i think ali deserved the decision in the FOTC.

In my book, rounds 3 and 10 go to Joe's bag making it 6-8-1 with Frazier coming out the winner.

Certainly, Ali didn't do too bad in the the FOTC, but even if I wanted to make a case for Ali, those rounds should be even at the best, and then we have 6-6-3 :deal

 

Wasn't the fight scored on rounds only?
That would make a case for, perhaps, an Ali 8-7 nod.
I think Ali is THE GREATEST but IMO Joe beat him that night.
On a points basis, you've got to give Joe a 10-8 for rounds 11 & 15.
Not to mention, after a brutal fight with Bonavena in Dec. 70, Muhammad ignored his people's advice and engaged Joe only 3 months later instead of waiting for the summer of 71??
Never loved Joe but I had to respect him.
Quote during their fight:
Muhammad: "Don't you know who I am? I'm God!
Joe: "Well God's gonna get his ass kicked tonite!"

That quote is ONLY topped by, I think, Willie Pastrano's bout in MSG in the mid-50's where he got dumped in an early round, rose wobbly, and got nailed and knocked down again shortly thereafter.
Referee: "Do you know where you are?"
Willie" "Hell yes I know where I am, I'm in the middle of Madison Square Garden gettin' the **** kicked outta me!"

 

My favourite Ali quote...in the Manilla fight...
As the fight got tougher...they clinched and Ali said "They said you were washed up"
Frazier answered..."They lied"...

Joe won the FOTC allright...ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

 

No way Ali won the FOTC. That he was the better man over the trilogy is proven, but Joe won that fight.

 

you are obviously a big Ali fan because that would be the only way you could see the fight that way. Frazier won a clear cut decision and there is NO WAY giving it to Ali would be just. I think Ali being the $$$ fighter always had the edge in decisions and the Referee's courtesy but this one was clearly a Frazier victory

 

no way it was something like 9-5-1 or 10-4-1 for Frazier.
Clearly a loss for Ali

 

i disagree hugely / :nono

 

Larry Merchant is a snide **** who pinches a living. Frazier won clearly in a brutal fight that proved both fighters were great.

 

The fairest thing is to call them 1-1-1.

Frazier handily deserved the FOTC.

Ali won the rematch convincingly.

III was officially Ali's but the fact is that he wanted to quit and Frazier didnt. Subtract their respective coaches from the equation and Frazier claims the best of three series with Ali retiring on his stool.

 

I don't know if much about the 3rd was clear. :think

 

All three fights were close but Joe was the obvious winner in the first,just as Muhammad was in the second one. In the Manilla rubber,I had Muhammad in front by two or three rounds at time of stoppage

 

That's fine, and fits with how most probably had it, and the official result stands as is - but a lot of fans, myself included, look at it like an unofficial "moral victory" for Joe, since he wanted the fifteenth and Muhammad didn't.

If you switched Futch and Dundee around in the corners - give Ali the more compassionate man and Frazier the win-at-all-costs one - and Frazier would have scored a retirement victory on points. The contest was decided not between the men themselves but their coaches, which doesn't feel right as the resolution of such an important trilogy. (or the fight itself, which really was spectacular)

 

I still remain unconvinced that Ali seriously wanted to pull out at the end of the fourteenth. He may have said something like that instantaneously but if Dundee had made a move to attract Padilla's attention,I imagine Muhammad saying something like "What are you doing,fool" ?

After all,as exhausted as he was,Ali knew that Frazier could n't see his right hands coming anymore.

 

Nah.. As big of an Ali fan as I am, there's no way he deserved that decision. Both men fought a magnificent fight, but Frazier gave one of the very best efforts of a heavyweight champ ever. He deserves the props. That match was one of the fights that made boxing, " boxing"..