By Frank Lotierzo
 
This is a two part article in which I chronicle the start of the Ali/Frazier rivalry, culminating with their final bout, "The Thrilla In Manila." In it I reveal a few things you may not know or ever heard before.  

On September 30th/October 1st 2005, depending on what side of the globe you call home, marks the 30th anniversary of a monumental sporting event. As September turns into October, the third and final bout between two of the greatest heavyweights of any era, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, more commonly known as the "Thrilla In Manila," will have been a part of fistic history for exactly 30 years. Their first and third bouts were for the heavyweight championship of the world. Today, they are the barometer in which all other heavyweight title bouts are measured.

The Ali-Frazier trilogy is without question boxing's most famous and noteworthy rivalry. In the "Thrilla In Manila," Ali's title wasn't the only thing driving either man. This time, winning represented living and losing was dying. Knowing this was the rubber match and most likely the last time they'd ever fight, their approach to the fight was summed up best by The Star Ledger's Jerry Izenberg, who said "In Manila, Ali and Frazier were fighting for the heavyweight championship of each other." This no doubt contributed to the brutality of the fight. The Ali and Frazier who left the Araneta County Coliseum that morning after the fight were not the same fighters who entered it, nor would they ever be again.

The Ali - Frazier rivalry actually began in March of 1967, four years before they met for the first time. The scenario unfolded as follows. Muhammad Ali (28-0) was working out in the basement of Madison Square Garden in front of the press a few days before making his ninth title defense in what turned out to be his last fight of the sixties against Zora Folley. Joe Frazier (14-0), who stopped Doug Jones in his last fight a month earlier, showed up unannounced. Frazier's appearance triggered Ali to begin promoting him as a future title threat. When both fighters posed for a picture taken together, Ali remarked to Frazier that he was too short to give him any real trouble, which prompted Frazier to say "we'll see about that" - thus the countdown had begun. 

April  1967 through October 26, 1970

A month after he stopped Folley, Muhammad Ali refused to be sworn into the U.S. Army on April 28th, due to his conversion to the Religion of Islam. A few hours later he was stripped of his title by the major governing authorities in the United States and Europe. That was followed by a statement issued by the New York state athletic commission saying they revoked his boxing license indefinitely. Due to the title being vacant, an elimination tournament among the top eight contenders to name Ali's successor was set up by the WBA and supported by the New York commission. Joe Frazier was invited to participate in the tournament and would've been the top seed, but he declined. On June 20th, 1967 in US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, Muhammad Ali was found guilty of violating the Universal Military Training and Service act. He was fined $10,000 and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released on Bond and appealed the verdict the next day.

The following month Frazier stopped the rugged Canadian strongman George Chuvalo in four rounds to remain unbeaten. After beating Chuvalo, the boxing world started to see Frazier as the front runner to succeed Ali as champion. On March 4th, 1968, he stopped Buster Mathis in the 11th round, winning the New York State title in the first heavyweight main event at the New Madison Square Garden. With the win over Mathis, Frazier gained recognition as the champ by the WBC along with New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, Illinois, Texas and Massachusetts. Joe was also starting to be referred to as the "Black Marciano" by the major boxing publications at the time. This was due to his similar build and power like the former undefeated champ. By the end of 1969, Frazier was (24-0) and looked unstoppable beating top contenders Oscar Bonavena and Jerry Quarry in two of his last three bouts.

Six weeks after Frazier beat Mathis, almost a year to the day Ali was stripped of the title, Jimmy Ellis won a majority decision over Jerry Quarry to win the WBA elimination tournament.  Ellis, was best known prior to capturing the WBA title for being Ali's full-time sparring partner. In his first and only defense of the title, Jimmy won a controversial decision over former two-time champ Floyd Patterson in Sweden. Thus setting up a title unification showdown between him and Frazier on February 16, 1970.

