Malaysia 1975. A thread concerning Muhammad's fight with Jimmy Ellis recently appeared,which doesn't get discussed that much. Same with this fight. I see it as being Ali's second best performance out of his second title reign's defences. The first one obviously being Manila.
Remarkably, the first title defense of his second reign against a challenger younger than himself. Bugner made Ali do most of the work in the midday Kuala Lumpur blast furnace, and Muhammad delivered, storming Joe against the ropes, then clinching to prevent counters. Ali also opened the fourth round with an excellent three punch combination downstairs which Don Dunphy (right below the corner where that action occurred) described as "solid thumps!" Muhammad didn't go to the body much, but he would if it was offered to him, and Bugner's torso was targeted by him the most since Blue Lewis. Joe took all the post fight heat from the British press for boxing his only world title challenge in survival mode. Ali at his very best never could have knocked out a defensively oriented Bugner, but Muhammad took the initiative from the outset in Malaysia, led from wire to wire, and I've never read or heard significant criticism of his performance there. (It was suggested even during the match that he might attack Joe's body more than he did, but this couldn't have significantly altered the outcome. Bugner had come through Frazier's body attack in good order, and Ali had to do what he did best with the situation which presented itself.) For all the talk of the rope-a-dope, Ali did remarkably little of it between Kinshasa and Manila.
I recall watching this fight as if it were yesterday. Harry Carpenter on the BBC mentioned that it was Ali's best performance since the Foreman fight.
Great performance in the searing heat against a quality boxer who could have beat some of the alphabet champs that followed him.
Thirty years later, you could still get in a taxi in Kuala Lumpur and find the taxi driver wanted to talk about that event. For those who want to see that fight online, here's a link to my (free) Daily Motion channel: This content is protected The first fight is also on that channel.
