Muhammad Ali V Joe Frazier 2

I don't think the bell saved Frazier. Ali and Frazier fought 41 rounds and Frazier was never off his feet; there was no way Ali was about to stop Frazier and it was very unlikely Frazier was about to go down.

Perez justified his tolerance of Ali's fouling on that night by saying that all Frazier had to do was to bend down and muscle out of the clinch. It's the equivalent of saying that Bowe should have swivelled his hips against Golota or that Rahman should have put his gloves in front of his forehead against Holyfield. For that matter, why didn't Holyfield not just dodge Tyson's bites?

Perez messed up in the Ali-Wepner fight too, between Ali's holding and Wepner's "work the back of the neck" strategy. Ali got really upset at Perez and made a bunch of racial comments about Perez "wanting to be white".

 

Not one chance in hell is it possible.

The FOTC is without question the most important fight of the series, despite the efforts of the Ali revisionist "historians" out there.

 

Gil Clancy thought one of the greatest mistakes in boxing history was in not sending Frazier out for round 15 in Manila. Clancy felt that Ali would have gone from one good shot.

 

I think you're missing what he's getting at. FOTC was without a doubt the bigger historical occasion, but if Ali had lost the second there's a good chance that the whole Ali legend really never had got off. Therefore you can say that the result had bigger effect on boxing history.

Really? Seems a uncharacteristically stupid thing for him to say. Even though it's impossible to say with absolute certainity what would have happened it definitely is stupid to call that decision stupid.