On Tuesday, Sonya “Black Widow” Thomas won the Wild Turkey 81 Eating World Championship with a world record 5.25 pounds of turkey downed in ten minutes. The next day — the very same day most blogs with nothing better to write about were getting ready for Thanksgiving and reporting the world record — barred and disgraced “bad boy of competitive eating” Takeru Kobayashi was posting live, streaming video of himself destroying Sonya’s world record by more than two pounds.

Two problems.

First, if you haven’t been keeping up with Takeru Kobayashi, here’s the SparkNotes version … Kobayashi is sort-of the Hulk Hogan of competitive eating, both in that he spent years on top as the only marketable star of his profession and that his name is well known outside of the sport, at least to folks who don’t know about esoteric benchwarmers like “Crazy Legs” Conti.

Kobayashi won six consecutive victories in the Nathan’s Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Competition, but Major League Eating began insisting he sign an exclusive contract (I’m not making any of this up) that would bar him from competing in non-sanctioned events and sever Takeru from his precious hot dog intake. In 2010, while wearing a black t-shirt with “Free Kobi” across the front, Kobayashi stormed the Nathan’s stage to demand his “freedom” from the dispute. He was handcuffed, arrested and taken to jail. They took him off their “wall of fame” and everything.

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Joe Frazier died on Monday. Complications from liver cancer. He had a full life as a Former Olympic and Undisputed World Heavyweight boxing champion, the owner and manager of a boxing gym in Philadelphia, a member of both the International Boxing and World Boxing Halls of Fame and the uncredited inspiration for the meat-punching and stair-running in Rocky, but he’s most famous for being able to write “gave Muhammed Ali his first professional defeat” at the top of his resume.

From CNN.com –

Frazier’s family issued a brief statement.

“We The Family of … Smokin’ Joe Frazier, regret to inform you of his passing,” the statement said. “He transitioned from this life as ‘One of God’s Men,’ on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”

Ali also issued a brief statement, because Ali and Frazier are more connected in most minds than “Joe Frazier” and “Joe Frazier’s arms and legs”.

“The world has lost a great champion. I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration.”

Frazier and his left hook retired in 1976 with a 32-4-1 record having George Foreman, Joe Bugner, Jimmy Ellis and Oscar Bonavena. He hit Ali with one of the most famous punches in history in round 15 of 1971′s “Fight of the Century” at Madison Square Garden and lost a 12-round decision in a January 1974 rematch. The “Thrilla in Manila” came and went, and the image we carry of Frazier is from there, his eyes swollen shut, Ali closer to death than he’d ever been. There’s also the Foreman knockout, with Howard Cosell’s iconic “down goes Frazier” and the idea that if you can fall down and become iconic before you’ve hit the ground, you’ve led some kind of life.

… and if you need more proof of a life well-lived, check out Frazier and Ali on ‘This Is Your Life’, by way of Buzzfeed.

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