"neck in their legendary Rumble in the Jungle. Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier II Super Fight II was a non-title boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The second of the three Ali–Frazier bouts, it took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on January 28, 1974. Ali was a slight favorite to win, and did by a unanimous decision. Held in between their two title bouts, The Fight of the Century in 1971 and The Thrilla in Manila in 1975, this second fight was scheduled for twelve rounds. Promoted as ""Super Fight II"", it was considered"
"Fight of the Century Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, billed as The Fight of the Century (also known as The Fight), was the boxing match between WBC/WBA heavyweight champion Joe Frazier (26–0, 23 KOs) and ""The Ring""/lineal heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (31–0, 25 KOs), held on Monday, March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was the first time that two undefeated boxers fought each other for the heavyweight title. Frazier won in 15 rounds via unanimous decision. It was the first of a trilogy, followed by the rematch fights Super Fight II (1974) and Thrilla"
"A pioneer, Bagatsing was among the first City Mayors to establish a Manila Tourism bureau. The following year, adding to its global acclaim, the city's name became renowned in the sporting world due to the Thrilla in Manila between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The legendary match was actually held at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, but the promoters decided to highlight the City of Manila, with Ali enjoying his stay at the historic Manila Hotel, often jogging around the boulevards of Manila, mingling and interacting with the locals. Because of this, Bagatsing gladly provided Ali with a rather"
"and reportedly Ali stood with the audience and clapped ""vigorously"". Frazier lived in Philadelphia where he owned and managed a boxing gym. Frazier put the gym up for sale in mid-2009. He was diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure. He and his nemesis, Muhammad Ali, alternated over the years between public apologies and public insults. In 1996, when Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, Frazier told a reporter that he would like to throw Ali into the fire. Frazier made millions of dollars in the 1970s, but the article cited mismanagement of real-estate holdings as a partial explanation"
"victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier. Ali and Frazier's first fight, held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, was nicknamed the ""Fight of the Century"", due to the tremendous excitement surrounding a bout between two undefeated fighters, each with a legitimate claim as heavyweight champions. Veteran boxing writer John Condon called"
"for his economic woes. Frazier stated repeatedly that he no longer had any bitter feelings towards Ali. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has named Joe Frazier's Gym in its 25th list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2012. In 2013, the gym was named to the National Register of Historic Places. Frazier continued to train young fighters, although he needed multiple operations for back injuries sustained in a car accident. He and Ali reportedly attempted a reconciliation in his final years, but in October 2006 Frazier still claimed to have won all three bouts between the two."
"the first Joe Frazier bout when it was introduced. Of his later career, Arthur Mercante said: ""Ali knew all the tricks. He was the best fighter I ever saw in terms of clinching. Not only did he use it to rest, but he was big and strong and knew how to lean on opponents and push and shove and pull to tire them out. Ali was so smart. Most guys are just in there fighting, but Ali had a sense of everything that was happening, almost as though he was sitting at ringside analyzing the fight while he fought it."""
"to Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Although the scorecards in the Ali fight were somewhat lopsided, Bugner fought well, and he won the respect of the boxing media and public alike. After their bout, Ali declared that Bugner was capable of being world champion. Ali's trainer Angelo Dundee later echoed that sentiment. The fight with Frazier in July 1973 at Earls Court in London was deemed a classic. After being knocked down by a tremendous left hook in the tenth round, Bugner arose and staggered Frazier to close the round. Frazier took the decision, but only narrowly, and arguably only"
"I get that gorilla in Manila."" The bout is consistently ranked as one of the best in the sport's history and was the culmination of a three-bout rivalry between the two fighters that Ali won, 2–1. The fight was watched by a record global television audience of 1billion viewers, including 100million viewers watching the fight pay-per-view on closed-circuit theatre television and 500,000 pay-per-view buys on HBO home cable television. The first bout between Frazier and Ali took place on March 8, 1971, in New York's Madison Square Garden. Frazier was the champion and won by unanimous decision over previously undefeated"
"Ali winning a 12-round unanimous decision. The fight was notable for the amount of clinching. Five months later, Frazier again battled Jerry Quarry in Madison Square Garden, and won the fight in the fifth round with a strong left hook to the ribs. In March 1975, Frazier fought a rematch with Jimmy Ellis in Melbourne, Australia, knocking him out in nine rounds. The win again established Frazier as the number one heavyweight challenger for the title, which Ali had won from George Foreman in the famous ""Rumble in the Jungle"" five months earlier. Ali and Frazier met for the third"
"rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision. The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed ""The Rumble in the Jungle"". Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out"
