In 1989, with Muhammad Ali sitting beside me, I watched a tape of Alis historic triumph over Joe Frazier in Manila, which took place 50 years ago this week.
For months, Ali and I had been reviewing his fights for a book I was writing as his authorized biographer. Wed watched Henry Cooper knock Cassius Clay to the brink of oblivion with a picture-perfect left hook. From the vantage point of my living room, that had amused Muhammad.
Wed seen Joe Frazier put Ali on the canvas in Round 15 of their first encounter at Madison Square Garden, and Ken Norton break Muhammads jaw. Those punches were safely ensconced in the annals of history, as were the thudding blows that George Foreman landed in Zaire.
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Watching Ali-Frazier III, known widely as the Thrilla in Manila, was a different experience.
Despite the fact that it was one of Muhammads greatest ring triumphs, there was no joy in his face as The Thrilla in Manila unfolded. Sitting beside me, he winced as some of Fraziers blows landed. He seemed to be reexperiencing the pain. When the tape ended, he turned to me and said, Frazier quit just before I did. I didnt think I could fight anymore.
Fifty years have passed since Ali and Frazier did battle in the sweltering heat and humidity of that late-morning hour in one of the most celebrated, brutal prizefights of all time. What it came down to wasnt the heavyweight championship of the world, Jerry Izenberg, a leading sports writer of that era, later noted. Ali and Frazier were fighting for something more important than that. They were fighting for the championship of each other. Ive never witnessed anything like it. Both fighters won that night, and both fighters lost.
Neither man ever fully recovered from the physical damage that they inflicted on each other that day. Lets put what many consider the greatest prizefight ever in context.
Ali in 1975 was the most famous, and possibly the most loved, person in the world. The hatred that had been directed at him for his views on race and his refusal to accept induction into the United States Army at the height of the war in Vietnam had largely abated. His 1974 knockout of Foreman in Zaire to reclaim the heavyweight throne had engendered worldwide joy.
Frazier didnt share those good feelings. On 8 March 1971, in their first meeting, Frazier had defeated Ali in The Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden to earn the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. But the victory had come with a heavy price-tag.
The first Ali-Frazier fight was seen in the United States as a metaphor for the struggle between racist warlike elements (who embraced Frazier as the anti-Ali) on one side and those seeking peace and social justice (largely Ali partisans) on the other.
Frazier didnt want to be a symbol. He was uninterested in politics and rarely talked about religion or race. Hed grown up as a sharecroppers son in the meanest circumstances that rural America had to offer. All he wanted to do was fight.
Clay got into boxing when he was 12 years old because his bike was stolen, Frazier said. I didnt have no bike when I was 12. I was working in the fields.
But the popular narrative framed Ali as an outsider and Joe as a representative of Americas white establishment. And Ali perpetuated that myth, attacking Fraziers blackness and character. He demeaned Joe as an Uncle Tom and stripped him of his dignity in the public mind.
Joe was almost the stereotypic black person Ali claimed to be fighting for, writer Dave Wolf, who was later a member of Fraziers entourage, observed. Yet Ali demeaned Joe at every turn. Look at the perception many people have that Joe is stupid because hes not facile with the language and because his particular brand of South Carolina English isnt easily understood by people who dont come from that part of South Carolina. Joe is not dumb. But Ali stuck that saddle on him, and Joe will have to wear it forever. Joe is not, and never was, an Uncle Tom, whatever that means. But Ali branded him with that label too. The damage he did to Joe was never undone.
Frazier wanted to be a hero. After beating Ali, he received condescending approval from much of white America. But he was never a hero where it mattered most to him to his own people.
Three years later in the build-up to Ali-Frazier II, which Ali won by decision, Muhammad branded Joe as ignorant. In Manila, he labeled him a gorilla. Just as his ring battles against Ali defined Frazier as a fighter, Joes relationship with Muhammad defined him, unfairly, in the eyes of the world.
I do all the right things. Frazier lamented. And this is the way people look at me because of him. Later, he would add to that sentiment, saying, I know things would of been different for me if Clay hadnt of been around. Id of gotten a lot more respect. Id of had more appreciation from my own kind.
Unlike Ali-Frazier I, Manila wasnt about Alis social and political beliefs. The narrative had quieted by then. In some ways, Ali had come to represent the status quo and establishment while Joe had been tossed aside. But for both men and particularly for Joe Ali-Frazier III was intensely personal. Fraziers hatred toward Ali had grown to enormous proportions. Manila was his last opportunity to regain the dignity that he felt Muhammad had stolen from him.
