Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier 1 - The Fight Of The Century
Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York, 8th March, 1971.
Over four and a half years Muhammad
Ali and Joe Frazier met three times. The greatest trilogy
in boxing and a major narrative in boxing history.
The first fight became a landmark
event, not just for its ferocity and sporting excellence,
but for the promotion that surrounded the fight of the champions.
The boxers were to split $5 million, a fight purse unheard
of before.
During Muhammad Ali's exile,
Joe Frazier had supported him by engaging in some publicity
arrangements, allowing Muhammad Ali to remain in the public
eye as a boxer and earn some money on a lecture tour.Ali had
said that he viewed Frazier as a friend, joking he could see
then sitting on a porch as old en, talking about their lives.
But as the upcoming fight began to grip the public imagination
throughout the world, Ali turned up the hype and their relationship
quickly deteriorated.
MUHAMMAD ALI VIDEO
Right click and press play to watch again.
Ali called Frazier an 'Uncle
Tom' and suggested that any black person who supported Joe
Frazier over him was effectively a traitor to his race. Given
Frazier's background, it was easy to see how such criticism
was hard to take, from a man who Frazier had considered a
friend and from a black man who had a lot of white people
working for him. In addition Frazier was no match for Ali
as a self promoter. He found it hard to express himself publicly
which compounded Frazier's frustration. As the fight approached
Frazier trained like never before.
It was sold as the 'Fight of
The Century'. Both men were unbeaten champions. A time honored
match of the boxer against the slugger. With a symbolic quality
due to Ali's taunting of Frazier.
Both boxers stepped through the
ropes sure that they would win the contest. The early rounds
belonged to Joe Frazier. Each was closely fought but Frazier
landed more blows and also the more telling blows. The intensity
grew as each three minutes passed.
Ali gave away points by lying
on the ropes, apparently still gathering himself for the battle
still ahead; Frazier was ruthless and relentless throughout.
Frazier hit Ali's body so hard that the area around Ali's
hips would later swell up and make it difficult for him to
walk.
In the tenth round, the referee,
Arthur Mercante Snr, accidentally caught Frazier in the eye
with his little finger while breaking up a clinch, but Frazier
continued unfazed. Both boxers were now becoming exhausted
and their faces bore the marks of each others blows. The fight
swung between them; Ali had jolted Frazier in the ninth round,
Frazier almost dropped Ali with a left hook in the tenth and
Ali had to hang on as Frazier intensified his efforts. Neither
boxer would yield and as the fifteenth round began, the fight
was still in the balance. Muhammad Ali was totally exhausted
- exile had extracted a price on his fitness. Then Frazier
produced a venomous left hook flush on Ali's jaw which sent
Ali to the canvas. Yet miraculously Ali was back on his feet
before Arthur Mercante could even begin the count. Not only
that Ali fought well during the remaining minutes of the round.
Mercante and the two judges awarded
the fight to Frazier. Mercante by only one round. Mercante
said that in the last round Frazier had hit Ali as hard as
a man can be hit. Ali's doctor Ferdie Pacheco said 'That night,
Ali was the most courageous fighter I have ever seen'.
Frazier had earned his victory,
a point that Ali would later acknowledge. Both men were badly
beaten up. But Joe Frazier was Still champion, and Muhammad
Ali had lost for the first time in his career after an enthralling
contest of warlike intensity.
Watch the last few rounds of
the Fight of The Century on Video:
