Ali-Frazier recalled 40 years later
montrealgazette.com | Mar 8th 2011
TUCSON, Arizona, (AFP) - On the 40th anniversary of their epic boxing showdown,
Muhammad Ali visited a baseball training camp on Tuesday with a charity message
for superstars while Joe Frazier recalled his iconic victory.
Frazier won a unanimous 15-round decision over Ali at Madison Square Garden to
keep his world heavyweight crown in what was the first of three battles of the
titans, the other fights won by Ali in 1974 at New York and 1975 at Manila.
Ali visited the Chicago White Sox clubhouse at their pre-season training base
in Tucson on Tuesday and received a jersey from the Major League Baseball club
with the number 40 and "Champ" where names normally are stitched.
Anticipation was huge for Ali-Frazier in a pre-pay-per-view era where
closed-circuit broadcasts and round-by-round radio updates were the fastest
ways to find out who won, the internet and portable phones mere fantasies.
Frazier, 67, called his victory over Ali the greatest of his career in an
interview with ESPN, noting the taunts Ali had made about Frazier not being a
true champion until he proved it in the ring against him.
"He was going around saying how great he was, how pretty he was," Frazier said.
"I got him to quiet down some. A little. Not much.
"He said he was God. I said, ’Lord, you’re in the wrong place tonight.’"
Ali, now 69 and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, was stripped of his
heavyweight crown in 1967 after refusing to enlist in the US Army, an anti-war
stance that would help make him a sport legend worldwide.
"I went out there and showed him what the country was all about and what Joe
Frazier was all about," said Frazier, who taunted Ali by using his former name,
Cassius Clay.
"You couldn’t listen to anything he was saying. I wasn’t going to let it hurt
me in any way. I knew what kind of man I was. Let him make all the noise he
wants."
Frazier dominated what became known as the Fight of the Century, knocking Ali
down in the final round only to have him rise and take more punishment before
the final bell.
Ali’s wait to reclaim his heavyweight throne would have to wait another three
years and wait for Frazier to lose the crown to George Foreman in 1973, stopped
in the second round at Kingston, Jamaica.
Ali took a unanimous 12-round decision from Frazier in early 1974 as a prelude
to his legendary eighth-round stoppage of Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, in what
became known as the Rumble in the Jungle.
Frazier and Ali met for the final time one year later in Manila when Ali kept
his crown when Frazier would not leave his corner for the 15th and final round,
concluding what many consider the greatest trilogy in boxing history.
Ali finished his career 56-5 with with 37 knockouts while Frazier retired at
32-4 with one drawn and 27 knockouts.
Ali famously lit the Olympic flame at the 1996 centennial Atlanta Olympics,
where he accepted a replacement gold medal from his 1960 Rome Olympic
light-heavyweight triumph.
With wife Lonnie by his side on Tuesday, Ali made a pitch for his "Athletes for
Hope Foundation" to the White Sox and players took advantage of their chance to
meet and pose for pictures with a legend.
"It was pretty cool," said White Sox slugger Paul Konerko, who was born five
months after the third Ali-Frazier fight. "He is one of the most recognized
people on the planet. We’re public figures and people know us, but Ali is a
whole other ball of wax. It’s like meeting a President."
Original Page:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Frazier+recalled+years+later/4405063/story.html
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