A Ring Retrospective: 40th anniversary of the Thrilla in Manila

[Newzz]

Best I Faced – Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali and Bob Goodman
September 30, 2015

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the third Ali-Frazier bout, known as “The Thrilla in Manila”, which was THE RING Fight of the Year for 1975. In honor of this historical heavyweight contest, which Ali won by 14th round corner retirement, we have hunted through our archives to bring you a real treasure.

By early 1975, “The Greatest” had already shared the ring with a large percentage of the terrific fighters with whom he would become inextricably linked. Shortly after defeating George Foreman, Ali decided to reveal who he personally felt had tested him the most during his illustrious championship career.

Enjoy, and please leave feedback if you would like to see similar articles in the future.



Note: This feature originally appeared in the February 1975 issue of THE RING magazine. It was authored by Muhammad Ali and Bob Goodman. (It’s been represented to RingTV.com readers by Tom Gray.)



Can Frank Sinatra name his ten favorite songs? Could a child list his ten favorite candy bars? Can Jim Brown rattle off his ten favorite football games? And make those in order of preference.

I doubt it. At least not without changing the lists many times over.

I guess I have been asked to name “my toughest fights” at least a hundred times. And I have probably come up with as many different replies. It’s difficult because I consider all of my fights tough and all my opponents worthy.

Until this time I don’t think I’ve ever had to sit down and give it thought. Running true to form if you asked me the same question next week, my list might change again.

I’ve had too many milestones in my career to possibly think of picking fights on their importance.

1) There was probably no bigger challenge in my career than the one George Foreman posed in Kinshasa, Zaire. Strangely, although regaining my crown will remain one of my greatest thrills, it wasn’t one of my toughest fights.

2) The toughest would be my fight with Sonny Liston, when I won the title in 1964.

I was young and a great admirer of Liston’s talent. He could do just about everything except dance. But outside of myself, there’s never really been a dancin’ heavyweight. Liston had a tremendous jab, could punch with either hand, was smart in the ring and as strong as any heavyweight I’d ever seen.

He was ugly, too. In and out of the ring. Being a big underdog and acting crazy at the weigh-in made everybody think that I was scared half to death.

Sonny came out at the bell looking to take me apart. I moved and stuck, knowing that I was going gaining control in the second round. But the “Bear” was always dangerous. Stalking, glaring, mean.

About the fourth round my eyes stated burning. Finally, when I came back to my corner, I couldn’t see at all. I figured Liston had something on his gloves and asked Angele (Dundee) to cut my gloves off. He didn’t but gave my eyes a good wash, checked Liston’s corner, talked to the referee and tried to stall for more time.

The bell rang but my eyes were still burning and watering, Angelo gave me a good pat on the rear end and said “keep moving”.

Half-blinded, only seeing a blurred hulk, coming at me, I got on my bicycle. Luckily, I had enough instinct, speed and, yes, fear, to keep from getting tagged by the chasing Liston until my eyes started to clear.

I think he used up a lot chasing me and missing those big punches. He was tired and I knew I had regained control.

Like a wounded animal, with eyes swollen and cut, Sonny came out with a surge in the sixth round and connected with a good right hand but he couldn’t keep it going and I ended the round feeling like I was the new champ.

But I was still very relieved to see big Sonny remain on his stool when the bell rang for the seventh.

I still respect him as one of the truly great heavyweights of all time.

3) Next, I’d say would be the Doug Jones fight in 1963.

Jones had just come off a big knock out of Zora Folley. He was smart and hungry. I had put a lot of pressure on myself with predicting and tried to make it come true. The Garden was jammed and Jones was from New York.

All night long the determined Jones kept getting me with a looping right hand. He’d move in relentlessly and lead with the right. He was just throwing me off stride and I was very happy to be awarded a close decision.

4) Here I go, getting myself in deep trouble. That’s because I don’t know who could have been tougher than Joe Frazier the first time we met. He was really something that night, March 8, 1971, I’ll never forget the date.

Joe just kept coming. I thought that I won that fight but I don’t do the judging. Everybody remembers that one so I don’t have to go into it. He was a great heavyweight that night. His style will give me a tough fight every time.

5) Ken Norton was tough both times we fought. He broke my jaw in the first one, which I wasn’t in condition for. The second time, in Los Angeles, I was ready and won the early rounds but had to pull a split decision out in the last round.

Norton’s strength and jerky rhythm throws me off, and like Frazier, will always be a tough one for me to conquer.

6) I know the name Karl Mildenberger might not strike fear in to many men’s hearts but he was a rough one for me to figure.

I fought him in Germany in 1966. He was a southpaw and I had a lot of trouble getting untracked against his style. He could box pretty well and whacked me with a few good punches. I didn’t get him until the 12th round in what everyone figured would be an easy fight.

7) In my second fight since my layoff of over three years, Oscar “Ringo” Bonavena gave me a real tough 15 rounds.

Bonavena, short, awkward and strong, did everything but hit me in the kneecaps trying to win that one. I finally caught him coming in with a left hook in the 15th round. I was glad it was over after a grueling fight.

8) Then in 1972, I met light heavyweight champ Bob Foster in Lake Tahoe. I always respected him as possibly the greatest of all 175-pounders but I never figured he could handle me.

For almost four rounds, I laid on him and used my 41-pound advantage to tire him out. When I figured I had him weary, he started jabbing. I couldn’t believe he was out-jabbing me, the master of the jab. His jabs were sharp and hard. He caught me with some good combinations and shook me a couple of times.

For the first time in my career, I was cut with a crisp jab. He also had me swollen under the other eye and cut in the mouth but the weight took its toll and he went down for the seventh and final time in the eighth round.

I was glad I got him at 34 and he didn’t have an extra 15 or 20 pounds.

9) It might sound funny but Jimmy Ellis, who was formerly my chief sparring partner, gave me a tough night in the Houston Astrodome.

Jimmy, who probably knew me and my moves better than I knew myself, was as smart as they came. He had pride and was a world champion too.

For seven or eight rounds, Jimmy gave me fits. He darted in and out and kept me under pressure with a good scientific fight. I started getting to him about the ninth round and the referee stopped it in the 12th.

10) Up jumped Joe Frazier again and as you can guess, it was another tough one but I wound up with the decision this time.

Photo from THE RING archives

Joe was still his relentless self as he seemed to get stronger as the fight went on. I thought I had him going early in the fight but there was a little mix-up with the bell and the ref stepped in to early.

The fight was a good one and Joe remains high on my list in more ways than one. We are even at one and one and one maybe someday we can have the rubber match to settle the score. Joe would like that too.

Those are ten, which I was asked for but there are more that seem to belong in that top ten.

11) Jerry Quarry, in our first fight in Atlanta, was coming strong in the third when I stopped him on a cut. But that was my first fight back after the layoff and Quarry was probably too tough a choice. I was very fortunate to have had the fight stopped on a cut, which was a bad one.

12) Joe Bugner, the European champion, game me a tough 12-round decision fight in Las Vegas. That’s another fight that people figured with be easy but Bugner was determined, clever and fast.

13) Mac Foster gave me a grueling 15 rounds in Tokyo, Japan, that had to be one of my toughest fights from a physical standpoint.

14) Alvin “Blue” Lewis, whom I stopped in 11 in Dublin, Ireland, gave me much more trouble than I bargained for. I did have a bad cold going into the fight but that’s no excuse. Lewis was a good heavyweight who needed more breaks.

15) Speaking about tough, I don’t know who was ever tougher on me physically than “Granite Jaw” George Chuvalo. He gave me two tough distance fights for a total of 27 rounds and took everything I had to dish out and kept coming for more.

16) Henry Cooper, one of England’s greatest, sat me on my pants in London and was without a doubt one of the best I had met. His big trouble was tissue-paper skin.

