?Back so soon. We were just reminiscing about Smokin? Joe Frazier,” exclaimed Dave the Barber as I walked into his fine barber shop on San Fernando Road:” You are going to Vegas this weekend. Aren’t you? Marquez and Pacquiao; those are two fine soldier with two fine wars behind them, but can you even compare their trilogy to the one in the seventies between Ali and Frazier?”
“Stop the nonsense,” cried out Downtown Ronnie Brown:” Comparing Ali Frazier legendary trilogy to any other rivalry in boxing is like comparing World War II to a street fight. These two legends left their lives in the ring, three times over. If memory serves me right, their first fight in 1971 at Madison Square Garden was called the fight of the century and that is exactly what it was. I still don’t know how Ali got up after that left hook that Smokin’ Joe dropped him with in the fourteenth. The whole country was crying after that fight. The second fight was just as intense, but the Thriller in Manila was the kicker; this is when they both looked directly into the eyes of a Green Riper and I think they would have both died if Eddie Futch didn’t stop that fight after fourteen. Please don’t even talk like that in my presence. Let?s compare apples with apples.”
