Long read: Fifty Years After History’s Most Brutal Boxing Match

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest sporting events ever witnessed. Almost everyone who saw Muhammad Ali (aka Cassius Marcellus Clay, the inspiration behind our firm) take on Joe Frazier for the World Heavyweight Title on 1st October 1975 in Manilla agrees that that was greatest match they had ever seen. With both legendary boxers almost punching each other to death in 15 rounds of full throttle slugging, the “Thriller in Manilla” is a fight we have grown up hearing about and revering since our schooldays. Many believe that this was the pinnacle of boxing as a sport. Vann R. Newkirk II’s long article not only celebrates this epic boxing match but also honours the memories of the two heroic warriors whose famed boxing careers peaked on that sweltering sweat-soaked morning in the Philippine Coliseum. This is a long read you should read slowly and savour.

Mr Newkirk interweaves the story of the epic punch-up with the backstory which played out in the 15 years leading upto the fight. That backstory itself is contentious with Ali claiming that once upon a time Frazier & he were friends but with Frazier – who in the run-up to the fight came to intensely dislike Ali – denying that such a friendship ever existed. What everyone saw and can agree upon is that in the run-up to big fight in Manilla, Ali mercilessly baited Frazier in order to both create publicity for the fight and psych Frazier out. Mr Newkirk writes:

“Ali’s arrival was more of a spectacle. His team had delayed the plane’s departure from Honolulu so that instead of getting to Manila before dawn, Ali would arrive just after 6 a.m., which provided enough light for television cameras—and also coincided with the news hour back in the States. Hundreds of people crowded the runway to greet Ali, pushing against a cordon of soldiers armed with truncheons. As Ali stopped to address the crowd and the cameras, a disturbance broke out between the jostling spectators and the soldiers. “I don’t want any fighting here,” Ali said. He praised Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the president and first lady of the country, and bantered with the crowd, then launched into a poem he’d workshopped back home: “It will be a killa’, chilla’, thrilla’ / when I get that gorilla in Manila.” The rapturous arrival struck a chord with President Marcos, who aspired to build his own cult of personality in the Philippines.”

Moving on to the fight itself, Mr Newkirk describes Ali’s electrifying entrance into the arena:

“From the other side of the arena, dressed in a white satin robe with his name embroidered on the back, walked Muhammad Ali. Even at age 33, approaching the twilight of his career, Ali was electromagnetic, drawing the crowd to its feet and polarizing its constituents all at once. The noise was raucous. When match officials placed a more-than-three-foot-tall trophy in the middle of the ring, Ali grabbed it and feigned running away with it. In the ring, after his name was announced, he pantomimed heartbreak as boos overcame the adulation. Frazier, whose ring demeanor generally toggled between glowering and frowning, glowered.”

The first couple of rounds belonged to Ali who at four inches taller had much better reach. Ali used that reach to land the early punches in the bout. But then as the fight wore on Ali realised that Frazier, two years younger than Ali, had improved dramatically as a fighter since their previous bout. In the sixth round Frazier showed Ali something Ali hadn’t seen before:

“Shortly after the sixth round began in Manila, the dynamite in Frazier’s left hand finally exploded. He connected with a thunderous hook, stretching his arm and body as far as he could reach to snap Ali’s head back. A few seconds later, Frazier hit him again with the same punch. Ali stumbled, throwing a feeble, off-balance uppercut to the space where Frazier had just stood. The crowd, which had favored Frazier—for his Christian faith, it was said, and out of a national affinity for underdogs—erupted in cheers. Now it was Frazier who jogged and Ali who lumbered. Three more times in the round, Frazier’s left found Ali’s face cleanly. For the first time in the match, Frazier was the clear winner of a round.”

But then in the subsequent rounds as Frazier kept punching Ali, Ali discovered the inner resolve which made him the greatest fighter ever (the same resolve which we seek inspiration from as we remember the great man):

“By the tenth round in Manila, Ali and Frazier both knew that this fight would take something from them, something they hadn’t had to give before. Sweat poured off them, and between rounds they sank onto their stools and gasped. This was a test of endurance, against each other and against the hellish conditions in the ring.

A beleaguered Ali had gained momentum in the eighth, launching a barrage of punches that momentarily hurt Frazier, and began to swell his face. But Frazier was inexorable. He kept Ali on his back foot, driving him into the corners and delivering vicious shots to the head, blows that—had they been delivered by a slightly younger Frazier—might have knocked men out cold. Ali shook it all off. He was a blanket, still trying to clinch Frazier and hold him down. The two boxers teetered against each other, exhausted, until Padilla stepped in again, pulling Ali’s gloves off the back of Frazier’s neck. They raised their arms, almost unwillingly, and resumed slugging.”

From the 11th round onwards, Ali showing almost superhuman resolve, started piling the punishment on Frazier who entering the fight could only see through his right eye because of a cataract in his left eye. Ali did not know this (nor did anyone else as Frazier had worked hard to hide his partial blindness) and hence it seems fortuitous that his punches proceeded to cause swelling around Frazier’s right eye:

“After taking Frazier’s punishment to his body and skull for the better part of 10 rounds, Ali started landing power punches more frequently around Frazier’s face and right eye. Inflammation on each side of the socket met in the middle and began to shut it.

In the 13th round, with the eye swelling and bleeding, and with blood pouring from his mouth, an exhausted Frazier willed himself out of his corner, throwing blows that even a gassed Ali could avoid or ignore. Frazier could not see clearly, and his entire head seemed swollen, and Ali kept landing punches. He knocked Frazier’s mouthpiece into the crowd, but somehow, miraculously, Frazier still stood still…

When they went back to their corners, Futch, Frazier’s trainer, asked Frazier why he couldn’t avoid Ali’s winding punches. Frazier told Futch that he could no longer see Ali’s right hand. Frazier was determined to finish the fight. But Futch had seen boxers die in the ring. Against Frazier’s murderous protestations, he told Padilla to stop the fight.

After Padilla raised Ali’s arm and declared him the victor, the champion collapsed in a heap. The crowd roared, launching into chants of “Ali! Ali! Ali!””

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