On February 1, 1970, two weeks before Frazier and Ellis met, Muhammad Ali officially retired, stating that he would recognize the winner of their fight as the undisputed champ. On the morning of the fight, Frazier was the Vegas betting favorite. However, due to Angelo Dundee repeatedly telling the top writers who covered boxing, "Frazier is made for my guy," Ellis was the consensus pick by the boxing media. For the first two rounds it didn't look like a bad choice. With Ellis boxing and moving, he won both rounds. In round three, Frazier badly hurt Ellis with a sweeping left hook to the jaw that almost knocked him out. In the fourth round, Frazier dropped Ellis twice towards the end of the round. The second knockdown was the result of the most devastating left-hook he'd ever landed on any opponent at that point in his career. Somehow Jimmy miraculously beat the count, but went back to his corner on rubbery legs. When the bell rang for round five, Dundee refused to let Ellis out for the round signaling to referee Arthur Mercante the fight was over. With his impressive stoppage over Ellis, Joe Frazier was officially declared the new undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Before Frazier even made the first defense of the title that following November, Ali's presence loomed over him. On September 11th, Ali announced he was coming back to fight top-ranked Jerry Quarry in Georgia, which had no state boxing commission, on October 26th. He'd also won a federal court action that stated the New York State Athletic Commission's refusal to grant him a boxing license was arbitrary and capricious and therefore contrary to law. Ali was granted a New York license shortly afterward resulting in him getting his boxing license back from all the entities that revoked it in 1967. In his first fight in over 43 months, Ali, now the former heavyweight champion, stopped Jerry Quarry in three rounds. The Quarry fight marked Ali's official return to the ring and his march back to reclaiming the title, now held by the unbeaten Frazier.

October 27, 1970 through March 8, 1971

On November 18, 1970, Frazier knocked out undisputed light heavyweight champion Bob Foster in two rounds to make the first defense of his undisputed title. Three weeks later Ali became the first and only fighter to stop third ranked Oscar Bonavena at Madison Garden on December 7th Ali's stoppage of Bonavena in New York ignited intense debate over who was really the heavyweight champion between he and Frazier. At the time of his exile, Ali won nine title defenses and was undefeated. His claim was supported by a large faction of writers and fans. On the other hand, Joe Frazier defeated every top heavyweight in the world, looking just as impressive as Ali had doing so a few years before. He too was unbeaten and held both the WBA and WBC titles. By virtue of stopping Ellis, Ring Magazine also recognized Frazier as the legitimate champion.

On December 30th, 1970, after four years of hype and speculation,  Joe Frazier (26-0, 23 KO's) and Muhammad Ali (31-0, 25 KO's) signed to fight. They were both guaranteed a record purse at the time, $2.5 million dollars apiece. Because Ali's draft appeal was scheduled to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in June, with the prevailing sentiment being, he was going to lose and be forced to serve the five year prison term he was sentenced to, they fought nine weeks after they signed the contract agreeing to the fight.

The fight was covered from every possible angle throughout the world. After two nonstop months of drumbeating and chest pumping, Ali and Frazier finally came to blows on Monday night March 8, 1971, in "The Fight Of The Century." Frazier vs. Ali, as it was billed during the promotion, was one of the rare super-fights in which the realization exceeded the expectation. It is my opinion that Joe Frazier went into the ring against Muhammad Ali for that night, better prepared on every level a fighter could be than any other fighter in boxing history. The fight was very close after 10 rounds with neither fighter gaining the advantage. That was about to change. In the 11th, Frazier caught Ali with a double left-hook, first to the body and then to the head. Never had Ali been closer to being stopped in his career before or after that round. Ali only won a single round after the 10th round, the 14th. Twenty four seconds into the 15th and final round, Frazier dropped Ali with a massive left hook to the right side of his jaw. Ali looked like he was out as he was going down, but amazingly was up by the count of four. Only the damage of Frazier's left hook had left no doubt about who was the real champ when the fight ended. The unanimous decision declaring Joe Frazier the winner and undisputed heavyweight champion stimulated the public outcry for a rematch.

