Ali, Frazier ‘Fight of the Century’ still packs a punch 50 years later

Boxing – Features show of the boxing show promoting the World Heavyweight Championship between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Stock Photo

Many events have the right to be considered among the sporting matchups of the century and few live up to expectations, but any short list of contenders for the greatest of all time must include the first fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

To be worthy of this recognition, such battles must stand the test of time and refuse to fade from memory or meaning.

They are not fleeting displays of magnificence but monolithic moments that are part of the sporting historical record remembered by more than one winner and one loser.

For boxing, that moment came at Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971 when undefeated heavyweights Ali and Frazier fought in what remains, as announced that night 50 years ago, the “Fight of the Century. “.

“It was a magical night that I will never forget,” recalled legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum, who was on the front row in the 15-round battle won by Frazier in a unanimous decision.

“We talk about this fight, and rightly so, as the greatest boxing event, if not the greatest sporting event, of all time, the question is why?” Arum said.

“We knew Ali had never lost and hadn’t been allowed to fight for three and a half years, he was back and Joe Frazier… he was the undisputed interim champion, so there was a lot of interest in boxing.

“But that’s not what really made it the biggest sporting event I’ve ever witnessed, it goes back to politics.”

As boxing historians and commentators have pointed out, there have been fights that generated so much drama, even more excitement, but few sporting occasions have been able to garner global attention for those reasons alone.

What elevates one competition above all others and places it on a pedestal for generations to ponder is not just the suspense, but the underlying tension, which makes the outcome more important than the handover of a trophy or a prize. championship belt.

The first fight in the Ali-Frazier trilogy was one of those events: a convergence of sport, politics, and culture, with the Vietnam War as the backdrop to a spectacle that highlighted the divisions of a nation rather than uniting the country.

“There will never be another heavyweight fight like that again,” Jerry Izenberg, boxing historian and author of the best-seller “Once There Were Giants: The Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing,” told Reuters. “Everyone cared who won that fight for reasons that had nothing to do with the fight.

“It was Vietnam, that’s what it was about.

“Ali and Frazier, they were symbols of the division in the country that united people from one side or the other.”

SPORT SHOW

When it comes to pure sports entertainment, Ali v Frazier ticked all the boxes. Ali was announced as The Ring’s linear heavyweight champion and Frazier entered the ring as an interim WBC / WBA starter.

Two former Olympic champions, undefeated as professionals, in a classic showdown of contrasting styles and temperaments.

In one corner stood the charismatic Ali, a conscientious objector hero from the peace movement, who had been stripped of his license and boxing titles for refusing the military service that kept him out of the ring for more than three years.

In the other corner, Frazier, the conservative blue-collar fighter with the thunderous left hook.

Each boxer would be paid the then unheard of $ 2.5 million when the fighting game entered the world of pay-per-view.

On March 8, Madison Square Garden became a magnet for the world’s media and celebrities, from movie stars to astronauts, all feeling that something special was unfolding.

Arum, who has promoted some of boxing’s biggest fights, doubts the sport will ever see another “Fight of the Century.”

There are some good-looking fights and fighters like Britain’s Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua who are ready to face off in a heavyweight world unification fight, but neither is capable of delivering the punch that Ali and Frazier did.

“Tyson Fury is a great personality, but he’s not Ali,” Arum said. “If you ask me who is the next Ali or Frazier, there is no next.

“There will never be another heavyweight fight like that again.

“There have been fights since then, other fights that have maybe been more action, more exciting, but no one who heard it, saw it or was there will ever forget it.

“That really says something.”

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