Ali was a great artist in the ring, as the world saw against opponents like Cleveland Williams and Zora Folley. But his greatest moments in boxing came when he had inquisitors like Sonny Liston and Foreman in front of him. Frazier was Alis greatest inquisitor.
Joe enjoyed fighting. No one ever enjoyed fighting Joe.
Frazier never took a backward step inside the ring, Don Turner, who later trained Larry Holmes and Evander Holyfield, observed. Not for no one. He didnt come to dance. He didnt come to hold. He didnt come to box. He came to fight.
Frazier echoed that theme, saying of Ali, He aint no fighter. Hes a boxer. Im a fighter.
But in Manila, Ali showed beyond all doubt that he was a fighter too.
Associated Press boxing writer Ed Schuyler later recalled: The Thrilla in Manila was the best fight Ive ever seen. As it unfolded, everybody at ringside understood they were watching greatness. The pace never eased. It was hell the whole way. Ive never seen two people give more, ever.
The early rounds belonged to Ali. He outboxed Frazier, landed sharp clean punches, and staggered his opponent several times. Frazier kept coming forward. The tide turned in the middle rounds. Ali was tiring. Frazier rocked him with thunderous blows. Muhammads arms came down as Frazier bludgeoned him against the ropes, pounding away. Ali regained the initiative in round 12, wobbled Frazier, and measured him for more. One round later, a jolting left hook knocked Fraziers mouthpiece into the crowd. He was shaken but finished the round. In round 14, Ali resumed his assault.
The 14th round, Richard Hoffer later wrote, the final three minutes of their shared agony, was a kind of scientific experiment, an investigation into the extremes of human behavior. Just exactly what was a person capable of? How far could he go? How deep could he reach? Nobody had ever seen it conducted at this level. Nobody really knew what desire and pride could accomplish, or destroy. Now they did.
Fraziers left eye was completely closed. The vision in his right eye was limited. He was spitting blood. Alis punches were landing cleanly. Frazier couldnt see them coming. Both fighters had landed so many clean blows that the padding inside their gloves was separating. More and more, it was like hitting and being hit with ungloved fists.
Fraziers trainer, Eddie Futch, stopped the carnage after the 14th round.
Frazier is now thought of in some circles primarily as a piece of the Ali legend. But that notion is unfair. He was far more. Its true that, without the three Ali-Frazier fights, Joes career would be lacking in historical gravitas. But those three fights did happen.
Frazier won Ali-Frazier I and came very close to victory in Ali-Frazier III. Did some of Alis greatness rub off on him? Absolutely. But some of Fraziers greatness rubbed off on Ali too. Joe deserves to be remembered in his own right.
In their later years, Ali and Frazier interacted occasionally, almost always for an economic incentive. But Joes hatred toward Muhammad remained. He took pleasure in believing that the punishment he inflicted on Ali in Manila contributed to the physical difficulties that Muhammad endured late in life.
He shook me in Manila, Frazier acknowledged He won. But I sent him home worse than he came. Look at him now. Hes damaged goods. I know it. You know it. Everyone knows it. They just dont want to say. He was always making fun of me. Im the dummy; Im the one getting hit in the head. Tell me now; him or me; which one talks worse now? Manila really dont matter no more. Hes finished, and Im still here.
Later, adding to the ugliness of that sentiment, Frazier declared Ill outlive him. Ill dance on his grave.
It wasnt to be. Frazier died in 2011 at the age of 67. Five years later, Ali died aged 74. They werent old by ordinary standards. But Muhammads health was in ruins during the final decade of his life. Frazier was foremost among the fighters whose blows permanently damaged him physically. And Ali permanently damaged Frazier, both physically and psychologically.
In Manila, they had a glimpse of the future and what would become of them.
It saddens me that Frazier carried all of that anger and hate inside him. It cast a shadow on his life. But Ill give the final word to Ali who, decades ago, told me.
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I dont think two big men ever fought fights like me and Joe Frazier. One fight, maybe. But three times; we were the only ones. Of all the men I fought in boxing, Sonny Liston was the scariest. Foreman was the most powerful. Floyd Patterson was the most skilled as a boxer. But the roughest and toughest was Joe Frazier. He brought out the best in me, and the best fight we fought was in Manila. That fight, I could feel something happening to me. Something different from what Id felt in fights before. And God blessed me that day. Hes blessed me many times, and that fight in Manila was one of them. It was like I took myself as far as I could go, and then God took me the rest of the way.
So Im sorry Joe Frazier is mad at me. Im sorry I hurt him. Joe Frazier is a good man. I couldnt have done what I did without him, and he couldnt have done what he did without me. And if God ever calls me to a holy war, I want Joe Frazier fighting beside me.
I really needed this today. Thank you for writing it.