Now I'm sure this will have been done to death in the past but I just wanna hear the views of the fans. Didn't Ali say he wanted his gloves cut off after round 14 and Frazier wanted to go out for the final round? Ali was ahead on the scorecards but it seems if it had been up to the men and not their trainers then Smokin Joe would have been 2-1 up on Ali. I can see why Joe's still bitter. No disrespect to Ali though, anyone who does that for 14 rounds is beyond human. What's the general thoughts among the boxing community?
Ali got his hand raised after Joe frazier was retired in his corner so Ali won in my eyes and everyone elses.
If anyone seriously believe`s that Ali wouldnt have come out for that 15th rd vs his most hated rival in a fight were all he had to do was see the final bell, then quite frankly, you shouldnt be on these forums. Joe Frazier himself knows Ali won this fight, he beat Joe, almost stopped him, likely would have in the next rd. This was the most decisive victory of the trilogy, it was the most brutal, the best HW fight ever IMHO & a legit stoppage, Frazier got beat down in rds 13 & 14.... this should not even be a question.
You raise good points, it was a pretty dumb question. Where did the stuff about him wanting to quit come from though?
A more legit question is who won fight 1 or 2.... not the fkn 3rd fight - the only one that ended by stoppage where the most damage was done. The 2 most dominant rds of the 41 rds completed happened in succession & they were the 2 rds that preceeded the stoppage - rds 13 & 14, won big by Ali. Case closed !
We had a fourm of this a few months back, think that went over 8 pages. Ali took the early rounds, Frazier the middle, and Ali took over again in the 12th rounds and up. It was a brutal fight on both sides, score wise it was pretty one sided.
Nobody knows for sure if that was said, it could have been a myth as it only came to light yrs later. Im sure Ali wanted to quit vs Liston in fight 1 when he had that burning **** in his eyes but Angelo Dundee shoved him out & told him to run/play defense, he did. No way he quits vs his most hated rival after doing all that hard work, dont see it at all, words are words, actions are more important.
Ali was pretty much ahead in fight 3, Fraizer loseing the early and late rounds. Think Joe won about 5 or 6 rounds going into the 15th round. I didnt think Fraizer would have won had it went the full 15 rounds. Outside of a ko(And thats hard giving Ali's massive chin) It was relly point wise a one sided fight. Now what makes this fight great, is that both gave and dish out punishment. Joe took more damage than Ali in that fight, eye closeing and the bump on top of Fraizer' eye.
This must be a joke. Not even the biggest Frazier fans seriously believe Ali was going to quit on his stool.
Ali. Sorry. I hate the ******* and I'm a big fan of Frazier, but he was up on the cards and nearly had Joe out of there in the 14th. That fight put the seal on his legacy.