"face. The fight provided cover for an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to successfully pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, which exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Muhammad Ali, which included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school. Fight of the Century Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, billed as The Fight of the Century (also known as The Fight), was the boxing match between WBC/WBA heavyweight champion Joe"
"least significant and interesting fight of their rivalry. One columnist described it as a contest between two ""former champions, both beaten, both past their best"". Nonetheless, Ali wanted to avenge his loss to Frazier in their first fight, and a world title try at Heavyweight champion George Foreman, who had dethroned Frazier, was at stake. Their first and third fights became part of boxing's lore, but some viewers considered the second fight to be entertaining as well. On January 23, 1974 (5 Days Before Their Rematch), Ali and Frazier visited the ABC studios in New York City to review their"
"Ali agreed to a match. Joe Frazier, who'd sparred with Norton, presciently said of Ali, ""He'll have plenty of trouble!"" Though both were top boxers in the mid 1970s, Norton and Frazier never fought each other, in part because they shared the same trainer, Eddie Futch, and also because they were friends. For the first match, on March 31, 1973, Muhammad Ali entered the ring at the San Diego Sports Arena wearing a robe given to him by Elvis Presley as a 5–1 favorite versus Ken Norton, then rated a number 6 world contender in a bout televised by ABC's"
"met for the third and last time on September 28, 1976, at Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York, USA, completing their trilogy. This time, 34-year-old Ali entered the ring as Heavyweight Champion. Both fighters showed their strengths, but neither established themselves as the obvious winner. Most commentators gave the fight to Norton. Ultimately, Ali won by a unanimous decision, thereby retaining his title. Muhammad Ali vs. Ken Norton Muhammad Ali fought three professional boxing matches against Ken Norton between 1973 and 1976. Ali won the series 2–1. Still rebuilding a winning record after his first professional loss to Joe Frazier, Ali"
"1971, at Madison Square Garden, Frazier and Ali met in the first of their three bouts which was called the ""Fight of the Century"". With an international television audience and an in-house audience that included singers, and actors, and with Burt Lancaster (who served as ""color commentator"" with fight announcer Don Dunphy), the two undefeated heavyweights met in a media-frenzied atmosphere reminiscent of Joe Louis' youth. Several factors came together for Frazier in this fight. He was 27 years old and mentally and physically at his peak; Ali, 29, was coming back from a three-year absence but had kept active."
"The thrust of this fight on the public consciousness is incalculable. It has been a ceaseless whir that seems to have grown in decibel with each new soliloquy by Ali, with each dead calm promise by Frazier. It has magnetized the imagination of ring theorists, and flushed out polemicists of every persuasion. It has cut deep into the thicket of our national attitudes, and it is a conversational imperative everywhere—from the gabble of big-city salons and factory lunch breaks rife with unreasoning labels, to ghetto saloons with their own false labels. On the evening of the match, Madison Square Garden"
"where he died on November 7. Upon hearing of Frazier's death, Muhammad Ali said, ""The world has lost a great champion. I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration."" Frazier's private funeral took place on November 14 at the Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia and in addition to friends and family was attended by Muhammad Ali, Don King, Larry Holmes, Magic Johnson, Dennis Rodman, among others. He was later buried at the Ivy Hill Cemetery, a short drive from the Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. In the late 1970s, Frazier created a soul-funk group called ""Joe Frazier and the"
"overall favorite, Foreman towered 10 cm (4 inches) over the more compact champion and dominated from the start. Two minutes into the first round, Foreman knocked Frazier down for the first time. After he was knocked down a sixth time in the second round referee Arthur Mercante, Sr. stopped the contest. Frazier won his next fight, a 12-round decision over Joe Bugner, in London to begin his quest to regain the title. Frazier's second fight against Ali took place on January 28, 1974, in New York City. In contrast to their previous meeting, the bout was a non-title fight, with"
"On March 8, 1971, riots erupted at both The Chicago Coliseum and Chicago Amphitheater amongst fans attempting to watch a live, closed-circuit television broadcast of the Muhammad Ali – Joe Frazier fight being staged at Madison Square Garden in New York. When Coliseum projection equipment broke down, management asked an audience of 7,000 to leave just before the fight began. ""..A group of youths, angered by the announcement began tearing up ticket counters near the door and throwing them thru [sic] the front windows. Others, who had paid $10 a head to see the fight, began hurtling chairs and bottles"
"whip Muhammad Ali a dozen times; and it would get easier as it went along"". Ali went on to fight Frazier twice more, winning both times, once by unanimous decision and once by TKO. Before their final match, the 1975 Thrilla in Manila, Smith admitted Ali was both a great fighter and a great man. Smith was married twice. His first wife died in 1967. Smith then married Phyllis Warner Weiss in 1968. The couple lived in New Canaan, Connecticut and in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. At the time of his death, Smith had two children, five stepchildren, six grandchildren, and"
