Total-Boxing Blog

Profile on the greatest rivalry in Boxing.

Hills, Michigan, United States 09/10/88

No Soccermatch today but another historical sport event. I Hope you enjoy it The Thrilla in Manila is the third and final famous boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier for the Heavyweight Boxing Championship of the World, fought at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines on October 1, 1975. The bout is often ranked as one of the greatest fights of 20th century boxing, and is the climax to the bitter rivalry between Ali and Frazier over who was the legitimate Heavyweight Champion. That situation came about after Ali was stripped of the title over his refusal to join the armed forces when drafted during the Vietnam war. Some years later after repeated weekly prodding from Ali, Frazier petitioned President Nixon to restore Ali’s right to box thereby bringing about the so called Fight of the Century between two undisputed heavyweight champions in 1971. During the whole period between their first and their last face-off in Manila, including the years which preceded the restoration of Ali’s right to fight, Ali had used his wit, sharp tongue, and position with the press to take characteristic verbal pot shots at Frazier (as was his practice with all opponents—and which made good copy and controversy) but these became controversial and at times ugly, after his loss in the fight of the Century, and this verbal battery heated the rivalry into new territory. Both boxers battled each other into near incapacity, and Frazier’s trainer determined he …

00Rooster4Life00 presents a Tribute to the one and only, the first man to beat Muhammad Ali, Mr Smokin Joe Frazier. Joseph William Frazier, known as “Smokin’ Joe”, (born January 12, 1944 in Beaufort, South Carolina) is a former Olympic (1964) and World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, active mostly in the later 1960s and early 1970s. Frazier was a popular champion reprising himself in cameo roles in several Hollywood films and professionally is perhaps most famous for his trilogy of Heavy Weight Championship fights with Muhammad Ali wherein one or the other challenged the current title holder resulting in dramatic memorable battles. While Ali’s characteristic taunts of his opponent began typically enough, after regaining his title, his taunts of Smokin’ Joe eventually turned mean-spirited and racist. Joe was painted by Ali as the white man’s hope and as an “Uncle Tom” interjecting an element of racism into an already contentious and controversial series of great bouts. (The early controversy was whether Ali should be allowed to fight at all.) It should also be noted that Joe Frazier petitioned President Nixon to have Ali’s right to box reinstated setting up the whole series of matches, admittedly with the inspiration of weekly phone pestering by Ali[1]. Frazier also boycotted the 1967 WBA heavyweight elimination tournament to find a successor to Muhammad Ali, when the champion was stripped of the title. Frazier has a bullying fighting style, depending on bobbing and weaving …

No Soccermatch today but another historical sport event. I Hope you enjoy it The Thrilla in Manila is the third and final famous boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier for the Heavyweight Boxing Championship of the World, fought at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines on October 1, 1975. The bout is often ranked as one of the greatest fights of 20th century boxing, and is the climax to the bitter rivalry between Ali and Frazier over who was the legitimate Heavyweight Champion. That situation came about after Ali was stripped of the title over his refusal to join the armed forces when drafted during the Vietnam war. Some years later after repeated weekly prodding from Ali, Frazier petitioned President Nixon to restore Ali’s right to box thereby bringing about the so called Fight of the Century between two undisputed heavyweight champions in 1971. During the whole period between their first and their last face-off in Manila, including the years which preceded the restoration of Ali’s right to fight, Ali had used his wit, sharp tongue, and position with the press to take characteristic verbal pot shots at Frazier (as was his practice with all opponents—and which made good copy and controversy) but these became controversial and at times ugly, after his loss in the fight of the Century, and this verbal battery heated the rivalry into new territory. Both boxers battled each other into near incapacity, and Frazier’s trainer determined he …