History is one of the major draws to a sport. The developments of any game shape its current day. Contemporary athletes often take strategic decisions from one another and combine past moves to make new and different styles. The rules themselves often shift and break the sport into a new face. Boxing was once a fifteen round competition and entirely run by the mob.
The images of faces, movements and names in the past bring about instant memories with a short name sound bite. Muhammad Ali. Sugar Ray Robinson. Don King.
A name can refer to a proper person, place, thing or idea because a name is a noun. The most popular proper nouns in boxing are usually the names of people: fighters, commentators, promoters and even judges and referees. Occasionally, the proper noun is that of a place rather than a person. The Kronk Gym. Mandalay Bay. Manila.
Manila is the proper noun of all proper nouns in the sport. The Thrilla in Manila is known to many as the biggest fight in the history of boxing. I suggest all boxing fans read the details of this fight from several accounts and get a real viewpoint of how the sensations that filled the room and the preceding events shaped that fight. I highly recommend reading the Joe Frazier Trilogy piece in our Muhammad Ali Chronicles. For a quick and dirty version of that history to get you started, read below.
Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought in a trilogy. The first fight of that series was termed ?The Fight of the Century? and turned out to be the 1971 Fight of the Year. Epic in proportion, the first fight was the biggest payday in the history of the sport and featured the two best heavyweights on the planet facing off for the WBC and WBA Heavyweight Championships. In the beginning of the fight, Ali attacked Joe earlier and tried to take him out. He landed clean hard shots in combinations that could only be pounded out by The Greatest himself. The problem was that Frazier?s movement was the only kind on the planet that was nearly as unique, albeit entirely different than, Ali. Frazier moved his head at the neck and shoulders and stayed low with his hands up. Ali?s jab did not tag its mark nearly often enough to keep Frazier away as he banged to the body and slowed Ali until his opponent was floating closer to an elephant than a butterfly. Frazier took plenty of punishment in the ninth round before again exploding to land hook after hook to the champ. Frazier then punctuated the fight by dropping Ali at the beginning of the fifteenth and final round. He was awarded a unanimous decision.
That fight, took place at Madison Square Garden after Ali?s 43 month layoff from a boxing, a motion caused by a ban imposed on him for dodging the draft. The second fight took place at Madison Square Garden as well and this time, Ali was not denied. Three years after the first fight, Ali had maintained a steady and active schedule and defeated all twelve foes that he faced with only one loss, a split decision in his first fight with Ken Norton. He was ready for a rematch with Frazier and he was back to his old abilities that night. This time, Ali?s jab did land. Frazier was hurt early in the fight but Ali was content to pepper him rather than take him out. Ali easily boxed to a twelve round unanimous decision.
This is where the Thilla in Manila enters the picture of the business between Ali and Frazier.
The third match, meant to decide once and for all which man was the better fighter and the best heavyweight of all time, took place in the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City in the Philippines. Ali proved once and for all which of the two men was the better fighter. The fight broke down to a dramatic structure, with Ali winning the first five rounds with his patented combinations before Frazier stormed back for the six through the ninth round. In the ninth round, Ali seemed to be done. Frazier?s muscular hooks were wearing his opponent down. That?s when Ali stormed back for one of the greatest comebacks in the history of boxing. The Champ again began to pound Frazier and turned his face into an unrecognizable injury. Frazier?s corner man Eddie Futch put an end to the massacre before the fifteenth round.
Neither man ever fought to the level performed in any of those three fights. They make up the greatest trilogy in the history of the sport. The attachment to the Manila rests on that third fight, a fight in which Ali claimed he had come closer to death than in any other part of his life.
Therefore, any fight in Manila is a big fight, ready to draw huge numbers of fans. Combine that factor with a prime Filipino superstar such as Manny Pacquiao and you have a packed house screaming in outright aggression and celebration with every stinging combination.
Pacquiao utterly obliterated an undefeated Seung-Kon Chae by first round technical knockout in 2000. The year before, he also destroyed Gabriel Mira in Manila by a fourth round technical knockout. When those two fights took place, he was approaching high recognition levels in the layman?s boxing world but had yet to become the world wide star he is today.
By the time of his third fight in Manila, Pacquiao was a household name in his own country and one of the most famous fighters in the world. By then, he could claim a one sided beat down of Marco Antonio Barrera, a draw with Juan Manuel Marquez and a tenth round redemption knockout against Erik Morales after Morales had picked up a unanimous decision in their first fight.
