Fight of the Century

For other uses, see Fight of the Century (disambiguation).

Fight of the Century

Date	March 8, 1971
Title(s) on the line	Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship WBC/WBA Heavyweight Championship
Joe Frazier vs.  Muhammad Ali
Smokin' Joe		The Greatest The Champ
Tale of the tape
Beaufort, South Carolina, United States	From	Louisville, Kentucky, United States
26-0 (23 KOs)	Pre-fight record	31-0 (25 KOs)
WBC/WBA Heavyweight Champion Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion	Recognition	Lineal Champion
Result	Frazier won via unanimous decision

The Fight of the Century, also known as The Fight, is the title boxing writers and historians have granted to the boxing match between champion Joe Frazier (26-0, 23 KOs) and challenger Muhammad Ali (31-0, 25 KOs), held on March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.

Background and cultural significance

In 1971, both Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had legitimate claims to the title of World Heavyweight Champion. An undefeated Ali had won the title from Sonny Liston in Miami Beach in 1964, and successfully defended his belt up until he had it stripped by boxing authorities for refusing induction into the armed forces in 1967. In Ali's absence, the undefeated Frazier collected two championship belts through devastating knockouts of Buster Mathis and Jimmy Ellis. He was recognized by boxing authorities as the World's Champion. Unlike Mathis and Ellis, Frazier was plausibly Ali's superior, which created a tremendous amount of hype and anticipation for a match pitting the two undefeated fighters against one another to decide who was the true heavyweight champ.

They were guaranteed purses of US$2.5 million each, then a record for a single prizefight.

Joe Frazier had an outstanding left hook, and was a tenacious competitor who attacked the body of his opponent with ferocity. Despite suffering from a serious bout of hypertension in the lead-up to the fight, he appeared to be in top form as the face-off between the two undefeated champions approached.

The fight became an extension of the strife that existed within the country, as Ali had become a symbol of the anti-establishment movement during his government-imposed exile from the ring, while Frazier, as a matter of convenience, was adopted by the conservative, pro-war movement. According to the 2009 documentary Thrilla in Manila, the match, which had been dubbed "The Fight", "gripped the nation, but also split it down the middle. If you were rooting for Ali you were black liberal or young, against Vietnam and for the Civil Rights movement. If you backed Joe Frazier you were a representative of white, conservative America." The fight was one of the most anticipated events of the 20th century, and transcended boxing.

Fight

On the evening of the match, Madison Square Garden had a circus-like atmosphere, with scores of policemen to control the crowd, outrageously dressed fans, and countless celebrities, from Norman Mailer and Woody Allen to Frank Sinatra, who, after being unable to procure a ringside seat, took photographs for Life magazine instead. Artist LeRoy Neiman painted Ali and Frazier as they fought. Burt Lancaster served as a color commentator for the closed-circuit broadcast. Though Lancaster had never performed as a sports commentator before, he was hired by the fight's promoter, Jerry Perenchio, who was also a friend. The other commentators were play-by-play announcer Don Dunphy and boxing champion Archie Moore.^{[citation needed]}

The fight itself exceeded even its promotional hype and went the full 15-round championship distance. Ali dominated the first three rounds, peppering the shorter Frazier with rapier-like jabs that raised welts on the champion's face. In the closing seconds of round three, Frazier connected with a tremendous hook to Ali's jaw, snapping his head back. Frazier viciously attacked Ali's body as the obviously hurt former champion covered up for the first time. Frazier began to dominate in the fourth round, catching Ali with several of his famed left hooks and pinning him against the ropes to deliver tremendous body blows. Ali was visibly tired after the sixth round, and though he put together some flurries of punches after that round, he was unable to keep the pace he had set in the first third of the fight. His speed and combinations kept him on roughly even terms with Frazier, however, and the fight was very close until late in round 11. During that round Frazier caught Ali, backed into a corner, with a crushing left hook that almost floored Ali, sending him falling into the ropes. Ali managed to survive the round, but from then on Frazier seemed to control the fight. At the end of round 14 Frazier held a lead on all three scorecards (by scores of 7-6-1, 10-4, and 8-6). Early in round 15, Frazier landed a spectacular left hook that put Ali on his back (for only the third time in his career). Ali, his jaw swollen grotesquely, got up from the blow quickly, and managed to stay on his feet for the rest of the round despite several terrific blows from Frazier. A few minutes later the judges made it official: Frazier had retained the title with a unanimous decision, dealing Ali his first professional loss.

Aftermath

Frazier would surrender his title to George Foreman in a second-round knockout in January 1973.

Ali, for his part, refused to publicly admit defeat (while privately doing so to friends, such as George Plimpton) and sought to define the outcome in the public's mind as a "White Man's Decision". He went on to encounter tremendous difficulty in splitting two bouts with Ken Norton in 1973, and was widely (and mistakenly) viewed as a has-been before winning a 1974 rematch with Frazier, and then shocking the world for a second time that year with a remarkable victorious performance against the heavily favored champion, George Foreman.

See also

• Ali–Frazier II
• Thrilla in Manila