12 thoughts on “The Thrilla In Manila: Still The Greatest!”
Why do you keep referring Ali to his slave name of clay. Show some respect
Because Muhammad owned slaves ..and Arab s killed millions of blacks in Africa,cassis clay on the other hand was a abolishinest,learn some history .
There’s people today who still refuse to call Ali by his name… His name wasn’t clay/Ali …. Hate and or ignorance by a individual is like a terminal illness… You usually die with it and probably from it
Ali for a long time was a racist himself. If you want the proof look up his Playboy magazine interview. He stated a black man or woman should be killed if they dated a white. I am sure over time he probably changed after retirement. The trash talk he used with Frazier was racist even mocking him by Ali pushing his nose flat if i called a black man a ignorant gorilla would i be a racist. ALI was the greatest fighter of all time but as a person he had a lot of issues people block out because of their awe of him
What more is to say about the African Man in the ring.His eloquence is unmatched.
Thank you for writing this!
I never appreciated history but I do now!
Thanks,
God Bless
These are all great comments and I concur with every one
I’ve watched this fight literally hundreds of times.
This was an intense pitched battle, an intense drama in Three Acts.
Ali dominated Joe in the first 5 rounds all business, perhaps testing Joe to see what Joe had left, seeming to make an effort to get Joe out of there early.
Joe came back in rounds
6-10 to arguably even up the fight with his patented relentless pressure and a ferocious body attack plus two or three extremely hard left hooks in the middle rounds, hitting Ali as hard as he ever–did but Ali’s chin heart+will to win are unmatched, plus Ali wasn’t exhausted as he was in
Fight I when Joe landed hooks in the late rounds.
At the end of the 10th round Ali said he thought momentarily about quitting but later clarified to Howard Cosell, “You think about it for a[[fleeting]]second, but I would NEVER quit. In a fight like that after the 10th round that it was like the closest thing to death I know but even if the thought crosses your mind for a split second never would I
quit”.
In the 11th round Ali called on that special inexhaustible reserve of energy he had for the Championship Round+almost imperceptibly started to take control of the fight.
Angelo Dundee noticed in the 11th that Ali was able to push Joe back into center ring from off the ropes +corners. Also Angelo said the gloves were waterlogged by the humidity, perspiration, and the water the corners were pouring over the fighters heads necks +shoulders to cool them down from the 100°+ with humidity ringside conditions. Angelo said the horsehair padding in the gloves thinned got matted, and except the handwraps and leather Ali was hitting Joe almost with bare knuckles.
Ali turned up the heat in round 12 Joe Frazier was eyes were swelling shut and closed. Joe was spitting blood in the corner between rounds. In 13th Muhammad Ali took total control of the fight and gave Joe Frazier frightful beating knocking out Joe Frazier’s mouthpiece into the third row ringside seats. Ali landed some of the hardest punches he had ever landed on Frazier in the 13th round and it was more of the same in round 14 Joe Frazier giving ground taking hard shot after hard shot. The last four rounds of the Thrilla in Manila Joe Frazier absorbed the frightful amount of punishment especially in the 13th and 14th. For all intents and purposes Frazier was fighting blind against the greatest fighter of all time. Eddie futch saw the writing on the wall he saw how Muhammad Ali took over the fight in the 11th kept turning up the Heat and the round 12 and he saw Joe Frazier close up taking hard shots from a lie will not being able to see Muhammad Ali the land any punches of his own that were of any consequence. Eddie futch knew that Joe Frazier was only in for more of the same in the 15th round and would have been sending his fighter out there with no chance of winning he wasn’t going to knock Muhammad Ali out and he was likely going to get knocked out himself and possibly suffer bad and permanent damage. It was the proper decision for Eddie futch to call Carlos Padilla Jr over in the corner and indeed later on Carlos Padilla Jr that even without Eddie futch he was thinking about stopping the fight himself. Besides the fight being so brutal the conditions at ringside with it being well over 100 degrees with extremely high humidity made this brutal war that much more brutal that much more a war of attrition. One of Ali’s greatest triumphs indeed the greatest best most brutal fight ever All Things Considered.
Ali fainted at the end of the 14th round. Dundee admitted it when pressed in interviews. In the fight film you see Ali raise his arms and the camera cuts away. Neither of them were ever the same after that fight and they’ll be remembered for years to come and rightfully so. I think Frazier is seriously underrated as time goes on. I would also say Ali’s 3 wars with Norton were just as difficult, but clearly not as brutal and punishing.
Ali was well ahead at the end of the 14 th round, Frazier needed a knockout to win and their was little chance of that at that point
Correct, I saw the fight many times.
INCORRECT. Clay/Ali was NOT well ahead when Futch told Padilla that the fight was to be stopped. Some of you watch fights not knowing how to truly score a fight. Frazier started to dominate the fight before Round Five. Clay/Ali took the first two or three rounds and the last two. I have Frazier ahead at the end of the 14th. Why? Body blows count as much as facial shots. Aggressiveness by a fighter is/should be taken into consideration when scoring. Whom is pressing the fight? A solid shot thrown with intensity is more valuable than a pitter pat punch. Is a fighter holding or rabbit punching, which is illegal and points should be deducted! Clay/Ali complained when other fighters held and hit, but he also, especially against Frazier, held and hit. No points deducted.
Oh, I watched this fight back in 1975. I own VHS and DVD copies of the Frazier/Clay-Ali Trilogy. Frazier dominates Fight One. Clay/Ali “holds” the edge in Fight Two. Fight Three is basically “even”.
