The Thrilla in Manila and Rumble in the Jungle title fights both had an audience of over 1 billion

One word took it all away:

PPV

 

He doesn't know Don King , Ali , Foreman and Frazier. He is just a boy....

 

Weren't Ali and Elvis the two most famous people?

 

Boy what an Era though...We may never see the likes of it again.!!!

 

World population in 1974 was 3.9 billion.

Only half of them were men 1.95 billion.

Majority of people lived in poor countries like Russia, China, India, Nigeria etc having higher priorities than sport, like just trying to stay alive, feed their family, and not starve to death, so no 1 billion people obviously did not watch those fights.

 

And back then there were still lots and lots of ppl who didnt have televisions plus the fight wasnt televised in most countries.

Not even The World Cup final between Germany and the Netherlands that year had one billion watching and we are talking about the most important event in the most popular sport in the world that was surelly televised in more countries than the thrilla.

All things considered theres absolutelly no way there was one billion ppl watching that fight live and whoever believes that is delusional to say the least.

 

Watched it loads of times a couple of decades ago.
Big difference from a large crowd gather around Ali, and 1 billion people watching the fight, mathematics and logic prove it to obviously be far less than that.

 

If Ali had PPV available when he was fighting his numbers would have been untouchable.

 

Ali was The Greatest.

His stardom worldwide cannot even be compared to anyone on the planet today, much less any athlete and definitely much less any boxer.

 

I call BS. Typical Yankee propaganda.

 

They were both outdoors, plenty of room.

 

Ali was from Louisville.

He wasn’t a yankee.

 

Numbers inflated. No way 1/3 of planets population watched it.

 

Even if the numbers are real, the only legit reason is that it was broadcasted for free.