The Biggest Rivalries in Sport (Muhammad Ali v/s Joe Frazier)

Rivalry is what spices up a sport; sport just wouldn’t be the same without it. Be it Cristiano Ronaldo v/s Lionel Messi or Roger Federer v/s Rafael Nadal or Chris Evert v/s Martina Navratilova or Arnold Palmer v/s Jack Nicklaus and so on, rivalries are what made sports such a spectacle for the spectators and inspired the sportsmen and sportswomen to give out superhuman performances. In this column let us look into one such rivalry, a rivalry which changed the entire landscape of the sport. Touted as the greatest and the fiercest rivalry in the history of Boxing, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought three titanic battles over the course of their careers and each of the three bouts has become integral part of sporting folklore. The three bouts are so significant because it brought on two heavyweights with very different styles and very different personalities. But what really spiced up the bouts were the vicious and violent pre-match and post-match verbal attacks on Joe Frazier by Muhammad Ali. Ali used to taunt Frazier by calling Frazier dim-witted, ugly-looking and a puppet for White corporate America.

The first of the trilogy was held on March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York. This duel has been dubbed as “The Fight of the Century”. It was the biggest thing ever in boxing at the time. It was the first time two undefeated champions would fight for supremacy. The fight exceeded all its promotional hype and went the full 15-round championship distance. In that unforgettable first fight, Frazier beat Ali on points to win the world heavyweight crown before a star-studded audience. As it happened, it was a thunderous left hook from Frazier that dropped Ali in the 15th round, enabling Frazier to win by unanimous decision.

The second of three bouts between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier also took place in Madison Square Garden in New York City on January 28, 1974. It lacked the drama and massive media buzz of the first match, because there was no title on the line (the match was to decide who would be the legitimate top contender to fight for the world heavyweight title against George Foreman), nor was either man still undefeated. However, it was a big event because of the bad blood between the two. The second fight was the least entertaining and least hard fought of their three battles. Frazier seemed off his game after his humiliating loss to Foreman the previous year. Ali fought an uncharacteristically cautious fight. The comparatively lackluster fight ended with Ali winning on Judge’s points after 12 rounds.

But the best was reserved for the third and final episode of this drama. Both men had defeated the other once and this third and decisive match would prove who the better man was. The bout well known as the “Thrilla in Manila” was contested on October 1, 1975 in Manila, Philippines.  The contest’s name was derived from the frequent rhyming boast made by Ali that the fight would be a "Killa and a Thrilla and a Chilla, when I get that gorilla in Manila", referring Frazier to a gorilla. In a vicious battle that followed, both men fought toe-to-toe raining blows after blows. In the 14th round, after Ali had taken a number of left hooks to the head that would have felled any other fighter and replied with an extraordinary rally of his own, the referee stopped the fight declaring Ali the winner with Ali on top in points and thus the culmination of the bitter rivalry between Ali and Frazier.

The legacy these two left remains indisputable and their rivalry was the stuff of legends.