While details of NBA legend Dennis Rodman’s recent trip to North Korea are mostly unknown and limited to quotes like “Kim Jong Un is just a kid” and “He’s a good guy” and “Please don’t hate me”, it seems that the 5-time NBA Champion still wants to put big ol’ media jerks like George Snuffleupagus in their places. As soon as Rodman wraps up this next lap dance, he’s heading back to North Korea in six months to broker peace on behalf of the United States. That is, if North Korea is still on the map by then.

But as much fun as it is to feel bad for a totally unprepared Rodman for being thrust into the political conversation like this, it’s important to remember that he’s not the first athlete to have taken a journey into the unknown. Back in 1995, the WCW and New Japan Pro Wrestling hosted “Collision in Korea” in my favorite city to pronounce, Pyongyang, and Ric Flair recalled that strange experience this week with WCNC in Charlotte.

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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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Muhammed Ali, if I can read the card here, was the greatest athlete of any era. Better than Michael Jordan. Better than that one horse that ran really fast. And besides, that’s not an athlete, anyway. That’s a horse. What kind of jumpshot does a horse have? I don’t know if Muhammed Ali ever had a jumpshot. Michael Jordan had a great jumpshot, and he could run. The horse, gosh what was his name again? The horse was probably faster than Michael Jordan. I don’t think Muhammed Ali ever ran at all, but he was probably really good at skeet shooting. And so the greatest athlete of any era is unquestionably NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson. –Standing Eight Count.

Some people just exude badass no matter where they are or what they do. Here’s Mr. T performing his duties as a body guard for Leon Spinks just before his big rematch with Muhammed Ali in 1978. Hell, you were probably just a twinkle in the UPS man’s eye in 1978, until he delivered that extra-special “package” to your mother. via.