THE LEGACY

Now, 45 years later, Thrilla in Manila remains in the minds of fans and boxing enthusiasts. And why not? According to reliable sources, it was a fight watched by over a billion viewers globally, including 100 million viewers watching the fight on closed-circuit theatre television. Add to that, Thrilla in Manila was the very first boxing match to be on pay-per-view home cable TV, transmitted through HBO. This garnered another 500,000 pay-perview buys for the most lauded Ali-Frazier match.

“Our hosting of the famous boxing match at the Araneta Coliseum greatly contributed to making the Big Dome an ideal venue for international events such as the visit of Pope John Paul II, and the entertainment performances of popular celebrities including Nat King Cole, Andrea Bocelli, Julio Iglesias, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Andy Williams and many more,” shares Araneta. As a tribute to Ali’s victory, the Philippines’ first multi-level commercial shopping mall was named after him: the Ali Mall in Araneta Center, Quezon City, which lies almost next to the Araneta Coliseum in which the Thrilla in Manila took place. “We are happy to have established this historic legacy for all fellow Filipinos and the entire sports community worldwide. Exclusively, we have named one of our malls, the Ali Mall in honor of Muhammad Ali,” Araneta concludes. Both the mall and the coliseum still stand today.