... between how Ali and Frazier looked early in FOTC and how they looked early in Manilla? [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncn5i1ExD-0&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxyZbAdhVfY&feature=related[/ame]
In the FOTC, both started out much more actively. Each was pulling the trigger. Ali started out round one dancing, and made liberal use of his popping jab and combinations. Manila was very different. Frazier did next to nothing in round one. Ali was flatfooted, and he was only using his left as an extended measure for the right, which he was teeing off with. Near the end of the opening stanza, he was actually battering Joe against the ropes. While Muhammad admitted that he was looking to win a decision over the distance in the FOTC, he started out shooting to kill in Manila. His initial volume of blows in the FOTC was impressive, but he wasn't bracing himself to unload bombs like he did from the outset in Manila. Seeing Frazier against the ropes near the close of the first three minutes was an unexpected and surreal sight. Ultimately, those rights of Ali's did lead to a stoppage win, as Joe's good eye was swollen to the point he couldn't see them coming. Muhammad knew from their second match that he could stagger Frazier early, and was trying to repeat the success he had late in round two of that middle bout.
Yeah, Ali starts off very well and picks his shots intelligently. My earlier feeling was that he wasn't quite as careful with picking his shots in FOTC, but viewing it again I think it's mainly Frazier's slower pressure in Manilla that's the difference. In FOTC he's forced much more to punch just to keep Joe off of him.
Joe's body was breaking down by Manila, and it also seems to me that he may have been respecting Ali's power more. Muhammad did a good bit of back foot and off the ropes pitty patting in the FOTC, but those lead rights to start Manila were not patty cake efforts. Later in this war, Ali shows surprising infighting ability, repeatedly spinning a slowly advancing Smoke's head with multiple hooks out of the corner. This wasn't a run and chase, but trench warfare, where Muhammad could make Joe pay for every inch of territory gained in a fighting retreat.
Yeah, one gets that feeling In the early rds of FOTC, Ali lands bombs, though. The pitty pats came later. Somehow Joe walked through those bombs. Something must have broken inside him as a result. He never showed that kind of punch resistance again, I'd say. That's one of the most interesting things with the fight. When Ali wasn't allowed to just hold, he showed the ability to actually fight on the inside. His ability to do that was very important for the outcome.
Carlos Padilla may have been Joe's best friend in Manila aside from Futch, not allowing Ali to hold as was his wont, forcing Muhammad to win by more legal means. Upon Ali's resignation of his WBA Title in 1979, Cosell asked him what he considered to be his best fight (as opposed to his peak performance), and he replied that he indeed considered Manila to have that distinction, indicating that he might not have thought himself capable of sustaining the extended punch rate and potency he brought forth in that classic. In reviewing Terrell with Cosell in 1967, he said that he danced to conserve energy, that it was punching which wore him down. In Manila over eight years later, he defeated what he thought to be his own physical limitations with respect to prolonged offensive output. Frazier needed Ali to become rich. Muhammad needed Joe to become great, and Smoke forced him to pull it out of his gut in the Philippines.
Yeah, considering all the aspects he showed in terms of skill and character I agree that this was his greatest fight. He really did it all in this one.
I know punch stats for both the FOTC and Manila have been analyzed and compiled, but haven't been able to locate them in a quick search spurred by our discussion here. Ibeabuchi-Tua did surpass the two fighter total for Manila, but I believe the total for Ali was a startlingly higher figure than for any of his other bouts.
