Thrilla In Manila -- Sixth of a Series
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 27 Oct 2015
After their second encounter held at the Madison Square Garden in New York on Jan. 24, 1974, many believed the celebrated Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier feud might have ended.
But no, Ali, the reigning champion, knocked out George Foreman, considered as the baddest and hardest hitting man on the planet, in Kinshasa in Zaire, using his rope-a-dope tactics, paving the way for third meeting, this in Manila.
"Smokin" Joe beat the "Greatest" in their first showdown, also a the Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971, opening the now considered epic trilogy.
An overflow crowd of 28,000, including President Marcos and First Lady, Imelda Marcos, were on hand inside the air-conditioned (Araneta Coliseum) re-Christened Philippine Coliseum that was rendered oven-hot by the warm bodies inside to watch the fight, called Thrilla In Manila.
As promised, the defending champ ran the show in the opening three rounds against a no cover-seeking Joe, who bulldozed his way despite the streak of punhes thrown by Ali.
Frazier, who had the reputation as a human sponge for absorbing punches, appeared to have his motor revved up at the start of the fourth, raining the champ with relentless body shots as he evened up and even dominated at the end of the sixth even as the crowd shouted "Ali .... Ali .... Ali! "
Joe continued the onslaught in the eighth and ninth staying close to Ali's chest and with blood oozing from his mouth, he dug telling blows to Ali's kidney, liver and into his heart region as the Louisville Lip grimaced in pain.
Panic and confusion were in Ali's face came the ninth. He was fighting for his life. By the end of the 10th, Ali sat on his stool, head bowed, looking like a half-drowned man who had just been pulled out of Manila Bay. He was ready to quit. the shouting switched to "Frazier ... Frazier ... Frazier! "
"Get outta the goddam corner, that's where you'd earn your living," Ali's trainer Angelo Dundee screamed as the bell signalling the 11th rang. "you're the champ, show it to 'em." Drew (Bundini) Brown, Ali's witch doctor, pleaded to him, "go down to the well once more."
With those encouraging words, Ali started the 12th with six straight shots to the head, and although Frazier stayed with his arsenal to the body, Ali scored more blows to the head.
Five hard punches starting the 13th saw Frazier backing off for the first time. Recurring blindness suffered in earlier fights, he just couldn't catchup with the dancing, mobile Ali.
When the bell rang for the 14th, Ali sprang up with fluid combinations to the head of the completely blind Frazier causing the former slaughterhouse hand's mouthpiece to fly out at he press box. At the end of the round, Filipino referee Carlos "Sonny" Padilla Jr. had to lead Frazier to his corner.
That proved to be the end of the carnage as pandemonium filled the expanse of he coliseum after Frazier's Hall of Fame trainer-manager Eddie Futch, who obviously had seen enough, signalled Padilla the fight was over giving Ali a hard-earned 14th round technical knockout triumph.
Frazier protested and begged Futch to let him continue, but Futch said, "You couldn't see in the last two rounds, what makes you think you gonna see in the 15th? Sit down, son, it's all over. No one will ever forget what you did here today."
Ali, meanwhile, rejoiced learning Futch had thrown in the towel and then collapsed on his stool as if hit by a sniper's shot. He said later during the post-fight press conference that had Frazier answered the 15th, it could have been him to quit on his stool. "It was like death. That's the closest thing to dyin'. That I now."
"I'm happy, there are no more Frazier to to fight," he declared. "I will never call him a gorilla again." He then summoned Frazier's son Marvis and told him, "Tell your dad the things I said, I really didn't mean."
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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