17) Ernie Terrell, who is now making it as a singer with his own group, gave a tough account of himself against me at the Astrodome for the undisputed world championship in a fight I won over the 15-round distance.

As I said, they were all tough. I’ve never really had an easy one.

There will be more tough fights in the ring for me. But my toughest of all fights is still to come when I retire from boxing. That will be my continued fight to help my people.




Best I Faced – Muhammad Ali - Ring TV

 

[Newzz]

The Thrilla in Manila remembered: 40 years later
Lee Groves
October 1, 2015




Their first fight stopped the world. Their rematch suffered by comparison. But for Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, their third confrontation was a pulsating, punishing war of attrition waged in triple-digit heat, hellish humidity and wrenching emotion. It pushed Ali to the edge of surrender but, moments before he pulled the trigger, Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, beat him to it. While the legendary chief second believed his man was ahead going into the 15th and final round, he also felt the beating Frazier had absorbed down the stretch posed a mortal threat to his fighter’s future well-being. By pulling his man out of the fire, Futch, in his mind, brokered a very favorable trade: Three more minutes of potentially life-ending punishment for what ultimately would be 36 more years among the living. Still, neither Ali nor Frazier were ever quite the same again, both as fighters and as men.

Forty years ago today, “The Greatest” and “Smokin’ Joe” poured out their skills and their souls to a degree seldom seen in sports. It was a fitting end to a rivalry that spanned four years, 41 rounds, countless barbs and even an in-studio brawl that Ali initially treated as stagecraft but Frazier viewed as fully justified. For Frazier, the bitterness toward Ali would continue until his dying day but, in athletic, in-ring terms, the argument between the two ring greats reached its raging conclusion.

*

The fight was announced in Malaysia the morning after Ali out-pointed Joe Bugner for the second time and, at the time, no one realized a potential epic was in their midst. Now in their early-30s, Ali and Frazier continued to win but they didn’t appear close to the forms that marked their primes.

Since beating Ali in their classic first fight in March 1971, Frazier notched two knockout wins over massive underdogs Terry Daniels and Ron Stander, then shockingly lost the world heavyweight championship to George Foreman, who not only stopped Frazier in two rounds but also scored six knockdowns. After decisioning Bugner over 12 rounds in London, Frazier was nearly knocked out in round two by Ali before losing the 12-round decision. After losing for the second time in three fights, Frazier righted the ship by stopping previous knockout victims Jerry Quarry and Jimmy Ellis.

Meanwhile, Ali had gone 17-1 (9) since losing to Frazier with the only loss being a split decision against then-unheralded Ken Norton, who insulted and then injured Ali, quite literally, by breaking his jaw. As was his way, Ali fought often, met the best available opponents and racked up tens of thousands of frequent flier miles along the way. He scored victories in Switzerland (KO 7 Juergen Blin), Japan (UD 15 Mac Foster), Canada (UD 12 George Chuvalo II), Ireland (TKO 11 Alvin Blue Lewis), Indonesia (UD 12 Rudi Lubbers) and Malaysia (UD 15 Bugner II) while also mixing in plenty of wins on U.S. soil (Ellis and Buster Mathis Sr. in Texas, Quarry, Bugner and Ron Lyle in Las Vegas, Bob Foster in Stateline, Nev., Floyd Patterson and Frazier in New York, Chuck Wepner in Richfield, Ohio and Norton in Inglewood, Calif. in their rematch). But the most memorable victory of his run came against Foreman in Zaire, where he ended his long championship chase in most improbable fashion – by eighth-round knockout and by using the “rope-a-dope” to wear out the over-eager champion.

Ali, however, had not been at his best lately. After beating Foreman, Ali clowned for long stretches against Wepner, turning on the jets only after the challenger scored a humiliating ninth-round knockdown with a light right to the chest combined with a well-placed foot that tripped Ali. He also played with Lyle, who smartly avoided the “rope-a-dope” and fought the disinterested Ali well enough to be ahead on two scorecards entering the 11th round. Once Ali finally woke up, it took just 68 seconds to end the bout. He was more serious against Bugner, who had height and reach on Ali and had fought him reasonably well in their first meeting two years earlier. While Ali easily won the decision, he wasn’t stellar.

But while neither man was at his physical peak, the years had only heightened the tension between them. And Ali, ever the master psychologist, made sure he fired the first shots. After making fun of Frazier’s diction, Ali reached into his pocket and pulled out a black rubber gorilla.

“This here is Joe Frazier’s conscience. I keep it everywhere I go,” he told the assembled press. Then, as he repeatedly pounded the toy’s face with his fist, he said, “This is the way he looks when you hit him. All night long, this is what you’ll see. Come on, gorilla; we in Manila. Come on, gorilla; this is a thrilla.”

For everyone else in the room, it was a moment of levity. For Frazier, it was an outrage.

“It’s real hatred,” Frazier declared shortly before the fight. “I want to hurt him. I don’t want to knock him out. I want to take his heart out. If I knock him down, I’ll stand back, give him a chance to breathe, to get up.”

For most fighters, such talk was just part of the pre-fight build-up. But the proud and deeply emotional Frazier meant every acidic word. To him, Ali’s public mocking was a betrayal of the highest order. During Ali’s exile, Frazier floated money to the ex-champ and advocated for the return of his license. While part of his motivation was financial, his gestures also were fueled by his deeply-held Christian faith. Once Ali regained his license, Ali, in Frazier’s mind, forgot past favors and went far beyond the usual bounds of salesmanship. He didn’t just go after Frazier the fighter; he went after Frazier the man. Ali justified his actions by saying he was pumping up the gate but Frazier correctly replied that their purses were guaranteed, not based on a percentage of ticket sales.

Ali, however, was only following a pattern that has applied to most of his career; he usually saves his most intense taunting for the opponents he views as most threatening. Ali, then Cassius Clay, was fearful of the baleful Sonny Liston but his masterful, pre-fight psychological campaign helped the challenger in two ways. First, it helped him cope with his internal concerns and, second, it anesthetized him from Liston’s scare tactics. He used the same playbook with Foreman, who he saw as a bigger, stronger and harder-hitting version of Liston. Frazier, while not as physically imposing as Liston or Foreman, qualified as a top-tier danger to Ali because of his relentless aggression, his superhuman stamina, his extraordinary body punching and his ferocious left hook, arguably the best in the sport’s history.

Even if neither man was at his positive peak, the meaning of their rubber match was profound. In historical terms, the winner of their three-fight series would be perceived as the better fighter in pound-for-pound terms. But for the two men, another prize was paramount: Bragging rights for the rest of their lives.

“When it came down to in Manila, [it] wasn’t [just for] the heavyweight championship of the world,” writer Jerry Izenberg said in Thomas Hauser’s “Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times.” “Ali and Frazier were fighting for something more important than that. They were fighting for the championship of each other.”

If the personal dynamic between the fighters wasn’t volatile enough, the cauldron in which Ali-Frazier III boiled was stoked by the controversy concerning the selection of the referee as well as the married Ali’s affair with model Veronica Porsche. The press had known about it for a while but the mores of the time dictated that it not be broached in print. But Ali gave them no choice, thanks to a pair of incidents. The first occurred during a meeting with president Ferdinand Marcos at his presidential palace. Seeing Porsche with Ali and assuming she was his wife, Marcos offered a complement. Ali didn’t correct Marcos’ case of mistaken identity. The second took place at Ali’s daily press conference when the champ, without prompting, started the session by trying to justify the affair. The resulting stories got back to Belinda Ali, who immediately flew to Manila, marched to Ali’s hotel room, “raised hell for about an hour” and went straight back home.

