ALI V FRAZIER III

FOUR years after their first meeting, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier faced off in the Philippines for the third and final part of arguably the greatest trilogy boxing has ever known.

Frazier had won their first fight in New York in 1971, shortly after Ali’s return from suspension for avoiding the Vietnam draft, with Ali gaining revenge three years later prior to dethroning George Foreman in Zaire.

A third fight was inevitable, hastened as it was by an intense dislike between the two men which had festered throughout their two previous meetings, and which led Ali to make the jibe for which the title of the bout became known.

Ali boasted: “It will be a killa and a thrilla and a chilla, when I get that gorilla in Manila.”

While Ali courted local dignitaries and the media in the build-up to the fight, just as he had in Zaire the previous year, Frazier preferred to stay in the shadows, propelled by the rage that Ali’s remarks had lit within him.

By the night of the fight, Frazier was ready to go. He swarmed all over Ali, slamming home enormous left hooks and setting the pace for what would come to be regarded as one of the most brutal title bouts in box- ing history. The pace was unrelenting through 14 rounds, with both fighters dealing and sustaining tremendous punishment, before Frazier’s trainer Eddie Futch decided to pull his man out before the start of the final round.

Unbeknown to Futch and Frazier at the time, Ali was also considering quitting, reportedly urging his corner to cut off his gloves, and later describing the bout as “the closest thing to death” he had ever known.

The win marked Ali’s final truly great boxing performance, although he did manage to heroically rouse himself to win back the title he had lost to Leon Smith in September 1978.