Morales and Pacquiao, 41-3, 33 KO?s, had a third rubber match all but destined to happen between them. Before that took place, Pacquiao decided that it would be best to take on one of the toughest men of the modern era in Oscar Larios. Larios, 56-4, 36 KO?s, was an older fighter with long arms and a propensity to brawl. While his career was great, Larios was never known for his craftiness but his grit and excitement. He was never one to back down from a fight.
That attribute is one of many required to destroy Manny Pacquiao. Backing away without backing down is the only recipe that might defeat him on a given day. The balance between the two is tense and rolling too much in either direction is bad news. Backing down from the fight leaves his opponent in the position that Marco Antonio Barrera found himself in, while moving forward will eventuate in a trade that Pacquiao has always won.
Alas, Larios could not gun with the best anymore. The fight before he met Pacquiao, Larios suffered a third round knockout at the hands of Super Bantamweight Champion (of then and now) Israel Vazquez. The fight with Vazquez was a rematch from early in the career of both. Vazquez dominated Larios in both, knocking him out in the third round of the first fight and returning to beat him down yet again in 2005.
Now Larios looked to prove his relevance against the best fighter in the world. Pacquiao might have been using him to stay busy more than to pad his resume. Pacquiao?s resume was plenty fine at the time and he had his eye on bigger and better fights.
The whole country watched. There were over 7,000 movie theaters featuring the fight on closed circuit TV and every single seat was sold out. The arena was so full it was hard to breath or avoid being swept in to the mass of people watching and cheering.
Like most fights, the showdown between Larios and Pacquiao featured good action early on when they both had plenty of gas in the tank. The first few rounds were even. The third round is where the fight actually began. Larios nailed Pacquiao with multiple right hands and drove him back into a ball at the ropes. The display heightened the tension and increased the stakes.
Then, Pacquiao did what he does his best. He forced Larios back with a left hook two minutes into the round and charged forward in attack mode. He pounded Larios with shots over the left eye, opening a huge cut that left him covered in blood. Larios covered up as the bell rang.
Over the next few rounds, Pacquiao worked the eye into a crisper cut than ever before. The skin of Larios? brow, previously damaged in the fight against Vazquez, seemed to give way more and more to the punches of Pacquiao. In the sixth, Pacquiao ripped Larios with so many shots that the fight was on the verge was being stopped. Larios mounted just enough of a miniature rally to avoid that fate and returned to his seat.
In the seventh round, Pacquiao landed all of a right jab-left hook-left hook-right hook counter punch combination that flashed Larios to the mat. Larios was on his feet quickly, but the tone of the fight was set. From that moment forward, Pacquiao was trying to score a knockout.
In the eighth round, Pacquiao landed his shots like he was hitting a bag. In the ninth and tenth, he punished Larios to the body over and over again, always finishing the round with a flurry of punishment. Larios always took it in kind, even tapping gloves at the end of the tenth.
The fight was again nearly stopped in the eleventh, when Larios landed a hard right hand to stave off the stoppage. He returned to his corner an absolute bloody mess.
The only reason they continued at this point was to see if Pacquiao could score the knockout. He did indeed try. Larios took punishment throughout the entirety of the round and could barely even throw back. His body was covered in blood and his left eye was almost closed. With under a minute to go, he hit the deck from a right hook and a left cross. He climbed to his feet at the count of six, shook off the cobwebs as best he could and continued fighting.
So did Pacquiao. The superstar of the night and the country continued to pummel Larios with head shots before the bell rang. The two men embraced in the middle of the ring for just a moment before Pacquiao was swarmed with his corner crowd. The scores were no surprise, with Pacquiao picking up the unanimous decision by counts of 117-110, 118-108 and 120-106.
Larios had proven himself to be a game and tough challenger in spite of recent failures. He returned to the US and Mexico to reel off three straight victories over lesser opponents before running into the dangerous young Jorge Linares on the under card of the Winky Wright-Bernard Hopkins fight. Linares fluidly deconstructed and disposed of Larios in ten brutal rounds. Larios was only thirty, but he looked like he was fifty as the twenty one year old Linares ripped him apart. His career is likely over because of a brain bleed he suffered from the bout.
As for Pacquiao, he continued to blaze his path and create a trail of greatness. After finishing business with Morales, he derailed the undefeated Jorge Solis in eight rounds. Then Pacquiao scored a clear unanimous decision over Barrera to shut the doors on his business. At this point, his future is up in the air but figures to be a prominent factor in boxing history regardless of who his next opponent will be.