The issue of the third man prompted considerable political maneuvering. According to the account Futch gave to Dave Anderson in his book “In The Corner,” Ali’s promoter, Don King, wanted Zach Clayton and Clayton, who officiated Ali-Foreman, wanted the job. Futch said Clayton attempted to visit Frazier’s apartment in Philadelphia just after the fighter began training. Futch didn’t want Clayton due to past acts he felt weren’t “in the best interests of boxing” and was able to shoo Clayton away for the time being. When Futch called then-mayor Frank Rizzo to complain about Clayton’s persistence, Rizzo told Clayton, a firefighter for the city, that he wouldn’t give Clayton time off to work the fight. Clayton responded by quitting.

Not long after, the trainer read the signed contract and noticed a clause stating King had the right to choose the referee if the two camps reached an impasse. King removed the clause when Futch confronted him but, as the fight neared, the trainer found out King had flown three referees to Manila: Jay Edson, Harry Gibbs – and Clayton.

Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated





Though Futch had no quarrel with Edson and Gibbs’ work, he felt uncomfortable with the prospect of their feeling obligated to King. Thus, Futch suggested to King that a local official be named, a suggestion King rejected. Futch then brought up the idea to Luis Tabuena, the chairman of the Games and Amusement Board in Manila, who then approached Marcos. At a subsequent news conference, 41-year-old Carlos Padilla, the son of a movie actor who had appeared in several films himself, was named the third man. To this point. Padilla had never officiated a championship fight but any concerns over his inexperience melted away once the fight began.

In order to have the fight shown during prime-time hours in the US, the main event was scheduled to begin at 10:45 a.m. local time. Despite the relatively early hour, conditions inside the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City (a city within the Metro Manila area) were brutal. The aluminum roof and the lack of air conditioning intensified the already sticky conditions.

Ticket prices ranged from $330 for ringside to $4 in the gallery and the 224 1/2-pound Ali (48-2, 34) was installed as a narrow 6-to-5 favorite to beat the 215 1/2-pound Frazier (32-2, 27), who was seeking to join Patterson and Ali as the only men to regain the heavyweight title.

As Frazier was being gloved up, the ring announcer said that the four-foot-tall trophy donated by Marcos would be given to the winner. Even before the announcement was finished, the lighthearted Ali drew laughs by pointing at himself, then taking the trophy to his corner. The focused Frazier didn’t even crack a smile. Ali again tried to rattle Frazier during the final instructions but again, his words had no visible effect on the former champ.

Knowing Frazier was a notoriously slow starter – and knowing he had stunned Frazier badly in round two of their second bout – Ali planted his feet and looked to land combinations. Meanwhile, Frazier, wearing a smiling sneer, bobbed under Ali’s blows and sought to attack Ali’s body. With 20 seconds remaining in the opening round, Ali wobbled Frazier with a compact hook to the jaw. Seeing the chance for an early finish, he unleashed a torrent of blows but Frazier ducked under most of them and made it to the bell without further trouble. In fact, Frazier playfully tugged the bottom of Ali’s trunks before walking to his corner.

Unlike most recent fights, Ali was all business in round one as he threw 80 punches and out-landed Frazier 34-15. Encouraged by his early success, Ali maintained his flat-footed ways in round two. When Ali’s left glove briefly wrapped around Frazier’s neck, Padilla, keenly aware of Futch’s complaints, stopped the action and issued a caution, something neither Clayton or Tony Perez, who officiated the second Ali-Frazier fight, did. Frazier effectively worked the ribs whenever he trapped Ali on the ropes while Ali used his left to tee up Frazier for a smacking right that snapped back the challenger’s head. It was Ali’s flash against Frazier’s thunder and each was serving it in healthy portions. As the round closed, Frazier landed a hook to the jaw and a right to the body while Ali responded with a snappy right lead to the face that landed flush. The second was a much closer round than the first and a subsequent count confirmed it as Frazier out-landed Ali 22-17 overall and landed 69% of his power shots (20 of 29) to Ali’s 50% (14 of 28).

Photo credit: Neil Leifer



Despite fighting just six minutes, both men’s bodies were bathed in perspiration. Between rounds, a still jaunty Ali bowed and blew kisses to Marcos and his wife, Imelda, while also bantering with ringsiders as the single-minded Frazier sat on his stool and focused on his mission. Ali constantly stuck out his left glove to keep Frazier at bay but the challenger simply batted it away, banged his gloves together, skillfully weaved away from Ali’s blows and blasted the body at every opportunity. Midway through the round, Ali went into the “rope-a-dope” and Frazier responded with sticky body shots, right uppercuts and trademark hooks, many of which got through. Between assaults, Ali said something in Frazier’s ear but the imperturbable challenger ignored the barbs and continued his industrious – and effective – attack.

In the closing moments, Ali suddenly unleashed an explosive flurry punctuated by several lead rights to the face but Frazier held his own and eagerly traded with the champion until the bell. Just as he had in earlier rounds, Frazier turned his back to Ali and dismissed him with a wave of the arm.

The already frenetic action accelerated at the start of round four as they traded power shots with abandon. Now it was Frazier who was taunting Ali, even as the champion pelted him with pinpoint punches. Ali continued to rake Frazier’s face while on the retreat while “Smokin’ Joe” walked toward the champion as if brushing away branches in a thick forest. Whenever Ali sought rest on the ropes, Frazier offered no respite. As far as he was concerned, there would be no time for games, no time for horseplay and no time for illusions, magic tricks or verbal gymnastics. All Frazier had on his mind was destruction, mayhem and pain, even if he had to take his fair share of it in order to dish it out.

Photo credit: John Shearer/Time-Life/Getty Images



Between rounds four and five, Ali suddenly stood up and led the crowd in chants of “Ali! Ali! Ali!” Frazier didn’t care; he knew that the 25,000-plus who jammed into Araneta Coliseum were there to cheer for Ali, not fight for him.

The pace slowed somewhat in round five but only in comparison to the fantastic rate of the earlier rounds. Ali spent long portions propped in the corner, allowing Frazier free reign to hammer his body. After Padilla separated them, Ali stayed where he was and waved the challenger in with his glove. While others would have hesitated and wondered about Ali’s intentions, Frazier simply walked in and hammered him with a hook to the body. The final minute of the round featured the longest stretch of sustained action yet as they traded shot-for-shot and, in the midst of it, a loud chant of “Frazier! Frazier! Frazier!” thundered through the arena.

Although Frazier got his pound of flesh, Ali had the lead through five rounds. Numerically speaking, he out-landed Frazier 128-109 overall and 113-101 in power shots and the pace was much faster and more intense than anyone could have ever anticipated. Ali, who liked to ease into a fight, was forced to fight harder than usual and in the first five rounds, he averaged 61.6 punches per round. Frazier, though he fired the heavyweight average of 45.4, landed an impressive 51% of his hooks, crosses and uppercuts.

Frazier instantly turned the fight seconds into round six when he landed a massive hook to the jaw that forced Ali to cover up, then landed a half-dozen more like it over the rest of the session. While Frazier’s body punches had extra zip, Ali’s punches were slower and his face betrayed his pain and weariness. While Ali covered, Frazier cranked – and to devastating effect. It was, by far, the most lopsided round of the bout for either man thus far, both inside the ring and statistically as Frazier landed more than twice the punches (32-15) and landed 57% of his power shots to Ali’s 36%.

Photo credit: Bettmann Archives/Corbis



One of Ali’s most impressive traits was his ability to find extra energy when he needed it and such was the case at the start of round seven when, for the first time in the bout, Ali became the butterfly and the bee. His legs allowed him to float about the ring and his combinations landed with a crispness that defied logic given what happened just three minutes earlier. Yes, Frazier still landed from time to time but Ali’s movement and quick hands largely quieted the threat – at least for the time being.

