Smoking joe frazer

HIS EMACIATED body ravaged by liver cancer, former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier literally is in the fight of his life.

What has yet to be determined is whether the possible final round of that fight for Frazier, 67, will be waged here, in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, or in a hospital in Russia.

Members of Frazier's family, who have not always seen eye-to-eye with Smokin' Joe's business manager, Les Wolff, professed to be unaware last night of Wolff's possible decision to send the extremely ill Frazier to Russia for experimental cancer treatments not available in the United States.

"In a few hours I'll be calling Moscow," Wolff told the Daily News. "Some physicists here in the U.S. say there are a number of treatments in Russia that might be helpful.

"We didn't find out Joe had this until about 4 weeks ago. He had, in my opinion, a number of misdiagnoses. Things that should have been done years ago - decades ago - were not done until recently. But I can't look at the past. I have to look at what we can do now. We need to make him as comfortable as possible and, hopefully, find a miracle."

Location:NZ