The Bavarian giant who almost shattered an icon’s spell

62 years ago today, Hans Huber, a bus driver from Regensburg, almost snatched boxing legend Joe Frazier’s first major triumph away from him – and sent fans back home into a frenzy with his Olympic fairy tale.

Had Hans Huber known about Joe Frazier’s thumb, things might well have turned out differently.

It was the biggest fight of the Bavarian amateur boxer’s life – and, looking back, it has grown even greater due to the iconic status his opponent later attained. And it was a close call: in the Olympic final in Tokyo, the legend of Hans Huber from Wenzenbach near Regensburg could well have grown even further.

Hans Huber boxed against Joe Frazier at the Olympics

Today marks the 62nd anniversary of that 23 October 1964, the great day for a German sportsman whose story had already been a remarkable one.

Born on 1 January 1934, Huber led a simple life that, as fate would have it, brought him onto the Olympic stage: Huber was originally a baker’s apprentice and a young football goalkeeper for his local club, SV Wenzenbach, and retraining as a bus driver paved the way for him, rather by chance, into combat sports.

Huber’s driving instructor recommended that the 1.92-metre giant try his hand at wrestling with the Regensburger Turnerschaft e.V. Huber did so with great success, becoming German heavyweight runner-up in 1958 and 1960 – beaten on both occasions only by the legendary Wilfried Dietrich, the mythical ‘Crane of Schifferstadt’.

The realisation that there was no getting past Dietrich prompted Huber to switch to boxing, where he reached the European Championship quarter-finals in 1963 and, the following year, won the German Championship and qualified for the Olympics.

Tens of thousands of people tuned in to the radio

Huber flew to the Japanese capital without high expectations, but surprised both himself and the boxing public in the heavyweight tournament with victories over the Pakistani Abdul Rehman and the Italian Giuseppe Ros.

In his home region in particular, a wave of euphoria swept through the country over the German boxing fairy tale; tens of thousands tuned in to their radios from 3.30 pm German time to follow the final bout.

Huber’s opponent was a 20-year-old American who had not actually qualified for the Olympics but had been nominated as a replacement following an injury to his compatriot and sparring partner, Buster Mathis: Joseph William ‘Joe’ Frazier – ten centimetres shorter than Huber, but already, at a young age, a formidable all-rounder with a dangerous left hook – or so it seemed.

Frazier went into the fight at a disadvantage

What Huber didn’t realise was that Frazier had broken his thumb in the semi-final against the USSR’s Vadim Yemelyanov, effectively neutralising his best weapon.

The bout between Huber and Frazier went the full distance; two judges scored it in Huber’s favour, three in Frazier’s. Boxing experts were still pondering years later what might have happened had Huber exploited Frazier’s handicap more aggressively: “Had he known what intense pain Frazier was enduring with every left hook, Huber might not have dodged him so cautiously, and the judges’ decision might well have gone the other way,” wrote the New York Times in 1970.

After his Olympic victory, Frazier turned professional, became world champion and the great rival of the icon Muhammad Ali. Hans Huber stepped out of the limelight – of his own accord.

Huber preferred Frazier to Ali

The silver medallist from Tokyo decided against a professional career; at the age of 30, he felt too old and no longer wanted to take on the hardships that would have awaited him.

Huber felt that his grand performance in Tokyo – from which he felt richly rewarded despite his initial disappointment at missing out on gold – was enough. Huber received congratulatory telegrams from Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and opposition leader Willy Brandt. On his return home to Regensburg, 50,000 people welcomed him at the station. “That really made up for it,” the Mittelbayerische Zeitung quotes Huber as saying in a later interview.

Huber also held “Smokin’ Joe” – who died in 2011 – in high regard as a person: “Joe was always a really nice bloke. He never put on airs,” he said in an interview with the BZ. Regarding his great rival Ali, however, Huber criticised him for occasionally ridiculing his opponents (“A great sportsman doesn’t do that”).

Hans Huber, the man who almost snatched the great Joe Frazier’s first major triumph away from him, died on 12 January 2024, shortly after his 90th birthday.