The eighth saw Ali stand his ground and trade with Frazier. Throughout the first half of the session, Ali’s lightning-quick flurries repeatedly laced Frazier’s grimacing and swelling face but, once Ali slowed, Frazier gathered himself and blasted the champion with meaty power shots that reverberated through his body. At the bell, Ali trudged toward his corner while Frazier strode toward his.

Photo credit: Associated Press



Ali did his best to hold off Frazier in the ninth but, as the round progressed, it became apparent that his gas tank was ebbing. Frazier’s steady, punishing work intensified in the final minute and, by round’s end, the momentum was his. Ali spent the majority of the 10th along the ropes, resting his legs, while Frazier continue to pound away at all available targets. Frazier’s ceaseless body punching left Ali’s upper body in a hunched position and only his fighting instincts and immense pride kept him standing. With five more rounds yet to fight, an exhausted Ali was forced to ponder his own mortality. As Ali struggled to catch his breath, he told chief second Angelo Dundee, “Man, this is the closest I’ve ever been to dying.”

And yet, incredibly, sometime during those 60 seconds, Ali forged deep within himself and extracted a new source of energy, an energy that revitalized his arms, his legs and, most importantly, his spirit. Ali started the 11th dancing, snapping jabs and pounding Frazier with whistling combinations. The swellings around Frazier eyes soon were joined by ridges of welts on the forehead. The second minute of the round saw a resting Ali take some of Frazier’s bombs but they didn’t affect Ali quite as much as before because he bounced back to capture the final 60 seconds.

After Ali produced a strong start in the 12th, Frazier, though obviously worn down, still managed to trap Ali on the ropes and land blows that jarred Ali’s head and body. But Frazier’s body was breaking down too; his left eye was starting to close and his trademark bobbing and weaving was no longer there.

With the finish line in sight, both men sought to pick up the action in the 13th but Ali would be the one to produce a ferocious finishing kick. A sharp right hand to the face sent Frazier’s mouthpiece flying out of the ring, a sight that seemed to ignite the champion. Suddenly Ali was hitting Frazier with almost everything he threw and, with a minute left, a straight right sent Frazier stumbling backward. Just as Frazier turned the fight in round six, Ali returned the favor in the 13th – and, this time, there would be no turning back.

The latter half of the 14th was even worse for Frazier; he could no longer see the punches coming and thus Ali struck cleanly, precisely and with force. Blood poured from Frazier’s mouth; the left side of his head was misshapen and he couldn’t raise his arms high enough to defend himself. It was target practice for Ali and he relished the opportunity to put an exclamation point on his dominance. At the bell, Padilla had to guide Frazier toward his corner. There, Futch waited for him – and his mind was already made up.

“I’m going to stop it,” he told Frazier. The proud warrior tried to protest but once Futch pushed down on his shoulder, he stayed put. Futch then turned to Padilla and waved off the match. Once the Ali corner got the word, the still-heavyweight champion only had the energy to raise his glove in triumph before slumping to his stool.

“Joe had two bad rounds in a row,” Futch explained. “Even with three minutes to go, he was going downhill. And that opened up the possibility in that situation that he could’ve been seriously hurt. Joe was taking some hard shots to the head and, in his condition, I thought he had no way to win the fight. I didn’t want him to get hurt.”

Photo credit: SIPA Press/Shutterstock



“I didn’t want to be stopped,” Frazier said. “I wanted it to go on. It was one heck of a fight. I thought I was ahead when they stopped it. Sure, I was disappointed but I never argue with what Eddie does.”

After all the insults he hurled at Frazier throughout the years, Ali had nothing but praise for his rival on this day.

“He is tough,” Ali said. “He is a great fighter. I’m so tired I don’t want to do nothing. I want to rest for one week. My arms are sore; my legs are sore; my sides are sore. He is the best there is – except [for] me.”

Perhaps motivated by the pain, Ali was eager to step away from boxing – forever.

“I want to retire. It’s too much work, too painful. I might have a heart attack,” he said. But in the next breath, the old Ali was back. “I want everyone to know that I’m the greatest fighter of all time.”

The last two rounds showed why. In rounds 13 and 14 he out-landed Frazier 90-27 overall and 68-25 in power shots. It was a withering assault that broke the body – but not the will – of Joe Frazier.

Years later, it was revealed in HBO’s documentary, “Thrilla in Manila,” that Ali was moments away from quitting on his stool.

Willie “The Worm” Monroe, who used to be in Frazier’s training camp, was seated near Ali’s corner and he overheard Ali telling Dundee to cut the gloves off, a story later confirmed by Ali cornerman Wali Muhammad, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco and Ali himself to author Tom Hauser. Monroe frantically gestured toward the Frazier corner but his gesticulations went unseen. Had they been and had they been properly interpreted in time, the entire narrative surrounding the careers of both men would have been drastically different.



Ali and Frazier left large pieces of themselves inside that ring and their efforts didn’t go unrecognized. THE RING deemed the bout its “Fight of the Year” for 1975 and in 1996, the magazine rated it the number-one fight of all-time. Ali earned his third “Fighter of the Year” award in the last four years and his fourth such award overall and in 1999, ESPN’s SportsCentury ranked the fight as the fifth greatest sporting event in history. Nearly 35 years after his retirement, Ali remains among the most beloved people on Earth but Frazier, too, was honored and celebrated. Futch was true to his word when he told Frazier that “No one will forget what you did here today,” and the latest manifestation of that regard occurred Sept. 12, 2015 in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia when a 12-foot bronze statue in his likeness was unveiled.

Marvis Frazier (right) and Rev. Blane Newberry from Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church bless the bronze statue dedicated to late world heavyweight champion Joe Frazier after it was unveiled at XFINITY Live! Saturday Sept. 12, 2015. Photo credit: David Swanson/Staff Photographer/Philly.com



It is somewhat fitting that their careers ended in Dec. 1981; Frazier after a dreary 10-round majority draw against Floyd “Jumbo” Cummings and Ali dropping a 10-round unanimous decision to Trevor Berbick eight days later. But those sad conclusions are overshadowed by the magnificence they displayed on an unforgettable morning in a faraway land.



The Thrilla in Manila remembered: 40 years later - Ring TV

 

[patscorpio]

The Thrilla in Manila remembered: 40 years later
Lee Groves
October 1, 2015




Their first fight stopped the world. Their rematch suffered by comparison. But for Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, their third confrontation was a pulsating, punishing war of attrition waged in triple-digit heat, hellish humidity and wrenching emotion. It pushed Ali to the edge of surrender but, moments before he pulled the trigger, Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, beat him to it. While the legendary chief second believed his man was ahead going into the 15th and final round, he also felt the beating Frazier had absorbed down the stretch posed a mortal threat to his fighter’s future well-being. By pulling his man out of the fire, Futch, in his mind, brokered a very favorable trade: Three more minutes of potentially life-ending punishment for what ultimately would be 36 more years among the living. Still, neither Ali nor Frazier were ever quite the same again, both as fighters and as men.

Forty years ago today, “The Greatest” and “Smokin’ Joe” poured out their skills and their souls to a degree seldom seen in sports. It was a fitting end to a rivalry that spanned four years, 41 rounds, countless barbs and even an in-studio brawl that Ali initially treated as stagecraft but Frazier viewed as fully justified. For Frazier, the bitterness toward Ali would continue until his dying day but, in athletic, in-ring terms, the argument between the two ring greats reached its raging conclusion.

*

The fight was announced in Malaysia the morning after Ali out-pointed Joe Bugner for the second time and, at the time, no one realized a potential epic was in their midst. Now in their early-30s, Ali and Frazier continued to win but they didn’t appear close to the forms that marked their primes.

Since beating Ali in their classic first fight in March 1971, Frazier notched two knockout wins over massive underdogs Terry Daniels and Ron Stander, then shockingly lost the world heavyweight championship to George Foreman, who not only stopped Frazier in two rounds but also scored six knockdowns. After decisioning Bugner over 12 rounds in London, Frazier was nearly knocked out in round two by Ali before losing the 12-round decision. After losing for the second time in three fights, Frazier righted the ship by stopping previous knockout victims Jerry Quarry and Jimmy Ellis.

Meanwhile, Ali had gone 17-1 (9) since losing to Frazier with the only loss being a split decision against then-unheralded Ken Norton, who insulted and then injured Ali, quite literally, by breaking his jaw. As was his way, Ali fought often, met the best available opponents and racked up tens of thousands of frequent flier miles along the way. He scored victories in Switzerland (KO 7 Juergen Blin), Japan (UD 15 Mac Foster), Canada (UD 12 George Chuvalo II), Ireland (TKO 11 Alvin Blue Lewis), Indonesia (UD 12 Rudi Lubbers) and Malaysia (UD 15 Bugner II) while also mixing in plenty of wins on U.S. soil (Ellis and Buster Mathis Sr. in Texas, Quarry, Bugner and Ron Lyle in Las Vegas, Bob Foster in Stateline, Nev., Floyd Patterson and Frazier in New York, Chuck Wepner in Richfield, Ohio and Norton in Inglewood, Calif. in their rematch). But the most memorable victory of his run came against Foreman in Zaire, where he ended his long championship chase in most improbable fashion – by eighth-round knockout and by using the “rope-a-dope” to wear out the over-eager champion.

Ali, however, had not been at his best lately. After beating Foreman, Ali clowned for long stretches against Wepner, turning on the jets only after the challenger scored a humiliating ninth-round knockdown with a light right to the chest combined with a well-placed foot that tripped Ali. He also played with Lyle, who smartly avoided the “rope-a-dope” and fought the disinterested Ali well enough to be ahead on two scorecards entering the 11th round. Once Ali finally woke up, it took just 68 seconds to end the bout. He was more serious against Bugner, who had height and reach on Ali and had fought him reasonably well in their first meeting two years earlier. While Ali easily won the decision, he wasn’t stellar.

But while neither man was at his physical peak, the years had only heightened the tension between them. And Ali, ever the master psychologist, made sure he fired the first shots. After making fun of Frazier’s diction, Ali reached into his pocket and pulled out a black rubber gorilla.

“This here is Joe Frazier’s conscience. I keep it everywhere I go,” he told the assembled press. Then, as he repeatedly pounded the toy’s face with his fist, he said, “This is the way he looks when you hit him. All night long, this is what you’ll see. Come on, gorilla; we in Manila. Come on, gorilla; this is a thrilla.”

For everyone else in the room, it was a moment of levity. For Frazier, it was an outrage.

“It’s real hatred,” Frazier declared shortly before the fight. “I want to hurt him. I don’t want to knock him out. I want to take his heart out. If I knock him down, I’ll stand back, give him a chance to breathe, to get up.”

For most fighters, such talk was just part of the pre-fight build-up. But the proud and deeply emotional Frazier meant every acidic word. To him, Ali’s public mocking was a betrayal of the highest order. During Ali’s exile, Frazier floated money to the ex-champ and advocated for the return of his license. While part of his motivation was financial, his gestures also were fueled by his deeply-held Christian faith. Once Ali regained his license, Ali, in Frazier’s mind, forgot past favors and went far beyond the usual bounds of salesmanship. He didn’t just go after Frazier the fighter; he went after Frazier the man. Ali justified his actions by saying he was pumping up the gate but Frazier correctly replied that their purses were guaranteed, not based on a percentage of ticket sales.

Ali, however, was only following a pattern that has applied to most of his career; he usually saves his most intense taunting for the opponents he views as most threatening. Ali, then Cassius Clay, was fearful of the baleful Sonny Liston but his masterful, pre-fight psychological campaign helped the challenger in two ways. First, it helped him cope with his internal concerns and, second, it anesthetized him from Liston’s scare tactics. He used the same playbook with Foreman, who he saw as a bigger, stronger and harder-hitting version of Liston. Frazier, while not as physically imposing as Liston or Foreman, qualified as a top-tier danger to Ali because of his relentless aggression, his superhuman stamina, his extraordinary body punching and his ferocious left hook, arguably the best in the sport’s history.

Even if neither man was at his positive peak, the meaning of their rubber match was profound. In historical terms, the winner of their three-fight series would be perceived as the better fighter in pound-for-pound terms. But for the two men, another prize was paramount: Bragging rights for the rest of their lives.

“When it came down to in Manila, [it] wasn’t [just for] the heavyweight championship of the world,” writer Jerry Izenberg said in Thomas Hauser’s “Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times.” “Ali and Frazier were fighting for something more important than that. They were fighting for the championship of each other.”

If the personal dynamic between the fighters wasn’t volatile enough, the cauldron in which Ali-Frazier III boiled was stoked by the controversy concerning the selection of the referee as well as the married Ali’s affair with model Veronica Porsche. The press had known about it for a while but the mores of the time dictated that it not be broached in print. But Ali gave them no choice, thanks to a pair of incidents. The first occurred during a meeting with president Ferdinand Marcos at his presidential palace. Seeing Porsche with Ali and assuming she was his wife, Marcos offered a complement. Ali didn’t correct Marcos’ case of mistaken identity. The second took place at Ali’s daily press conference when the champ, without prompting, started the session by trying to justify the affair. The resulting stories got back to Belinda Ali, who immediately flew to Manila, marched to Ali’s hotel room, “raised hell for about an hour” and went straight back home.

The issue of the third man prompted considerable political maneuvering. According to the account Futch gave to Dave Anderson in his book “In The Corner,” Ali’s promoter, Don King, wanted Zach Clayton and Clayton, who officiated Ali-Foreman, wanted the job. Futch said Clayton attempted to visit Frazier’s apartment in Philadelphia just after the fighter began training. Futch didn’t want Clayton due to past acts he felt weren’t “in the best interests of boxing” and was able to shoo Clayton away for the time being. When Futch called then-mayor Frank Rizzo to complain about Clayton’s persistence, Rizzo told Clayton, a firefighter for the city, that he wouldn’t give Clayton time off to work the fight. Clayton responded by quitting.

Not long after, the trainer read the signed contract and noticed a clause stating King had the right to choose the referee if the two camps reached an impasse. King removed the clause when Futch confronted him but, as the fight neared, the trainer found out King had flown three referees to Manila: Jay Edson, Harry Gibbs – and Clayton.

Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated





Though Futch had no quarrel with Edson and Gibbs’ work, he felt uncomfortable with the prospect of their feeling obligated to King. Thus, Futch suggested to King that a local official be named, a suggestion King rejected. Futch then brought up the idea to Luis Tabuena, the chairman of the Games and Amusement Board in Manila, who then approached Marcos. At a subsequent news conference, 41-year-old Carlos Padilla, the son of a movie actor who had appeared in several films himself, was named the third man. To this point. Padilla had never officiated a championship fight but any concerns over his inexperience melted away once the fight began.

In order to have the fight shown during prime-time hours in the US, the main event was scheduled to begin at 10:45 a.m. local time. Despite the relatively early hour, conditions inside the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City (a city within the Metro Manila area) were brutal. The aluminum roof and the lack of air conditioning intensified the already sticky conditions.

Ticket prices ranged from $330 for ringside to $4 in the gallery and the 224 1/2-pound Ali (48-2, 34) was installed as a narrow 6-to-5 favorite to beat the 215 1/2-pound Frazier (32-2, 27), who was seeking to join Patterson and Ali as the only men to regain the heavyweight title.

