too Latest Round Between Ex-Champs Has Smokin’ Joe Throwing Fewer Jabs

Joe Frazier, in a bid to end decades of feuding between the two former heavyweight champions, on Tuesday extended an olive branch to Muhammad Ali.

“It’s about time to bring it to an end. I don’t feel that I’m too big I can’t say I’m sorry,” Frazier said of the bickering that has continued between the pair since the last of their three epic bouts, the “Thrilla in Manila” on Oct. 1, 1975. “I’m willing to say I’m sorry if I said anything to hurt you.

“We got to do it, before we all close our eyes, because I want to see him in heaven,” the 52-year-old Frazier said of Ali, 54, who is stricken with Parkinson’s syndrome.

Frazier’s conciliatory words clash with the rancorous remarks he made in his recent autobiography. In the book “Smokin’ Joe,” he wrote of Ali: “Truth is, I’d like to rumble with that sucker again - beat him up piece by piece and mail him back to Jesus.”

And in a recent Sports Illustrated article that chronicled the feud between the two, he said of watching Ali light the Olympic flame: “It would have been a good thing if he would have lit the torch and fallen in. If I had the chance, I would have pushed him in.”

But Frazier said that his harsh words have always been only in retaliation to Ali’s teasing, which included calling him an Uncle Tom before the first fight in 1971 and a gorilla before the last fight.

“What I was doing was only fighting back,” said Frazier. “That’s the whole story, I was fighting back. Just like when the bell rings. A man calls you all kinds of names, what are you suppose to do, stand up and take it on the chin? No. I had to fight back.”

And now he is he is willing to make up, if Ali says he is sorry first.

“It’s 25 years later, I’m willing to do that. I have no chip on my shoulder. But he has never come up and said, ‘I’m sorry Joe.’ He said ‘I love Joe,’ but he wouldn’t say he was sorry.

“I would say it is time to mend our relationship and say I’m sorry and let’s go on with our life,” Frazier said.

Frazier made his comments at a news conference where he was joined by a dozen other athletes and sports personalities, including John McEnroe, Mark Messier, Walt Frazier and Rod Gilbert, for induction into the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame.