SONAHR: HALIFAX, Nova Scotia – October 1, 2015 – Forty years ago today, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier went to war in the Philippines in the greatest and most grueling heavyweight title fight of the modern era of boxing. By ?modern,? I mean the time after the end of the ?marathon? bouts that lasted 20, 30, 40 and more rounds in the early years of the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. During the 1920s, the maximum length of bouts ? title or otherwise ? became 15 rounds. Since the 1980s, the limit has been reduced to 12 stanzas. In 1975, the 15-round distance was still in effect.
Both Ali and Frazier were in the post-prime stages of their ring careers. But they were still two of the three best heavyweights on the planet. The other was George Foreman, who had annihilated Frazier in 1973, only to be ?rope-a-doped? by Ali the following year. Ali was the champion. Frazier was looking to regain the crown he?d lost to Foreman.
?Smokin? Joe? was also looking for revenge, as he had lost a non-title rematch to Ali in 1974 after beating him in the ?Fight of the Century? three years before. More than that, though, he wanted to pay Ali back for the torrent of taunts, vilification and character assassination that had spewed from Ali?s mouth in the run-up to the contest. Ali had always talked trash about his opponents, but he seemed to save the worst of his vitriol for Frazier, calling him ?everything but a child of God,? as people from an older generation would have put it. His favorite appellation for Frazier was ?gorilla,? as in ?This fight will be a Chilla and a Thrilla in Manila against the Gorilla.?
The reason for all this verbal abuse is unclear. Maybe Ali was trying to get Frazier so flustered that he would forget his game plan and leave himself vulnerable to Ali?s sharpshooting counterpunches. Whatever his motivation for his dissing of Frazier, the tactic backfired. Although Ali won by TKO when Frazier?s trainer Eddie Futch would not allow Joe to answer the bell for the 15th round, Ali said later that Frazier had taken him ?close to death.? Indeed, it?s hard to see how either man could have survived another three minutes of the torture they inflicted on each other.
I saw Ali-Frazier III on closed-circuit TV in a jam-packed indoor sports arena. It was like watching a three-act drama of blood and bruises. In Act I, Ali outboxed Frazier the way he did during most of their second fight. In Act II, Frazier broke through Ali?s defenses and ravaged him along the ropes. Unlike the ineffective flailing that did Foreman in, Frazier?s punches were short, sharp, lethal, incessant. Ali was visibly wilting, and one wondered how he managed to stay on his feet.
Then came Act III, in which Ali dug into his deepest core and took the offensive, throwing punches like he never had before. Frazier?s eyes began to close, and it seemed as though Ali could not miss his target. But ?Smokin? Joe? refused to go down, and although he was staggered on several occasions, he kept coming forward.
After the end of the 14th round, Futch brought the curtain down. Ali and Frazier had given everything they had, and more, in this apocalyptic struggle to determine which of them was the champion of the other. Neither man would be the same again.
In the aftermath of their epic encounter, Ali had an opportunity to make things right with his greatest rival. He almost took it ? but not quite. During the post-fight press conference, Ali said, ?Don?t nobody say nothing bad about Joe Frazier.? And that was it. But Ali could have gone on to say, ?And that goes double for me, because I?ve said way too many bad things about him for way too long.? He could have issued a sincere and public apology for the way he had constantly degraded Frazier, who was a good, down-to-earth person, ever since the run-up to their first fight in 1971.
Had Ali apologized in Manila after the ?Thrilla,? Frazier ? who passed away in 2011 ? would have been a less-bitter man during the ensuing years. And Ali would have been a better man.
But Ali missed that opportunity. It was one of the few times he ever did so.
Charles R. Saunders is the author of several books including Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers in the Maritimes from the Halifax Forum to Caesars Palace, as well as the Imaro series of fantasy/adventure novels. Considered by many to be one of the leading authorities on boxing in Canada, he is the current Vice-President of Boxing for the Society of North American Sports Historians and Researchers. His novels, Imaro, Damballa, and Abengoni: First Calling are available at Amazon.com.