As Frazier was being gloved up, the ring announcer said that the four-foot-tall trophy donated by Marcos would be given to the winner. Even before the announcement was finished, the lighthearted Ali drew laughs by pointing at himself, then taking the trophy to his corner. The focused Frazier didn’t even crack a smile. Ali again tried to rattle Frazier during the final instructions but again, his words had no visible effect on the former champ.

Knowing Frazier was a notoriously slow starter – and knowing he had stunned Frazier badly in round two of their second bout – Ali planted his feet and looked to land combinations. Meanwhile, Frazier, wearing a smiling sneer, bobbed under Ali’s blows and sought to attack Ali’s body. With 20 seconds remaining in the opening round, Ali wobbled Frazier with a compact hook to the jaw. Seeing the chance for an early finish, he unleashed a torrent of blows but Frazier ducked under most of them and made it to the bell without further trouble. In fact, Frazier playfully tugged the bottom of Ali’s trunks before walking to his corner.

Unlike most recent fights, Ali was all business in round one as he threw 80 punches and out-landed Frazier 34-15. Encouraged by his early success, Ali maintained his flat-footed ways in round two. When Ali’s left glove briefly wrapped around Frazier’s neck, Padilla, keenly aware of Futch’s complaints, stopped the action and issued a caution, something neither Clayton or Tony Perez, who officiated the second Ali-Frazier fight, did. Frazier effectively worked the ribs whenever he trapped Ali on the ropes while Ali used his left to tee up Frazier for a smacking right that snapped back the challenger’s head. It was Ali’s flash against Frazier’s thunder and each was serving it in healthy portions. As the round closed, Frazier landed a hook to the jaw and a right to the body while Ali responded with a snappy right lead to the face that landed flush. The second was a much closer round than the first and a subsequent count confirmed it as Frazier out-landed Ali 22-17 overall and landed 69% of his power shots (20 of 29) to Ali’s 50% (14 of 28).

Photo credit: Neil Leifer



Despite fighting just six minutes, both men’s bodies were bathed in perspiration. Between rounds, a still jaunty Ali bowed and blew kisses to Marcos and his wife, Imelda, while also bantering with ringsiders as the single-minded Frazier sat on his stool and focused on his mission. Ali constantly stuck out his left glove to keep Frazier at bay but the challenger simply batted it away, banged his gloves together, skillfully weaved away from Ali’s blows and blasted the body at every opportunity. Midway through the round, Ali went into the “rope-a-dope” and Frazier responded with sticky body shots, right uppercuts and trademark hooks, many of which got through. Between assaults, Ali said something in Frazier’s ear but the imperturbable challenger ignored the barbs and continued his industrious – and effective – attack.

In the closing moments, Ali suddenly unleashed an explosive flurry punctuated by several lead rights to the face but Frazier held his own and eagerly traded with the champion until the bell. Just as he had in earlier rounds, Frazier turned his back to Ali and dismissed him with a wave of the arm.

The already frenetic action accelerated at the start of round four as they traded power shots with abandon. Now it was Frazier who was taunting Ali, even as the champion pelted him with pinpoint punches. Ali continued to rake Frazier’s face while on the retreat while “Smokin’ Joe” walked toward the champion as if brushing away branches in a thick forest. Whenever Ali sought rest on the ropes, Frazier offered no respite. As far as he was concerned, there would be no time for games, no time for horseplay and no time for illusions, magic tricks or verbal gymnastics. All Frazier had on his mind was destruction, mayhem and pain, even if he had to take his fair share of it in order to dish it out.

Photo credit: John Shearer/Time-Life/Getty Images



Between rounds four and five, Ali suddenly stood up and led the crowd in chants of “Ali! Ali! Ali!” Frazier didn’t care; he knew that the 25,000-plus who jammed into Araneta Coliseum were there to cheer for Ali, not fight for him.

The pace slowed somewhat in round five but only in comparison to the fantastic rate of the earlier rounds. Ali spent long portions propped in the corner, allowing Frazier free reign to hammer his body. After Padilla separated them, Ali stayed where he was and waved the challenger in with his glove. While others would have hesitated and wondered about Ali’s intentions, Frazier simply walked in and hammered him with a hook to the body. The final minute of the round featured the longest stretch of sustained action yet as they traded shot-for-shot and, in the midst of it, a loud chant of “Frazier! Frazier! Frazier!” thundered through the arena.

Although Frazier got his pound of flesh, Ali had the lead through five rounds. Numerically speaking, he out-landed Frazier 128-109 overall and 113-101 in power shots and the pace was much faster and more intense than anyone could have ever anticipated. Ali, who liked to ease into a fight, was forced to fight harder than usual and in the first five rounds, he averaged 61.6 punches per round. Frazier, though he fired the heavyweight average of 45.4, landed an impressive 51% of his hooks, crosses and uppercuts.

Frazier instantly turned the fight seconds into round six when he landed a massive hook to the jaw that forced Ali to cover up, then landed a half-dozen more like it over the rest of the session. While Frazier’s body punches had extra zip, Ali’s punches were slower and his face betrayed his pain and weariness. While Ali covered, Frazier cranked – and to devastating effect. It was, by far, the most lopsided round of the bout for either man thus far, both inside the ring and statistically as Frazier landed more than twice the punches (32-15) and landed 57% of his power shots to Ali’s 36%.

Photo credit: Bettmann Archives/Corbis



One of Ali’s most impressive traits was his ability to find extra energy when he needed it and such was the case at the start of round seven when, for the first time in the bout, Ali became the butterfly and the bee. His legs allowed him to float about the ring and his combinations landed with a crispness that defied logic given what happened just three minutes earlier. Yes, Frazier still landed from time to time but Ali’s movement and quick hands largely quieted the threat – at least for the time being.

The eighth saw Ali stand his ground and trade with Frazier. Throughout the first half of the session, Ali’s lightning-quick flurries repeatedly laced Frazier’s grimacing and swelling face but, once Ali slowed, Frazier gathered himself and blasted the champion with meaty power shots that reverberated through his body. At the bell, Ali trudged toward his corner while Frazier strode toward his.

Photo credit: Associated Press



Ali did his best to hold off Frazier in the ninth but, as the round progressed, it became apparent that his gas tank was ebbing. Frazier’s steady, punishing work intensified in the final minute and, by round’s end, the momentum was his. Ali spent the majority of the 10th along the ropes, resting his legs, while Frazier continue to pound away at all available targets. Frazier’s ceaseless body punching left Ali’s upper body in a hunched position and only his fighting instincts and immense pride kept him standing. With five more rounds yet to fight, an exhausted Ali was forced to ponder his own mortality. As Ali struggled to catch his breath, he told chief second Angelo Dundee, “Man, this is the closest I’ve ever been to dying.”

And yet, incredibly, sometime during those 60 seconds, Ali forged deep within himself and extracted a new source of energy, an energy that revitalized his arms, his legs and, most importantly, his spirit. Ali started the 11th dancing, snapping jabs and pounding Frazier with whistling combinations. The swellings around Frazier eyes soon were joined by ridges of welts on the forehead. The second minute of the round saw a resting Ali take some of Frazier’s bombs but they didn’t affect Ali quite as much as before because he bounced back to capture the final 60 seconds.

After Ali produced a strong start in the 12th, Frazier, though obviously worn down, still managed to trap Ali on the ropes and land blows that jarred Ali’s head and body. But Frazier’s body was breaking down too; his left eye was starting to close and his trademark bobbing and weaving was no longer there.

