The better fight: Fight of the Century or Thrilla in Manilla?

Great thread again.You guys are excellent.This is why the Classic is so much better than the General.

 

Right, but he seemed to not particular like a lot of people. Patterson included. It was mostly the whole "uncle tom" thing. But Ali grew and later realized that all white men weren't the devil and such. He matured and got wiser. Still, I don't think he hate Frazier. I think it's more of a 1 sided hate with Ali clowning like usual. If he hates Frazier, then he hates a lot of fighters. It was Frazier who took it the worse and certainly hates Ali still. Dundee says Ali had zero malice.

This blanket statement doesn't do much. Maybe he presented this in some case, especially that show he had on Parkinson's in 74. But really, what makes you truly believe he hated Joe and specifically Joe. Do you think he hated other fighters too? Joe seemed to take it the worst, Ali clowned a lot with everyone. I'm curious to your insight on this.

As for the thread. Somewhat surprised by the results so far. Most people I've heard/seen downplay the actual fight as if it were some sort of letdown because the event was huge. In my opinion the fight is underrated, so ESB must think the same with me on this. Most I think consider the 3rd the best fight, at least I thought so.

 

That's your opinion. :happy

I mean really, you give this whole essay response to a sentence with 5 words in it and how he didn't hate him.

 

:-((

That hurts. But in all seriousness, Ali didn't hate Frazier. And that's a fact!

Whoops, see how I did that? And just because you believe otherwise doesn't change the fact that it's a fact. How do you like that?

And it's my opinion that Joe Frazier could beat Muhammad Ali in a 100 yard dash. And it's also my opinion that Thomas Hearns could bench press more than George Foreman! :happy

 

I prefer the 3rd fight. Even though they weren't the same in 75' as they were four years earlier, I think that's part of the reason the action was even better IMO in Manila.

There was the atmosphere of the first fight being between two undefeated "champs", the political backdrop and everything, but that doesn't affect my experience of watching the fight as I wasn't even alive then.

 

Yeah, like people who voted for 74 Ali to beat peak Frazier. :yep

 

Bill's another who deifies Ali on an embarrassing level and who can't see that his posts on Ali are exactly the same bias as the Frazier ones he's having a go at. He's so upset he's done an Ali 67 vs Frazier 71 poll to feel better.

 

I don't think he hated him either.

 

While I agree with you in general that the skill level was somewhat higher in FOTC and that Manilla makes up for this with brutality (but also excitement), I actually think Ali took more clean shots in FOTC. That's actually the fight I feel he takes the most unnecissary shots since he insists on keeping his hands low, as if it's still 1967.

 

Yeah, Manilla was one bridge too far for both. The brutality of FOTC is bad enough, so to get a sickening feeling of seeing two great fighters wrecking irrevocable damage on each other in Manilla is a sound reaction, I'd say. These fights are both boxing at its best and its worst. Especially Manilla.