Thrilla In Manilla Round 15

As much as I dislike Ali and love Joe, Frazier probably would have gone the way of Duk Koo Kim. The punches from the last two rounds were horrendous and there is nothing to suggest that they would have subsided.

 

Ali was no "weak puncher", a 7 in power is fair. He was not a hard puncher, & of course not a monster like Foreman.

Both were exhausted, Frazier in worst shape, the question is whether Ali would have stopped him or worse. I cannot tell from the last rounds if Frazier would have just suffered more or fallen. Unlikely, but possible, that Ali is exhausted enough that Frazier can drop him.

Ali enjoyed the comfy canvas, lol. But it was emotional relief too that had him collapse. He could have dragged himself out, hard to know if he had enough left to stop Joe. Even with his superb recuperative powers,

 

Thank you Swag!

 

They both should have retired after Mailla. They were never the same afterwards. They both paid enough. Frazier was blind at that point, nothing good was going to happen in the 15th.

 

I agree. Because of the heat and exhaustion,Frazier could have got seriously hurt. I shudder to think about it. Even though Muhammad was as tired as Joe,he could see out of both eyes

 

I think it would have gone the distance with Ali winning on points. As far as your point of Ali collapsing to the canvas, I think it was more of a mental thing than physical. If he knew he had to go out for another round, I also think he could have done so. All elite fighters have to dig deep in their careers and Ali is no different in that regard. Once the fight was declared over and he knew he didn't have to muster the strength to fight one more round, there was no need to "dig deep" for one more round.

 

Some people at ringside had Frazier ahead...the only thing is...Frazier's corner stopped the fight before Ali could quit...that's why Ali won in Manila in 1975...

 

Exhaustion sure makes you more vulnerable to being injured.

 

Ali-Joe were too tired to do anything in round 15, if they had both gone out for the final round they wouldn't have thrown barely any punches they would have probably just held each other up for 3 minutes:deal..

In my opinion Futch screwed Joe, because had he held on thru that 15th round he would have won on points, after all Ali later said he felt close to death during that fight...

But then again, Futch knows his fighter better than anyone else he made a judgement call, and had to live with it..

That fight physically hurt Ali worse than Joe, remember he was having Kidney problems before the Holmes fight 4 years later..

 

Ali led on points 66-60, 66-62 and 67-62, so the point is moot on who would have won if they laid on each other for the final 3 minutes. Also, that thing about Ali collapsing to the canvas was just something he did and had started doing after the Foreman fight. He was being bombarded by people in the ring and would slither down onto his haunches and wait out the frenzy. He also did it after the Wepner fight. Just sayin'!

 

Ali didn't faint, he collapsed after he knew he had won. He was exhausted but he was exhausted at the end of the previous round and he didn't collapse and get counted out with 30 seconds left.

Joe was blind at that point. It's the corner's job to exercise sound judgement no matter how much the warrior wants to go on, he's not going to make rational determinations in that situation. It would have been criminal for Futch to allow a blind man to go out for another round and he was far too wise, too classy and too professional to do that.

 

You are right. Ali would sit on the canvas to give himself some space from the people mobbing him after fights. Also, I'm a huge Frazier fanboy, but even I have a hard time giving him more than 3 or 4 rounds in this fight. Joe was hurting Ali, but not enough to get past the hundreds of punches Ali was tagging him with. Never seen Ali throw more punches in a fight, several times he came off the ropes throwing 20 some punch combos. And there is no way that Ali quits on his stool after 14, No Way

 

What do you expect him to say? Liston took a dive and a lot of the fights you people are paying me good money for are actually fixed by the mafia with predetermined outcomes? That wouldn't be good for business.

Ali was a showman with a great personality so he rambled off some crazy story. He didn't expect people to believe he actually had a secret knockout punch, and no one did believe it. Because it's just a silly story.