Three months after suffering his first career defeat as a pro against Frazier, Ali got some unanticipated good news. On June 28th, 1971, the Supreme Court Ruled in his favor 8-0 to overturn his draft conviction making him a free man again. Now the only question was, could he reclaim the title again or was he ruined by his forced 43 month exile?    

March 9, 1971 through June 30, 1975

Frazier's win over Ali was the signature fight of his career. While Frazier was basking in victory touring the world singing with his group "Joe Frazier and the Knockouts," Ali was obsessed with getting a rematch. Only this time Frazier wasn't willing to give Ali parity now that he was the undisputed champion. This launched Ali's campaign to fight and defeat all of Frazier's mandatory challengers so he'd have no one left to fight but him again. After losing "The Fight of the Century," Ali fought 9 times during 1971 and 1972, beating all the top contenders in the division.  During that time Frazier defended the title twice and weighed 10 pounds more in both fights than what he weighed for Ali.

The only top ten heavyweight Ali couldn't get in the ring was the second ranked Olympic Gold Medalist, George Foreman. Dick Saddler, Foreman's trainer had is eyes set on George fighting Frazier. Saddler openly said they wanted the man with the title who was made for George. The Foreman camp saw Ali as way too risky style wise for George and the fight wouldn't have been for the title. By virtue of Ali eliminating everybody but Foreman, Frazier was boxed in and had to defend the title against the number one ranked Ali for $6 million that he and Ali would split, which didn't set well with Joe. Or his other alternative was to defend the title against the unbeaten Foreman for $850,000. So Frazier vs. Foreman, titled "The Sunshine Showdown" was scheduled for January 22, 1973. Foreman needed less than five minutes to take Frazier's title. Foreman put Frazier down six times before stopping him at 1:35 of the second round. Two months later in his second fight of the year, Ali lost a 12-round split decision to seventh ranked Ken Norton. With Ali and Frazier both losing within two months of each other as huge favorites, a rematch between them looked bleak.

However, six months later that changed when Ali won a split decision over Norton in their rematch, setting up a three fight title elimination between the champion and top three contenders. Ali and Frazier would fight a rematch that eliminated the loser from the title picture, while Foreman would fight Norton to make in his second defense. This would culminate with the winners meeting later that year. In January of 1974, Ali was a step ahead of Frazier throughout a majority of the fight and won a unanimous decision to exact revenge. In March, Foreman crushed Norton in two rounds to set up his next title defense vs. Ali. in what became known as "The Rumble In The Jungle." The title Ali was stripped of seven and a half years ago was in his grasp for the first time since losing to Frazier.

On October 30th, 1974 at 4:00 am in Kinshasa Zaire, Democratic Congo, Muhammad Ali (44-2) took on the unbeatable wrecking machine disguised as the heavyweight champion, George Foreman (40-0). Ali, a 3-1 underdog introduced the world of boxing to the rope-a-dope. A strategy where Ali went to the ropes while holding his hands up to his head with his elbows in and his chin down, while Foreman unleashed a two handed assault to his head and body. The net result being Foreman tired and Ali opened up with quick accurate three and four punch flurries which dropped an exhausted Foreman in the eighth round. Foreman just missed beating the count, making Ali just the second heavyweight champion to regain the heavyweight title after losing it or being stripped of it.

Ali took the title and his future wife, Veronica Porsche, back to the States with him. After losing the rematch with Ali, Frazier earned another shot by stopping Jerry Quarry and Jimmy Ellis. Ali was active making three title defenses by the end of June 1975. In his last defense against Joe Bugner, Frazier, knowing all Ali had to do was get by Bugner to clear the path for their third fight to become a reality, worked the closed circuit broadcast with legendary boxing announcer Don Dunphy to help promote the fight. Ali won practically every round versus Bugner and three months later made his fourth defense against Joe Frazier in the Philippines.

Part 2 Coming Tomorrow