With the finish line in sight, both men sought to pick up the action in the 13th but Ali would be the one to produce a ferocious finishing kick. A sharp right hand to the face sent Frazier’s mouthpiece flying out of the ring, a sight that seemed to ignite the champion. Suddenly Ali was hitting Frazier with almost everything he threw and, with a minute left, a straight right sent Frazier stumbling backward. Just as Frazier turned the fight in round six, Ali returned the favor in the 13th – and, this time, there would be no turning back.

The latter half of the 14th was even worse for Frazier; he could no longer see the punches coming and thus Ali struck cleanly, precisely and with force. Blood poured from Frazier’s mouth; the left side of his head was misshapen and he couldn’t raise his arms high enough to defend himself. It was target practice for Ali and he relished the opportunity to put an exclamation point on his dominance. At the bell, Padilla had to guide Frazier toward his corner. There, Futch waited for him – and his mind was already made up.

“I’m going to stop it,” he told Frazier. The proud warrior tried to protest but once Futch pushed down on his shoulder, he stayed put. Futch then turned to Padilla and waved off the match. Once the Ali corner got the word, the still-heavyweight champion only had the energy to raise his glove in triumph before slumping to his stool.

“Joe had two bad rounds in a row,” Futch explained. “Even with three minutes to go, he was going downhill. And that opened up the possibility in that situation that he could’ve been seriously hurt. Joe was taking some hard shots to the head and, in his condition, I thought he had no way to win the fight. I didn’t want him to get hurt.”

Photo credit: SIPA Press/Shutterstock



“I didn’t want to be stopped,” Frazier said. “I wanted it to go on. It was one heck of a fight. I thought I was ahead when they stopped it. Sure, I was disappointed but I never argue with what Eddie does.”

After all the insults he hurled at Frazier throughout the years, Ali had nothing but praise for his rival on this day.

“He is tough,” Ali said. “He is a great fighter. I’m so tired I don’t want to do nothing. I want to rest for one week. My arms are sore; my legs are sore; my sides are sore. He is the best there is – except [for] me.”

Perhaps motivated by the pain, Ali was eager to step away from boxing – forever.

“I want to retire. It’s too much work, too painful. I might have a heart attack,” he said. But in the next breath, the old Ali was back. “I want everyone to know that I’m the greatest fighter of all time.”

The last two rounds showed why. In rounds 13 and 14 he out-landed Frazier 90-27 overall and 68-25 in power shots. It was a withering assault that broke the body – but not the will – of Joe Frazier.

Years later, it was revealed in HBO’s documentary, “Thrilla in Manila,” that Ali was moments away from quitting on his stool.

Willie “The Worm” Monroe, who used to be in Frazier’s training camp, was seated near Ali’s corner and he overheard Ali telling Dundee to cut the gloves off, a story later confirmed by Ali cornerman Wali Muhammad, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco and Ali himself to author Tom Hauser. Monroe frantically gestured toward the Frazier corner but his gesticulations went unseen. Had they been and had they been properly interpreted in time, the entire narrative surrounding the careers of both men would have been drastically different.



Ali and Frazier left large pieces of themselves inside that ring and their efforts didn’t go unrecognized. THE RING deemed the bout its “Fight of the Year” for 1975 and in 1996, the magazine rated it the number-one fight of all-time. Ali earned his third “Fighter of the Year” award in the last four years and his fourth such award overall and in 1999, ESPN’s SportsCentury ranked the fight as the fifth greatest sporting event in history. Nearly 35 years after his retirement, Ali remains among the most beloved people on Earth but Frazier, too, was honored and celebrated. Futch was true to his word when he told Frazier that “No one will forget what you did here today,” and the latest manifestation of that regard occurred Sept. 12, 2015 in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia when a 12-foot bronze statue in his likeness was unveiled.

Marvis Frazier (right) and Rev. Blane Newberry from Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church bless the bronze statue dedicated to late world heavyweight champion Joe Frazier after it was unveiled at XFINITY Live! Saturday Sept. 12, 2015. Photo credit: David Swanson/Staff Photographer/Philly.com



It is somewhat fitting that their careers ended in Dec. 1981; Frazier after a dreary 10-round majority draw against Floyd “Jumbo” Cummings and Ali dropping a 10-round unanimous decision to Trevor Berbick eight days later. But those sad conclusions are overshadowed by the magnificence they displayed on an unforgettable morning in a faraway land.



The Thrilla in Manila remembered: 40 years later - Ring TV

This deserves it's own thread..hold on

 

[L68]

Ali has Frazier number 10 as his toughest opponent? Im thinking those are just randmon and out of order thoughts

 

[patscorpio]

The Full fight



HBO Thrilla in Manila documentary

 

[seemorecizzy]

imagine if ali ended up quittin after giving frazier a beating for 2 straight rounds...his whole legacy would be different

 

[patscorpio]

Thrilla in Manila is one of the greatest fights of all time and possibly the greatest Heavyweight title fight of all time...I rewatch this fight every couple of months or so

 

[Newzz]

Ali has Frazier number 10 as his toughest opponent? Im thinking those are just randmon and out of order thoughts

He has the 1st fight with Frazier as his 4th toughest fight and the rematch as his 10th toughest fight.


He did his "Best I ever faced" 8 months before fighting Frazier in the 3rd fight aka Thrilla In Manilla, so that's not reflected in his article.

 

[patscorpio]

imagine if ali ended up quittin after giving frazier a beating for 2 straight rounds...his whole legacy would be different

meanwhile frazier virtually blind was too far gone in his hatred to stop even though he was risking serious damage or death...they dont make fighters like smokin joe anymore..god bless him

 

[Newzz]

The Thrilla In Manila: Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier's final meeting 'may have been the greatest fight of all time'
Four decades after the final meeting between the bitter rivals, Telegraph Sport talks to some key figures from 'The Thrilla In Manila'
.

Facebook
430

Twitter
126

Pinterest
0

LinkedIn
0

Share
556

Email

Muhammad Ali's final fight Joe Frazier has lived long in the memory of those present in Manila Photo: AP

Get up to date with the best on TV
The new seasons are coming: watch The Walking Dead, Modern Family, The Flash and much more
Sponsored by Sky


By Gareth A Davies, Boxing Correspondent

12:01AM BST 01 Oct 2015

5 Comments


Regarded by many as the most brutal heavyweight fight of all time, Thursday marks the 40th anniversary of the final instalment in the trilogy of memorable fights between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier: 'The Thrilla In Manila'.

Bob Arum, who co-promoted the heavyweight championship of the world with rival promoter Don King, told Telegraph Sport that "it may just have been the greatest fight of all time".


Ali and Frazier indulged in a masterpiece which was brutal artistry at its most visceral as the two, slower fighters whose styles seemed made for each other, exchanged a blizzard of over a thousand punches in heat which left even onlookers and ringside experts exhausted.

Perhaps due to the peak power having been eroded after their prime years in the ring, the rivalry between the two continued in a brutal, primal fight, a battle of wills which eventually saw Frazier pulled out on his stool by trainer Eddie Futch after 14 rounds. Ali, beyond exhaustion himself, said it was the closest he had ever felt to death.

Hugh McIlvanney called the bout "40-odd minutes of unremitting violence," and "an exchange of suffering." Colin Hart, also ringside, and still writing, described it as "the most brutal heavyweight fight I've seen in more than fifty years, and arguably the most brutal ever."


Tom Hauser, author of Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, analysed it thus: "This fight could make a legitimate claim to being the greatest fight of all time, maybe not in terms of social significance, but in terms of great action between two historic fighters."

Ed Schuyler, the boxing correspondent for Associated Press, claimed that he had never seen "a fight where two guys took as much punishment as those two did that day."

Forty years on and 'The Thrilla in Manila' is still related and replayed in televisual documentaries. It came four-and-a-half years after their first contest – the 'Fight of the Century' at Madison Square Garden, where Frazier had defeated Ali. In between, Ali had evened up the score.

