Boxing card set in honor of Smokin’ Joe Frazier on the late champion’s 80th birthday

PHILADELPHIA: Smokin’ Joe will headline one more boxing card.

The family of Joe Frazier is set to honor the former heavyweight champion with a slate of bouts in Atlantic City, New Jersey — site of his parents’ first date, his son noted — to celebrate what would have been his 80th birthday.

Joe Frazier Jr. Promotions in association with Danny Swift Garcia Promotions will run the card featuring mostly young fighters on Jan. 13 at Boardwalk Hall, once the premier home of boxing on the East Coast. Frazier, the relentless, undersized heavyweight who ruled the division as champion, would have turned 80 on Jan. 12. Frazier died on Nov. 7, 2011, after a brief battle with liver cancer.

In the years after his death, Frazier’s bond with Philadelphia has only grown tighter. Frazier has a statue outside an entertainment complex near the city’s three sports stadiums on the site of the now-demolished Spectrum, an arena where he fought. Frazier spent much of his life in his adopted hometown fighting until the end to earn respect as one of the city’s sports greats.

“Some people say he hasn’t gotten his just due,” Joe Frazier Jr. said. “My father was never about that. He was all about giving back to the kids. If it was up to him, he wouldn’t have a statue or a mural out anywhere. But it does make me feel good to see the recognition and his name kept alive.”

Without a viable venue available in Philly, Frazier’s family decided to roll the dice on Atlantic City, as they hope for a boxing revival on the boardwalk.

“My father didn’t box there. But he did a lot of gambling there,” Frazier said, laughing. “But come to find out, my mother and him had their first date there. It’s just the proximity of it, being so close to Jersey and