Thrilla in Manila Fiftieth Anniversary 

Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier III, or ‘Thrilla in Manila’ as it was called, was the tie-breaking almost heartbreaking titanic fight, after two previous battles between two true titans of the ring. The epic finale, which brought the curtain down.

The first, dubbed the ‘Fight of the Century’, took place in 1971 at Madison Square Garden and lived up to its name. ‘Smokin’ Joe’ who was at his peak, won the first bout by unanimous decision after 15 unleashing rounds. In that fight, Ali hit the canvas for the first time in his career after a tremendous left hook from his rival connected, yet he got up and fought back to the final bell  with tenacity and intensity, tempering unremitting ferocity.

That fight was already surrounded by cultural, showbizz  and political connotations that focused the world’s attention on Madison Square Garden that day. There was a deep, gnawing  enmity and animosity between the two boxers, who had previously had a good relationship, but then fallen out.

After the first fight, there was a rematch in 1974, also at the MSG in New York, which this time the Louisville loquacious won by unanimous decision, making a third fight highly anticipated and ultimately inevitable.

The searing rivalry betwixt these two proud men was resolved on October 1, 1975, in Manila, Philippines, amidst scalding heat and sapping humidity.  Both went for broke to categorically prove a point.. By that stage, the antipathy was palpable, and Smokin’ Joe revealed this years later in the documentary ‘Thrilla in Manila’: “It seemed like a fight, but it in fact was a winner takes all war.” Everything surrounding that bout fueled Frazier’s slow burning fury.

Frazier (31 years old) started as impetuously as ever against imperious Ali (33 years old), with an intensity aimed at a quick finish, but the grim steadfast determination on both sides and ingrained in both mindsets, consigned it to a punishing, pulverizing marathon. As deep as a mine in the quest,,, to claim what’s mine.

The champion responded very well until the fourth round. There and then Frazier began to find his opponent’s body with greater thudding intensity. The war of attrition in this cauldron of heat was  taking its toll. By the tenth round, they were both battered, bruised and edging towards the twilight of exhaustion. Smokin’ Joe’s right eye was closing; he had little vision in the other eye due to a training accident suffered in 1964.

He started tasting, eating and swallowing a lot of long laser straight rights. In the thirteenth round, Joe was hit by a jaw swiveling right, and his mouthguard flew out, but the Philadelphia fighter kept pressing forward like a juggernaut, as the atmosphere was utterly devoid of brotherly love.

Frazier’s corner starkly warned him, they were going to stop the fight because he couldn’t see, but they let him contest the fourteenth agonizing round. The final grandstand.

The referee didn’t stop the fight. “We were dead, I resisted by sheer instinct,” Joe grimacingly recalled. The contenders wearily trudged  to their corners with leaden steps, and Ali asked Angelo Dundee—his trainer—to remove his gloves, but suddenly Eddie Futch—Frazier’s trainer—stopped the fight. Ali got up and then collapsed to the canvas. He had fainted. Almost a Pyrrhic victory.

Ali described as a near death experience, an ordeal. Neither was  the same fighter ever again. They had given their absolute all, gone beyond and transcended human endurance and what they left in the ring that night was spent. It broke the bank.

Do. Not ask for whom the bell tolls.