 |
| Two boxing warriors on the ring, Ali and Frazier going head to head against each other as referee Carlos Padilla Jr. looks on. (photo credit to Joe Frazier Facebook Page) |
The event was famously named 'The Thrilla in Manila'. It was Muhammad Ali's title defense against Joe Frazier for the WBA and WBC heavyweight championship of the world which took place in Quezon City, near Manila on October 1, 1975. The event was the final match in three meetings where two epic fighters went head to head in a trilogy that lived up to its name.
It started with the deafening roar of the crowd as the names of the two boxers were introduced. In the initial rounds, Ali being a showman displayed his flamboyance with his fancy footwork and lightning-quick hands. As expected, he floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee. Ali came out swinging and throwing big punches on Joe's face. Hitting while running, he buckled Frazier’s legs in the first round. Although Joe did a good job of bobbing and dodging Ali's punches, a number of it landed on his head. Thinking that he could stop Frazier in his tracks and knock him down early, Ali gave 'Smokin' Joe harsh beating with punishing jabs in the initial rounds.
But in the 5th round, Frazier began working on Ali's body by punching his sides, gut, and everything that was not covered. Frazier backed him up at every corner and he would not stop. Ali began to take some punishment against the rope. Unfortunately for Ali, while 'Rope a Dope' worked against George Foreman, the tactic did not work against Frazier.
In the sixth round, Smokin' Joe began to smoke. He unloaded a couple of vicious left hooks that snapped Ali's head back. He followed and hounded Ali and took the fight to him. Frazier was relentless. In rounds 5 thru 10, Ali took most of the body punches and endured terrible pounding. By the end of the 10th round, Ali sat on his stool at his corner, exhausted with mouth open and gasping for air. Fatigue had obviously taken a toll on him.
In the succeeding rounds, Ali somehow was able to dance away from Joe's persistent attack. He remained standing and fought back by throwing flurry of punches. On the 13th, Ali started to come alive. He danced around the ring and found his mark as he applied his famous hit and run tactic. The crowd started chanting his name and then stood toe to toe with his opponent. He unleashed a barrage of devastating punches on the face of Frazier. He eventually found a way to turn the fight back in his favor. When the bell rang, Joe had to be directed by the referee to his corner. Frazier sustained a small cut on the right eye and his mouth started to bleed.
In the 14th round, Joe took some more beating and the successive punches of Ali had made Frazier’s face almost unrecognizable. He began to slow down but even with his eyes swollen, he continued throwing punches and swinging left hooks trying to connect a powerful blow that would hopefully bring down his opponent to the canvas.
Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had duked it out for 14 brutal rounds and from the punishing heat inside the coliseum. Inadequate air conditioning units, as well as the heat coming from the crowd that numbered by the thousands, made the temperature reached over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. "It was so hot. It was like walking into an oven," Joe remarked.
Before the 15th, Eddie Futch, Frazier's trainer told him that he couldn’t go on anymore. He saw his fighter battered, nearly blind, and just fighting on instinct. Frazier tried to convince his trainer and briefly protested, "I want him boss." But Futch wouldn’t budge, "Sit down son. It's all over. Nobody would forget what you did here."
When the bell rang to signal the final round, Frazier with his eyes almost completely shut, remained sitted at his corner. His trainer threw in the towel and mercifully signaled the end of the fight. At the other corner, Ali got up and briefly held up his hands as a sign of victory. Then he collapsed on the floor due to 14 rounds of punishment, heat, humidity, and exhaustion.
Ali said, "I was so relieved, I was so tired and in so much pain that my knees buckled and stretched out where I was - in the middle of the ring. It was like death. Closest thing to dying that I know of." Years later he told his biographer Thomas Hauser, "Frazier quit just before I did. I didn't think I could fight anymore."
After the fight, however, respect followed. "He is the greatest fighter of all time next to me," Ali said sitting at the corner of the ring after the fight. Later at the press conference, “He’s greater than I thought he was. I thought he fought a good fight.”
Frazier on his part remarked, "Man, I hit him with punches that could bring down the walls of a city. Lawdy, lawdy, he's a great champion."
 |
| Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali during a press conference after the boxing bout. Frazier's face is noticeably swollen at the right side below the eye while Ali sustained a big bump above his left eyebrow. |
