HBO Sports unveiled its documentary on one of the greatest boxing battles ever fought, the Ali-Frazier Thrilla in Manila. That battle capped a three fight “long war” between Ali and Frazier, with each having won once before this epic. Both men left pieces of themselves in the ring that day that they have not recovered, and it was just not the damage to their bodies. Each left a major piece of their heart and soul in the ring in Manila, and neither have been fully right since.

The documentary does not include commentary from Ali, who suffers from Parkinsons disease, but features Joe Frazier looking at film of the fight for the first time since it occurred. Frazier’s bitterness at Ali for all of the verbal torture Ali put him through is clear, and is so sad. Joe takes some expressed pride in at least being partially responsible for Ali’s current condition, and that is truly terrible. Despite the bitterness there is some grudging respect shown to Ali by Joe, who marvels at Ali’s quick rise from the canvas in Ali-Frazier 1 after one of the most powerful shots I have ever seen delivered in boxing, a trademark Frazier left hook that should have ended the fight then and there. Ali rose at the count of 4.

The Ali-Frazier trilogy truly did transcend boxing. Their first fight, pitting two undefeated champions against each other, created a huge political divide in the country. Ali, who had refused induction into the U.S. Armed Services as a conscientious objector, had been stripped of his championship and refused a license to box. He lost two and a half years in his prime, and stirred a backlash with his draft refusal and association with the Nation of Islam. Frazier, during Ali’s absence, had become the champion recognized by boxing authorities. But Muhammad Ali was “the peoples champion”, undefeated in the ring and the master of bringing p.r. to his fights by baiting, inciting, and verbally torturing his opponents. The media loved the act, and gave it prominent play always. When Ali was licensed to box again the collision with Frazier was destined to be monumental. And it was.

Ali, in his first bout with Frazier, denigrated him as an “uncle tom”, a tool of the white power structure. This was on top of calling him ugly and stupid, and truly led to bitter feelings that never were healed. I saw that first fight in Lawrence at the gym at Central Catholic on closed circuit, and I have never quite seen anything like it to this day. Frazier was the winner by unanimous decision, but to look at him after the fight was truly shocking. He was unrecognizable, his head being a massive series of lumps. Ali’s face, while not as bad, had massive swelling where Frazier had hit him with the left hook that felled him. As an Ali fan I was shocked by the loss, and I grew to respect Joe Frazier immensly. He was a warrior with a heart as big as a lion. That heart came into sharp focus in his loss to Ali in the Thrilla in Manila.

Ali engaged in his usual theatrics before the Manila fight, in which Ali was again the Champion, having defeated George Foreman in “The Rumble in the Jungle” a year earlier. Ali’s continued reference to Frazier as a gorilla is given a lot of time in the HBO documentary, but at the time it was not treated, to my memory, as a racial slur. “It’ll be a killa, a chilla, a thrilla, when I get The Gorilla in Manila.” Ali really did torture Frazier before the fight, and the documentary makes clear that Ali thought Joe Frazier was a shot fighter. Frazier dissuaded Ali of that notion after round 4 in Manila, taking over the fight and delivering withering body blows to Ali. (Fight Doctor Ferdie Pacheco said Ali was peeing blood after the fight). Frazier had withstood the early Ali barrage, in which he was pounded and almost knocked out early. Those middle rounds almost put Ali out, and his mobility was limited due to the ferocious Frazier body attack. But Ali was a special fighter, and like Frazier found a way to reach down and find that little bit extra, re-establishing control in the twelfth, and imposing some real punishment on Frazier. Both Ali and Frazier, in those final rounds, showed what heart and guts are. Frazier should have gone out in the fourteenth, but simply refused to go down despite literally not being able to see in front of him.
Ali later said that this fight was the “closest thing to death” that he had experienced, and Frazier cornerman Eddie Futch refused to let Frazier answer the bell for the fifteenth. The documentary left open without resolution the claim that Ali had ordered Angelo Dundee to “cut them off” and was ready to quit himself just before Futch threw in the towel.

Ali and Frazier were never truly the same after the Thrilla. Ferdie Pacheco had it right when he said that Ali should have hung it up after this fight. Frazier fought some more too, but really was just a shadow of his former self. The documentary brings home how a boxing rivalry really turned into something so much more. Ali and Frazier are forever connected in history, and their great rivalry, for a short period of time, mirrored the great divide in American society, over Vietnam and more. Despite the bitterness that still exists it is fair to say that boxing has never had two champions with more heart and soul than Muhammad Ali and Smokin Joe Frazier.

Read the Bert Sugar piece here.

Read the Angelo Dundee piece here.