I would love to sit down with people like you to see how you view and score a fight. I’ll probably laugh my ass off! 😆
Why do you keep referring Ali to his slave name of clay. Show some respect
Because Muhammad owned slaves ..and Arab s killed millions of blacks in Africa,cassis clay on the other hand was a abolishinest,learn some history .
There’s people today who still refuse to call Ali by his name… His name wasn’t clay/Ali …. Hate and or ignorance by a individual is like a terminal illness… You usually die with it and probably from it
Ali for a long time was a racist himself. If you want the proof look up his Playboy magazine interview. He stated a black man or woman should be killed if they dated a white. I am sure over time he probably changed after retirement. The trash talk he used with Frazier was racist even mocking him by Ali pushing his nose flat if i called a black man a ignorant gorilla would i be a racist. ALI was the greatest fighter of all time but as a person he had a lot of issues people block out because of their awe of him
What more is to say about the African Man in the ring.His eloquence is unmatched.
Thank you for writing this!
I never appreciated history but I do now!
Thanks,
God Bless
These are all great comments and I concur with every one
I’ve watched this fight literally hundreds of times.
This was an intense pitched battle, an intense drama in Three Acts.
Ali dominated Joe in the first 5 rounds all business, perhaps testing Joe to see what Joe had left, seeming to make an effort to get Joe out of there early.
Joe came back in rounds
6-10 to arguably even up the fight with his patented relentless pressure and a ferocious body attack plus two or three extremely hard left hooks in the middle rounds, hitting Ali as hard as he ever–did but Ali’s chin heart+will to win are unmatched, plus Ali wasn’t exhausted as he was in
Fight I when Joe landed hooks in the late rounds.
At the end of the 10th round Ali said he thought momentarily about quitting but later clarified to Howard Cosell, “You think about it for a[[fleeting]]second, but I would NEVER quit. In a fight like that after the 10th round that it was like the closest thing to death I know but even if the thought crosses your mind for a split second never would I
quit”.
In the 11th round Ali called on that special inexhaustible reserve of energy he had for the Championship Round+almost imperceptibly started to take control of the fight.
Angelo Dundee noticed in the 11th that Ali was able to push Joe back into center ring from off the ropes +corners. Also Angelo said the gloves were waterlogged by the humidity, perspiration, and the water the corners were pouring over the fighters heads necks +shoulders to cool them down from the 100°+ with humidity ringside conditions. Angelo said the horsehair padding in the gloves thinned got matted, and except the handwraps and leather Ali was hitting Joe almost with bare knuckles.
Ali turned up the heat in round 12 Joe Frazier was eyes were swelling shut and closed. Joe was spitting blood in the corner between rounds. In 13th Muhammad Ali took total control of the fight and gave Joe Frazier frightful beating knocking out Joe Frazier’s mouthpiece into the third row ringside seats. Ali landed some of the hardest punches he had ever landed on Frazier in the 13th round and it was more of the same in round 14 Joe Frazier giving ground taking hard shot after hard shot. The last four rounds of the Thrilla in Manila Joe Frazier absorbed the frightful amount of punishment especially in the 13th and 14th. For all intents and purposes Frazier was fighting blind against the greatest fighter of all time. Eddie futch saw the writing on the wall he saw how Muhammad Ali took over the fight in the 11th kept turning up the Heat and the round 12 and he saw Joe Frazier close up taking hard shots from a lie will not being able to see Muhammad Ali the land any punches of his own that were of any consequence. Eddie futch knew that Joe Frazier was only in for more of the same in the 15th round and would have been sending his fighter out there with no chance of winning he wasn’t going to knock Muhammad Ali out and he was likely going to get knocked out himself and possibly suffer bad and permanent damage. It was the proper decision for Eddie futch to call Carlos Padilla Jr over in the corner and indeed later on Carlos Padilla Jr that even without Eddie futch he was thinking about stopping the fight himself. Besides the fight being so brutal the conditions at ringside with it being well over 100 degrees with extremely high humidity made this brutal war that much more brutal that much more a war of attrition. One of Ali’s greatest triumphs indeed the greatest best most brutal fight ever All Things Considered.
Ali fainted at the end of the 14th round. Dundee admitted it when pressed in interviews. In the fight film you see Ali raise his arms and the camera cuts away. Neither of them were ever the same after that fight and they’ll be remembered for years to come and rightfully so. I think Frazier is seriously underrated as time goes on. I would also say Ali’s 3 wars with Norton were just as difficult, but clearly not as brutal and punishing.
Ali was well ahead at the end of the 14 th round, Frazier needed a knockout to win and their was little chance of that at that point
Correct, I saw the fight many times.
INCORRECT. Clay/Ali was NOT well ahead when Futch told Padilla that the fight was to be stopped. Some of you watch fights not knowing how to truly score a fight. Frazier started to dominate the fight before Round Five. Clay/Ali took the first two or three rounds and the last two. I have Frazier ahead at the end of the 14th. Why? Body blows count as much as facial shots. Aggressiveness by a fighter is/should be taken into consideration when scoring. Whom is pressing the fight? A solid shot thrown with intensity is more valuable than a pitter pat punch. Is a fighter holding or rabbit punching, which is illegal and points should be deducted! Clay/Ali complained when other fighters held and hit, but he also, especially against Frazier, held and hit. No points deducted.
Oh, I watched this fight back in 1975. I own VHS and DVD copies of the Frazier/Clay-Ali Trilogy. Frazier dominates Fight One. Clay/Ali “holds” the edge in Fight Two. Fight Three is basically “even”.
I would love to sit down with people like you to see how you view and score a fight. I’ll probably laugh my ass off! 😆