MEMPHIS, Nov 30: Former world heavyweight boxing champion Smokin' Joe Frazier will step back into the ring Thursday night for a three-round charity exhibition match at a Memphis hotel.

Facing off against Frazier will be the mayor of Memphis, fellow senior citizen Willie Herenton, an amateur boxer who hung up his gloves 40 year ago.

The fight will be the former champ's first boxing match since the 1980s.

Frazier is perhaps best-known for 1971's “Fight of the Century”, the 15-round match in which he handed Muhammad Ali his first defeat. Frazier retained his heavyweight title until he was defeated by George Foreman in 1973.

Now 62, Frazier has continued to train throughout his retirement and maintains the same weight as when he fought Foreman.

The fit, six-foot-six (two-meter), nearly 200-pound Herenton has been training diligently for several weeks.

The 66-year-old mayor, a former amateur boxer, won his first of several amateur matches at age 14, but retired from boxing 40 years ago.

The rumble is expected to raise 100,000 dollars for a local drug treatment program.—AFP