THRILLA IN MANILA GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY 21: THE RELATIONSHIP OF MUHAMMAD ALI AND JOE FRAZIER
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 22 Oct 2025
Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali were formerly intimate friends. During Ali's three-year hiatus from boxing for refusing to be drafted into the U.S. Army for the Vietnam War, Frazier let him borrow money, testified before Congress and even petitioned US President Richard Nixon to have Ali's license to box reinstated.
However, in the promotion for their first fight, the Fight of the Century, Ali turned it into a "cultural and political referendum" by showing himself as a revolutionary and civil rights champion and referred to Frazier as the white man's hope. Ali called him an "Uncle Tom" and a puppet of the white establishment as Frazier called him Clay.
Ali successfully brainwashed many black Americans to turn against Frazier because Frazier never spoke out against racial discrimination issues, and Ali pictured himself as a hero to the downtrodden black people. Ali's camp also threw many insults at Frazier, calling him an "ugly gorilla", though Ali had also previously compared his other opponents to animals.
Ali's drive resulted in Frazier's children being bullied at school, and his family sought police protection after receiving death threats. Ali declared that if Frazier won, he would crawl across the ring and admit that Frazier was the greatest.
After Frazier won by a unanimous decision in their first fight, he called Ali to fulfill his promise and crawl across the ring, but Ali did not do so. Ali called it a "white man's decision" and never admitted that he lost the first fight.
During a televised joint interview before their second bout in 1974, Ali continued to hurl insults to Frazier, who was angered by Ali who called him "ignorant" and challenged him to a fight, as both of them scuffled in the studio. Ali went on to win the 12-round non-title bout by a decision.
Ali advanced his insults to Frazier in the promotion of their third fight, the Thrilla in Manila, and called Frazier "the other type of negro" and "ugly", "dumb", and a "gorilla". In one instant, Ali sparred with a man wearing a gorilla suit and pounded on a rubber gorilla doll, saying "This is Joe Frazier's conscience.... I keep it everywhere I go. This is the way he looks when you hit him."
According to the fight's promoter, Don King, that action angered Frazier, who considered it as a "character assassination" and "personal invective." One night before the fight, Ali displayed a toy pistol outside Frazier's hotel room. When Frazier appeared at the balcony, Ali pointed the gun at him and yelled, "I am going to shoot you."
After the fight, Ali talked to Frazier's son Marvis in his dressing room, and told him that he did not mean all what he had said about his father. When Marvis informed his father about what Ali told him, Frazier replied, "You ain't me, son. Why isn't he apologizing to me?"
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