"and after these fights, Joe was ready to lay his life on the line, and ... he did."" Ali's preparations were upset before the fight when he introduced his mistress, Veronica Porché, as his wife to Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. This angered his wife, Khalilah Ali, who saw the introduction on television back in the States, and subsequently flew to Manila, where she engaged her husband in a prolonged shouting match in his hotel suite. In the Frazier camp, trainer Eddie Futch made the decision that the hordes of people and the tension in the steaming hot city were a"
"champion Muhammad Ali until late in Ali's career. This was because when Ali refused to serve during the Vietnam War, claiming his case as a conscientious objector, Smith, who had never served in uniform himself, wrote: ""Squealing over the possibility that the military may call him up, Cassius makes himself as sorry a spectacle as those unwashed punks who picket and demonstrate against the war"", and berated Ali for being a ""draft dodger"" and a ""slacker"". Later Smith famously commented on Ali's first professional defeat in 32 bouts, against Joe Frazier: ""If they fought a dozen times, Joe Frazier would"
"to Ali, graciously stated that ""[m]y man fought a good fight""; while Ali declared Frazier to be ""the greatest fighter of all time next to me."" In the buildup to their bouts, Ali called Frazier ""dumb"" and an ""Uncle Tom"" before their first, ""ignorant"" before the second, and a ""gorilla"" before the third. Writers Dennis and Don Atyeo have noted that given Ali's warm words for Frazier in the past, his jibes about Frazier sounded hollow. On January 23, 1974, five days before their second fight, Ali and Frazier had a public altercation captured on television. ABC Sports' Howard Cosell"
"This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman. Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four"
"Talia Shire's ensuing audition, Chartoff and Winkler, along with Avildsen, insisted that she play the part. Boxer Joe Frazier has a cameo appearance in the film. The character of Apollo Creed was influenced by outspoken boxer Muhammad Ali who fought Frazier three times. During the 49th Academy Awards ceremony in 1977, Ali and Stallone staged a brief comic confrontation to show Ali was not offended by the film. Some of the plot's most memorable moments—Rocky's carcass-punching scenes and Rocky running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as part of his training regimen—are taken from the real-life exploits"
"by Broad Enterprises Group L.L.C. in 2011 and is currently leased to a discount furniture store. After efforts from preservationists and local politicians, Joe Frazier's Gym was added to the National Register of Historic Places in April 2013. Joe Frazier's Gym Joe Frazier's Gym was a training facility owned by American professional boxer, Joe Frazier. Frazier trained at the gym while preparing for his 1971 Fight of the Century against Muhammad Ali. Joe Frazier's Gym stands at 2917 N. Broad Street in Philadelphia, PA. The building was constructed around 1895 and originally served as a window sash and blind warehouse."
"Referee Tony Perez stepped between the fighters, signifying the end of the round, even though there were about 25 seconds left. In so doing, he gave Frazier time to regain his bearings and continue fighting. Perez also failed to contain Ali's tactic of illegally holding and pulling down his opponent's neck in the clinches, which helped Ali to smother Frazier, and gain him the 12-round decision. This became a major issue in selecting the referee for the Manila bout. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos sought to hold the bout in Metro Manila and sponsor it in order to put attention on"
"the world. Four and a half years after the Fight of the Century, Frazier and Ali met for a third and final time in a fight known as the ""Thrilla in Manila"" in September 1975. Futch served as Frazier's manager and chief second for the fight, having inherited those duties from Durham who died from a stroke shortly after Frazier's defeat by George Foreman in 1973. Futch's chief concern for the fight was that Ali not be allowed to repeat the illegal tactic of holding Frazier behind the neck, as Ali had in their 1974 second fight. This had created"
"his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981. The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career. On several occasions in the early rounds he played to the crowd and shook his head ""no"" after he was hit. In the later rounds—in"
"Muhammad Ali vs. Oscar Bonavena Heavyweight boxers Muhammad Ali and Oscar Bonavena fought at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 7, 1970. Ali won the bout through a technical knockout in the 15th round. According to Ferdie Pacheco, Ali absorbed more punishment in this particular fight than in any of his previous fights, and it was a mistake for Ali to have fought with Bonavena just before his first fight with Joe Frazier. Many experts believed Ali was making a mistake by fighting with Bonavena in only his second fight after his 3½ year break from professional"
"fight on the studio floor. Both fighters were subsequently fined for this and the stage was set for their rematch in the ring. Mere days prior to the match at Madison Square Garden, both Ali and Frazier appeared together (along with British Journalist Michael Parkinson) on ""The Dick Cavett Show"" (ABC - 1974) where there was both humor and obvious tension which included the removing of jackets and mock blows between Ali and Frazier. Ali was aggressive right from the start. At the end of round two, Frazier, a notoriously slow starter in fights, was hurt by an Ali right"
"Joe Frazier's Gym Joe Frazier's Gym was a training facility owned by American professional boxer, Joe Frazier. Frazier trained at the gym while preparing for his 1971 Fight of the Century against Muhammad Ali. Joe Frazier's Gym stands at 2917 N. Broad Street in Philadelphia, PA. The building was constructed around 1895 and originally served as a window sash and blind warehouse. Several companies, including the Benson Manufacturing Company and the Air Craft Plastics Company, were listed at this address. The building remained in industrial use until Cloverlay Inc., an investment group that sponsored Joe Frazier, purchased the property for"