Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York. 28th January, 1974.
While Joe Frazier had been champion
and Ali had been unbeaten since their first bout, the mooted
purse for each fighter in a second fight was $5 million. Now
that their market value had dropped (frazier had been dethroned
convincingly by George Foreman) they were to get a mere $850,000
apiece.
It was known that Frazier had
been hurt by Ali int he first fight; he had been hospitalised
with kidney damage for almost three weeks. He also had restricted
sight in his right eye, a problem that he had concealed for
much of his career. Ali had recovered from his broken jaw,
but it was now apparent that he would not be the quick genius
that he had been before his exile.
Nonetheless it was still big
news, a superfight. Frazier and ALi ended up in a wrestling
match live on national television while being interviewed
by Howard Cosell. Frazier made a comment about Ali's trip
to the hospital after their first fight and Ali became annoyed.
"Why d'you say that, Joe? Everybody knows I went to hospital
for 10 minutes. You were there for three weeks. You ignorant
Joe."
Given the history between the
two, tha taunt was too much for Frazier. He pulle dout his
ear piece and grappled Ali to the floor. Cosell was stunned
and petrified. Ali just regarded it as horse play to sell
the fight, but Frazier did not and they ended up having to
be seperated by members of the audience. They were both fined
$5,000 by the New York State Commission.
Almost 21,000 fans filled the
Garden as the pair went into the ring. Ali had learnt from
defeat. He knew exactly what Frazier would bring to the contest.
Round one went to Ali: Frazier barely touched him. In round
two started to get into rhythm but was quickly shattered when
Ali landed a withering right. Frazier was stunned by the punch
and might have gone down with a follow up. But Ali was denied
by the intervention of referee Tony Perez who mistakenly thought
the bell had sounded.
Ali continued to dominate the
fight throwing more punches than Frazier. When Frazier got
close Ali would grab him around the neck and hold him until
the referee broke the clinch. Frazier began to make headway
in rounds eight and nine, keeping Ali pinned to the ropes
with heavy body shots. Then, just as he had with Ken Norton,
Ali changed his tactics and began to trafe punches with Frazier,
winning some hard exhchanges. As the later rounds came and
went, Frazier realised he was done. Ali's superior technique
had overcome his rage. The older man won comfortably.
Now Ali would fight again for
the Heavyweight Title.
