British posters:More 4 Tues 11th, ten pm - A documentary about the Thrilla in Manilla

Thanks very much for the heads up .I was surprised at Frazier's condition and his financial circumstances don't look to prosperous either, a great shame, he certainly earned every cent he got .It's a pity he and Ali are not reconciled ,but you can understand his bitterness, some of Ali's comments were unforgivable.Ali looked like he was ready to drop after the 13th rd,he underestimated Frazier's determination and courage ,and nearly paid the price.
I think a comment of Ali's says it all "I couldnt be who I am without him and he couldn't be who he is without me".They defined each other as warriors ,but ruined each other as boxers.

 

I was very surprised at his derogatory comments about Frazier.

 

Great archival footage.It repeats tonight,but I hope I can catch it at a later date.

 

What did he say? I missed it.

 

Pacheco said that stuff, i never expected that, he was a friend of Ali and you can understand his bias, but think about this, none of Frazier's side had anything derogatory to say of Ali, and you'd think that Marvis especially, would have a little bit of a rite to.

Frazier's people seemed a lot nicer about it.

 

Called him very dumb, and said the toy gorilla that Ali had for the Manila fight was ugly as hell ,and looked just like Frazier,now apart from the racial overtones ,and the fact that Fraziers face understandably has some wear and tear on it now he is 63 and had all those wars ,I thought he had a rather pleasant face when he was young ,it is unpalatable to hear a guy who had the advantages of a college education and the security of a profession for an occupation ,to be casting slurs on a blue collar guy who made his was through life putting his heart and soul on the line.

 

Pacheco's comments about Frazier being dumb and the way he delivered those comments were remarkably unpalatable IMO.

He was revelling in agreeing that Frazier was ugly and looked like a Gorilla.

And then, in light of these comments, when he says the 14th round of Manila was what boxing is all about, you have to wonder whether he simply means he loved seeing frazier getting pummelled.

 

is there any way for Americans to watch this?

 

great programme, just finishing watchin it on plus 1, great invention by the way. two , true legends.

 

Pacheco was very ignorant to the interviewer when questioned were asked. Old age is obviously getting to Pacheco.

"Manila is a very odd place to stage a fight is it not?" Then Pacheco loses the place and starts questioning what the interviewer knows about boxing. Perfectly legitimate question and not a dumb one.

I liked how it lasted two hours, rather than the usual one for most boxing documentaries. And they crammed in quite a lot and never spoke about the same scenario for too long.

This documentary was pieced together over a period of time. At the end of it Frazier revealed his age as 63 years, which means it was finished last year as he turned 64 in January this year.

Most of what was revealed I already knew.

 

Although not contained in the documentary, I agree with Pacheco regarding his decision to leave Ali's camp after Manila. He a letter to three or four members of the camp, Ali included, with test results which showed Ali's liver was falling to pieces. And he recieved nothing back from any of them. They were all in denial.

I'm shocked as to why Ali deciding to continue fighting after the Holmes farce. You can question why he came back after a few showings, post Manila. But I have never seen a fighter look so useless throughout a fight, considering it went a few rounds to show what he had left. It wasn't a one round blowout. He blamed his performances on thyroid pills and losing too much weight. To make another comeback against Berbick was stupid. And what makes it more stupid is that Berbick never even had a title. When Ali decided to fight Holmes after two years in retirement it was the challenge of winning the title for the 4th time which got his juices flowing, although money also played a major reason.


He calls Frazier dumb.

 

The Hauser biography of Ali says Pacheco left after the Shavers fight.No?

 

Correct. I should have known as I've been reading bits over the last week or so from the Hauser biography. And I happened to read that part just last week come to think of it. My opinion on Pacheco's decision still stands the same. Cheers for the correction.

He did leave after Manila as I stated, but you picked up on it that I meant right after that fight.

 

I recorded it all and it started at 10pm until 11.55pm. It showed that after the adverts were edited out, precisely as well, that it lasted 1hr 30 mins on my timer.