Thirty-five years ago today, on October 1, 1975, Muhammad Ali retained his heavyweight title when Joe Frazier’s corner prevented the former champion from coming out for the fifteenth round of their brutal war in Manila, The Philippines. The significance of the fight in boxing history cannot be overstated.
In the years before the fight, Ali won Olympic gold and the world heavyweight championship. He captured worldwide notoriety by changing his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali, embracing the Nation of Islam, and generally being a proud black man in an era when the rest of America demanded that blacks be humble and deferential. Undefeated in the ring, Ali was stripped of his title in the late 1960s when he refused induction into the American army during the unjust Viet Nam war. (“I aint got no quarrel with the Viet Cong,” Ali said famously, and 57,000 dead Americans later with no significant benefits won for the country, history was ultimately on his side). After Ali’s return to active boxing, he and Frazier split a pair of fights in New York’s Madison Square Garden, with Ali fueling the intense rivalry by calling Frazier an Uncle Tom, one of the worst things one African-American can call another. He also mocked Frazier’s appearance, calling him an ugly gorilla, and repeatedly pummeling a toy gorilla at press events.
The fight was held around 11 AM local time in Manila to accomodate American television. The world heavyweight championship, which Ali had regained from George Foreman, was at stake. Ali started quickly, but Frazier won many of the middle rounds. Frazier tired late, and even worse, both eyes began to swell. In the thirteenth, Ali, standing close to the center of the ring, landed a left so hard it sent Frazier’s mouthpiece flying into the crowd. Frazier didn’t even blink, and kept coming forward, continuing his body assault on Ali. He even landed a laser beam left hook on Ali’s jaw as the round wound down, a shot which left Ali holding on. However, Frazier was effectively blind by the fourteenth round, and his legendary trainer, Eddie Futch, called the fight off just before the start of the fifteenth. Ali would later say he was so tired he might not have
