Joe Frazier's Great 5: The decisive duel with Ali or simply "The Manila Thriller"

Joe Frazier's Great 5: The decisive duel with Ali or simply "The Manila Thriller"

The thriller in Manila - the third meeting with Muhammad Ali

Although few, the matches in Joe Frazier's professional career are more than spectacular. A large part of them are designated as matches of the year, for the best meetings in the category for a certain period of time, and one of them is also considered a match of the century. This is the first meeting of "Smokin' Joe" with Muhammad Ali. His three bouts with one of the greatest, if not the greatest, boxer of all time are extremely curious. The first meeting is the best in Frazier's career, because with his success in it he inflicted the first defeat on Ali. Their third fight completes our ranking of the five best matches of Joe's career.

This clash is also the last opportunity for Frazier to regain the title of absolute champion in the heavyweight division, which he lost in 1973 to George Foreman. Fight number three between Ali and Frazier takes place in an extremely curious place - the "Arena Coliseum" in Cubao, Philippines and is called "The Thriller in Manila".

Before its start, Muhammad has 50 matches, of which he has lost only two. Frazier's defeats are the same number, but his successes are 16 fewer than "The Great Ali's" - 32, of which 27 have come by way of knockout. October 1st, 1975 is the date Joe attempts to outplay Ali for the second time and do something no one else has been able to do, namely achieve a positive balance in his encounters with this rival.

A year earlier, the two had their second fight, but then it was not for the world title, which Frazier had lost to Foreman, and Ali was still trying to be a contender and reached this opportunity by winning after 12 rounds. The match was stopped by the referee, and it was described as one of the most controversial decisions in the history of boxing in the division.

The third game is expected to show which of the two is better. However, the conditions in which it takes place are nightmarish and Frazier's HQ claim that the temperature in the ring was up to 49 degrees Celsius due to the floodlights ensuring better television coverage. Ali says that he lost nearly 2 and a half kilograms of his weight during the fight.

The start of the match is better for the world champion, while Joe starts a little hesitant and in a more defensive position. The first two rounds were won by Ali, who threw good shots, but they could not shake Frazier that seriously.

In the third part, it is clear that the undisputed heavyweight champion has much more energy than his opponent and is ready to deliver the finishing blow early in the match. He also helps himself to the ropes to put even more power into the blows he delivers to the head and body of "Smokin' Joe". One of his successful streaks led to more serious problems in Frazier's physical condition, but this did not mean that he lost the match.

During the fifth round, the challenger finally finds the necessary rhythm and significantly improves his movement around the ring. Frazier manages to land some good shots with his familiar weapon, the left hook that defeated Ali in their first meeting. Ali's defense looks very shaky and focused only on the left hand shots of Joe, who lands a few accurate right hooks, which is very surprising.

Early in the sixth round, Frazier landed a powerful left hook, suggesting that the fight was just getting started. The ropes save Ali at this point, but he doesn't look shaken after that either. On the contrary, he even manages to counter the attacks of his opponent, who again finds his head with another heavy left hook. Miraculously, the champion gets away with a knockdown in this part.

"Smokin' Joe" quickly takes matters into his own hands, seeing that Ali's defense isn't changing much. He also looks for body shots to further wear down his opponent. In this way, Ali's blows are neutralized and become lighter. At the beginning of the seventh part, however, he shows amazing efficiency, and in the next round again Frazier looks like the boxer in trouble. The opening minute of this part sees a serious streak that not only ties the points, but leads to a new twist. Later in the eighth round, the advantage was already visible, which Muhammad managed to regain, but Joe responded with a good series of blows to the body and head of the world champion.

After the end of round number two, Ali admits to the people in his corner that he has never been as close to death as he is now. Frazier, however, has no less problems, as his face is almost double all the accurate hits of the "great champion". His vision is also severely limited and in the eleventh round, Ali lands some very good shots. Much of them Fraser simply cannot see due to his poor physical condition. His coach, Eddie Futch, gives him advice that turns out to be wrong. According to Futch, Joe needs to stand further to the right of Ali to avoid the blows, but this is exactly what helps the champion to win the twelfth round convincingly and to close both eyes of his opponent even more.

Getting up for round number 13, Frazier barely saw what was happening. Things are definitely not going well for the challenger and after the events of the fourteenth round, Eddie Futch decided it was time to throw in the towel to avoid the worst of the last part.

Referee Carlos Padia called an end to the match and Ali was declared the winner, although he claimed after the fight that it was the hardest and most contested fight in which he even came close to death.

Oddly enough, this match is among Joe Frazier's best, even though he found himself on the losing end and never got that close to the world heavyweight titles again. His loss alone leaves the fight last in our top five.

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