THRILLA IN MANILA GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY 3 - FRAZIER WINS FIGHT OF THE CENTURY BY UNANIMOUS DECISION
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 22 May 2025
In March 1971, both Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier were undefeated heavyweight champions. Ali was a former world champion. Both fighters legally claimed the title of "World Heavyweight Champion." Ali had won the title from Sonny Liston in Miami Beach in 1964 and successfully defended his belt nine times until it was stripped by boxing authorities in 1967 for his refusal to be drafted into the armed forces for the Vietnam War. However, he was still recognized as the lineal heavyweight champion.
In Ali's absence, Frazier won two championship titles, knocking out Buster Mathis by eleventh-round TKO for recognition as champion by the New York State Athletic Commission and stopping Jimmy Ellis by fourth-round stoppage. Ellis had won the World Boxing Association world heavyweight title by winning a WBA elimination tournament to replace Ali as the recognized unified world champion. Frazier was considered Ali's equivalent, which created an enormous degree of anticipation and expectation for a match featuring the two undefeated fighters to decide who was the real heavyweight champion.
Ringside seats were sold at $150 (now equivalent to $1,200), and each boxer was guaranteed $2.5 million (now equivalent to $19.4 million). In addition to the millions who watched on closed-circuit broadcast screens around the world, Madison Square Garden was jam-packed with a sell-out crowd of 20,455 that earned a gate of $1.5 million (now equivalent to $11.6 million).
Before his compelled suspension, Ali had displayed uncommon quickness and cleverness for a fighter of his huge size. He was so overwhelmingly dominant that he had frequently predicted the round in which he would stop his opponent. In October 1970, he stopped Jerry Quarry via cuts after three rounds in his first match after a three-and-a-half-year respite.
But in his next fight, the last bout before the Frazier fight, Ali had difficulty during his 15th-round TKO of Oscar Bonavena, an unconventionally styled Argentinian fighter. On the March 4, 1971, episode of *The Dick Cavett Show*, Howard Cosell, Joe Louis, and Jimmy Breslin all accurately anticipated that because of Ali's long inactivity, Frazier would prevail.
Frazier had a magnificent left-hook arsenal and was an unshakable rival who attacked the body of his opponent ruthlessly. He suffered from hypertension in the days leading to the fight but appeared at his best as the match between the two undefeated protagonists came nearer.
The fight was sold and broadcast by closed circuit to 50 countries in 12 languages via ringside reporters to an audience estimated at 300 million, a record viewership for a television event at that time.
The referee for the fight was Arthur Mercante Sr., a veteran referee of hundreds of fights. After the fight, he remarked, "They both threw some of the best punches I've ever seen."
The fight itself exceeded many fans’ expectations and went the full 15-round championship distance. Ali dominated the first five rounds, spraying the shorter Frazier with razor-sharp jabs that left bruises on the champion's face.
Ali was visibly tired after the sixth round, and though he unleashed some flurries of punches after that round, he seemed too tired to keep the tempo he had set in the first five rounds of the fight.
Going into Round 15, all three judges had Frazier in the lead (7–6–1, 10–4, and 8–6), as Frazier concluded the fight convincingly in his favor. At the start of the round, Frazier landed a left hook that floored Ali on the canvas.
Ali's jaw was swollen, but he got up at the count of four and survived to end the fight on his feet despite several horrendous punches from Frazier. A few minutes later, the judges decided in favor of Frazier, and he had retained the title with a unanimous decision, giving Ali his first professional defeat.
Artie Aidala scored it 9–6, Bill Recht saw it 11–4, and Art Mercante (referee) had it 8–6–1, all for Frazier by unanimous decision.
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