King and Arum joined promotional forces for Manila, where Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos looked to promote his own causes globally while at home civil war raged in Mindanao, in a country where martial law was in place and being enforced.

Ali may have been one of the most popular sportsmen in the world, but not in the Philippines.

Jerry Izenberg, a reporter for the New Jersey Star-Ledger since 1951, told Telegraph Sport: "The Philippines, despite the revolution going on in the south, was still the biggest Christian country in Asia. They didn't want Ali to win.

"It was the only place we went where Ali was introduced before the fight and they booed him. Ali put his boxing gloves over his face and pretended to sob. It was such a shock to me only because everywhere he went they went crazy for him. They didn't boo him after the fight or anything, but they did when he was introduced."

Ali had also angered many Filipino for bringing his girlfriend Veronica Porsche, and leaving behind his wife Belinda. The Telegraph reported – through Ian Ward in Manila – that Ali was caught in a backlash over the news.

Belinda, back in the US, had seen pictures in news reports of Ali introducing Veronica to Marcos and his wife before she flew to Manila. Arum was on the plane with her. "She saw my newspaper, and wanted to see it. She was smart. She was also a black belt in karate ..."

Izenberg takes up the story after Belinda had arrived in Manila. "She charges into the room, with nine suitcases, and breaks the table. She then comes out, nine suitcases unopened still followed by the porter, goes to the airport and goes home. She wants a divorce and she tells him."

Ali's unrelentless taunting of Frazier got to his rival

Ali also kept up his campaign against Frazier. He had labelled a furious Frazier an 'Uncle Tom' in his earlier verbal attacks. But in Manila, it was 'the gorilla'. Ali switched tack, comparing Frazier to a gorilla with one of his pre-fight poems:

It will be a killa
And a chilla
And a thrilla
When I get the gorilla
In Manila

Ali had a doll of a gorilla with him, which he hit during sparring. "This is Joe Frazier's conscience," Ali had said. "I keep it everywhere I go. This is the way he looks when you hit him."


While King saw Ali's outbursts as "promotional hype", the promoter admitted that "Joe took it as personal invective. He took it as character assassination. It was so deeply embedded. Joe wasn't playing the role. He was living the role. He was infuriated. He took it as a personal insult. It persecuted him in his life."

Arum recalled the fight, and the event. He told Telegraph Sport: "It may have been the greatest fight I've ever seen. The only thing that's comparable is Hagler-Hearns. But that was a fight to the death, Ali and Frazier. Ali starts out giving Frazier a boxing lesson, Frazier comes on the middle rounds and thinks he's going to stop a fading Ali. Ali rallies and Frazier can't get out of the corner for the 15th round because he can't see. His eyes are both closed."

Ali lands a punch on Frazier

"It was a brutal, brutal fight. Because of the time difference it was at 11 o'clock in the morning in Manila to coincide with primetime in the United States. The fight was at the Araneta Colosseum, a pretty dark building, and we walked outside after seeing this amazing fight and the sun was shining like I'd never seen the sun shine. It was blinding. We were all blinded by the sun. We stood outside and were stunned. We then went back to the hotel, where we were all staying, and we had a party that lasted for three days. It was the time of my life. I was a lot younger then so I could participate a lot more than I can now, but I really enjoyed the whole experience. Later in the year I spent six weeks there and I fell in love with the Philippines.

"I have always had a spot in my heart for the Philippines because of the time I spent there at the 'Thrilla in Manila' and the six weeks later. I've always loved the Philippines. When I was over there with Manny Pacquiao in the Philippines, I was asked to have dinner with Imelda and she had me to dinner with another couple. She was as feisty as she ever was. She talks about the 'Thrilla in Manila' and she sent me a photograph we took at that dinner of Imelda and myself. It says from Muhammad Ali to Manny Pacquiao – you are the best, Imelda."

The names of Ali and Frazier, and Angelo Dundee and Eddie Futch, their respective trainers, are etched into boxing folklore, as much a part of the act as the protagonists themselves. Those who were there, and are still present in the sport today, say it is different now.

Angelo Dundee said Ali's final bout with Frazier 'was the toughest I've seen'

"In retrospect, I realise that all of these people played roles in this whole Ali saga and the three Ali-Frazier fights. There was so much public interest in it – they became larger-than-life figures. They are people that are recognised as being characters, supporting characters, in this great saga that we all experienced. They were all larger than life. They were certainly a lot more solid than the people we have around today," adds Arum.

"Even the trash-talking was done on a much higher level than the nonsense these kids engage in today.

"People came over for weeks. In those days it was ok to take free hotel rooms from the Philippine government and it made it affordable. Everybody was part of a community. You got to know the people. Everybody was looking for new and interesting angles. And the reporting was so much better than it is today. Today it's like surface. Then it was really in depth. At least that's my recollection."

"I knew, and I think a lot of the journalists knew, that even though they might have slipped a little in their skills, and they were certainly older, that when Ali and Frazier fought each other there'd be fireworks. They'd always deliver. They couldn't do a bad fight.

Ali admitted afterwards that he felt 'close to death' in Manilla

Izenberg added, telling Telegraph Sport: "If God was a boxing fan, he decided this would be one style and this would be the other style because they were the perfect compliments of each other in a ring."

Izenberg again: "They made each other better. They each fought a little better than they really were because they were forced to by the other guy. That's what made them so inseparable. They could have been fighting on a melting ice flow in Greenland. That's all the room they needed for that fight. They weren't fighting for the WBO, IBF or any other title. They weren't fighting for the title of best in the world. They were fighting for the championship of each other.


"They are two of the greatest of all time, but I'd hasten to add you can't confuse impact with dominance or ability. Ali is the most impactful heavyweight outside of Jack Johnson. He had the most impact out of any fighter we've ever known outside Ray Robinson, the greatest. Was he the greatest heavyweight? No, I believe that to be Joe Louis."

Arum looks back now to a time unparalleled in the sport: "It was a special time. There was a lot of bad stuff written because writers were looking for angles. There was good stuff, bad stuff and a lot of interesting stuff. It really captured the public's imagination.

"Ali, if he was around in this era, would be even bigger than he was before. Imagine if Muhammad Ali had twitter and all those other social media platforms where he could reach people. He would be on them constantly. He'd do more twittering than Donald Trump does. The whole time I spent with Ali and doing his events and being around him and the characters we encountered – Angelo, Eddie Futch, Yank Durham, larger than life people – were priceless times."



The Thrilla In Manila: Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier's final meeting 'may have been the greatest fight of all time'

 

[patscorpio]

this is why im a fan of bring back 15 round fights..at least for titles..imagine if this shyt only went 12..the greatness of this fight wouldn't have had the same level of magnitude

 

[King P]

this is why im a fan of bring back 15 round fights..at least for titles..imagine if this shyt only went 12..the greatness of this fight wouldn't have had the same level of magnitude

You know damn well that won't ever happen. Boxing doesn't want the potential of having any more Duk Koo Kims

 

[krackdagawd]

this is why im a fan of bring back 15 round fights....

 

[krackdagawd]

” Frazier didn’t care; he knew that the 25,000-plus who jammed into Araneta Coliseum were there to cheer for Ali, not fight for him

 

[Newzz]

this is why im a fan of bring back 15 round fights..at least for titles..imagine if this shyt only went 12..the greatness of this fight wouldn't have had the same level of magnitude

I didn't see this post. I agree. I think Championship fights should be 15 rounds as well, OR at least make every fight a 13 rounder (to eliminate draws).


I've been thinking about this for years...you know how many extra losses some of these fighters back in the day if they only had 12 rounds?


Thomas Hearns would've beat SRL if it was a 12 rounder