Where Were You When Ali Met Frazier in 1971?
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 09 Mar 2021
Frazier drops Ali in their first meeting on March 8, 1971.
I remember March 8, 1971 was just an ordinary weekday, a Tuesday and I was with my M A Roxas High School Paco, Manila junior classmates and friends wondering out loud if we could catch even a glimpse of the fight as it unfolded that afternoon on free TV on slightly delayed basis.
Luckily I did at the Beata, Pandacan house of a classmate/friend, Francisco Kiko Tirao in company of his younger brother and their father who worked night shift at the nearby Philippine Refining Company watching the fight on black and white TV set in the comfort of their plush living room. It was around noon during the lunch break of our class for that day. We usually played basketball in a court near their bungalow during our vacant period but that day, we passed up on that to watch the fight. I don't even remember now if we ever returned back to school after watching the fight which ended well into the afternoon.
That was my first time to sample a self-declared Ali day or Ali holiday as we called such back in the day. However, it was worth it as the following, day, we were the "bida ng kwentuhan" among our classmates, issuing our version of how the fight went on, making our own armchair expert analysis of how the battle was won--or lost.
I had no beef with the verdict that went unanimously to Smokin' Joe Frazier. Though I thought Ali threw and landed more cleaner punches, the hard knockdown Frazier scored in the penultimate 14th round and his stronger finish impressed and proved to be the clincher in an extremely close and difficult to score fight.
The Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier fight with Frazier defending his universally recognized heavyweight championship for the second time was not the first million dollar fight nor the first to be called the 'Battle of Century'. That honor went nearly sixty years back to the heavyweight title fight between then defending titlist Jack Johnson, the first black to win the coveted crown and a comebacking erstwhile unbeaten former white champion Jim Jeffries, which was won by Johnson handily by late round knockout.
However, it was the most anticipated as it pitted two former highly decorated Olympic champions (Clay/Ali in 1960 Rome and Frazier in 1964 Tokyo), both still undefeated at that point and both with valid claims to the world heavyweight championship.
It could be recalled that Ali was unceremoniously stripped of the title in 1967 for refusing a military draft for the then burnishing Vietnam war. His license was also suspended forcing him to appeal his case with the US Supreme Court which ruled in his favor three years later in 1970.
Meanwhile Frazier who first refused to participate in the WBA instigated tournament as a sign of protest was forced to fight the winner of that tournament, Jimmy Ellis in 1969 to crown the one true new world heavyweight champion after winning the New York version himself.
After defending the championship by second round demolition of Bob Foster, the light heavyweight kingpin in Detroit in late 1970, the clamor as well as the purse of five million dollars each were simply too hard to resist for a confrontation between him and Ali.
Ali had made himself worthy as title challenger by beating in his comeback Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonavena, two dudes that gave Frazier his roughest and toughest times inside the ring. To some, Ali also remained the true uncrowned People's Champion.
So the stage was set at the original Madison Square Garden in New York, the acknowledged mecca of big time pro boxing up till that day, on March 8, 1971, Monday night in the US and much of the Western World.
And the start of the Ali mania which would engulf the boxing batty world for the rest of the 1970s, prompting even young ones like us to self declare an Ali day as excuse or alibi to watch the Greatest Ever fight the likes of Frazier, Ken Norton and George Foreman.
The rest as they say is history.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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