Editing Joe Frazier (section)

===Amateur boxing===
During Frazier's amateur career, he won Golden Gloves [[heavyweight]] championships in 1962, 1963, and 1964. His only loss in three years as an amateur was to [[Buster Mathis]].<ref name="Joe Frazier p. 30">[[#Frazier|Frazier]], p. 30.</ref> Mathis would prove to be Joe's biggest obstacle to making the 1964 U.S. Olympic boxing team. They met in the final of the U.S. Olympic trials at the New York World's Fair in the summer of 1964. Their fight was scheduled for three rounds and they fought with 10-oz gloves and with headgear, but the boxers who made it to Tokyo would wear no headgear and would wear 8-oz gloves. Frazier was eager to get back at Mathis for his only amateur loss and knocked out two opponents to get to the finals. However, once again when the dust settled, the judges had called it for Mathis, undeservedly Joe thought. "All that fat boy had done was run like a thief- hit me with a peck and backpedal like crazy," he would remark.<ref name="Joe Frazier p. 30" />

Mathis had worn his trunks very high so that when Frazier hit Mathis with legitimate body shots, the referee took a dim view of them. In the second round, the referee had gone so far as to penalize Joe two points for hitting below the belt. "In a three-round bout a man can't afford a points deduction like that," Frazier said. He then returned to [[Philadelphia]] and felt as low as he had ever been and even thought of giving up boxing. Duke Dugent and his trainer, Yank Durham, were able to talk him out of his doldrums and even suggested that Frazier make the trip to [[Tokyo]] as an alternate in case something happened to Mathis. Frazier agreed and was a workhorse there, sparring with any of the Olympic boxers who wanted some action. "[[Middleweight]], [[light heavyweight]], it didn't matter to me, I got in there and boxed all comers," he said. In contrast, Mathis was slacking off. In the morning, when the Olympic team would do their roadwork, Mathis would run a mile and start walking and say, "Go ahead, big Joe. I'll catch up."<ref name="Frazier, p. 31">[[#Frazier|Frazier]], p. 31.</ref>

Frazier's amateur record was 38–2.<ref name="Frazier, p. 31"/>