The legendary fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Joe Fraser: he never forgave Mohammed Ali for the rest of his life

In the photograph of Walter Yoss Jr., who recreated in a series of photographs the current face of the great confrontations, Ali is silent and looks into the camera with an unblinking gaze, standing next to Joe Frazier. That's it, the circle is closed, these two are side by side again, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. They can no longer, and do not want to, hate each other.

When Ali was stripped of his championship title and boxing license for refusing to join the US Army, Frazier, who had become a champion during Ali's absence from the ring, gave Ali money through his manager, asked President Nixon for him, and himself repeatedly emphasized that he did not consider himself the best - until he beats Ali.

In 1971, the fight contract was signed, and Ali declared himself Joe Frazier's enemy for the next 5 years. During these five years they will meet three times. In the first fight, Frazier knocked Ali down hard, the kind you usually don’t get back up from, and won on points. Almost three years later, Ali took revenge and paved the way for himself to regain the crown. He knocked out George Foreman, who the year before had proven too big, too strong and too tough for Frazier. But once again at the top, Muhammad discovered that his “friend” Joe Frazier was next in line.

The battle at the Araneta Coliseum in the capital of the Philippines was only the final chord of a war that had been going on since 1971.

On October 1, 1975, at 10:45 a.m. local time, the first gong sounded. Ali and Frazier met each other's eyes again and fought blow for blow. Breaking through Ali's hooks and jabs whistling at his temple and past his jaw, Frazier closed the distance, cut Ali off from space and drove him to the ropes. There Ali was forced to grab Frazier's arms and neck and hold him. Ali tried to move and throw quick series, but Frazier eventually ended up getting close. But at the entrance to the inside, having taken three or four heavy fast blows on defense and sometimes on the head, Joe was knocked out of the position to start the attack, and sometimes he was simply stunned and the referee again and again separated the fighters from the clinch.

Here Frazier throws two hooks - Ali turns sideways towards his opponent, and another blow follows - to the champion's kidneys. Ali winces in pain. This is no longer the old “fluttering” Ali, and he knows that his legs are not so fast and light, and will not be able to take him to a safe distance. He stays nearby and decides to take the fight. Joe hits brutally and very selectively - he plants uppercuts under the heart, in the liver area, then transfers the fire along the floors - up, to the head, and Ali is forced to grab him again and lightly press on the neck from above. A forbidden move, but the price of victory is too high. Ali knows that Frazier is also not young, he will soon run out of oxygen and slow down.

By the 13th round the fight turns into a massacre. Joe's right eye is swollen shut, the hematoma is filling with blood, and he cannot see the blows that are coming at the target from that side. Ali looks a little better, but any blow could break the last thread connecting his head to the central nervous system. But then a few right hands through the arm shake Frazier's head... Ali goes to his corner after the end of the 14th round on unsteady legs. In the opposite corner of the ring, Joe sucks in the heavy, hot air that contains more blood than oxygen and hears, “You can’t go on.” The corner keeps Frazier out for the 15th round.

After the fight, Ali called Joe's son, Marvis Frazier, to him and asked him to forgive him for everything said about his father before the fight. He found the strength to apologize to Joe only in 2001.

This story appeared in the magazine "BOXING RING" in November 2015.

In 1989, I sat on a hotel couch with Muhammad Ali and watched his record-breaking fight on October 1, 1975 against Joe Frazier.

Boxing fans know what happened on that hot and humid morning in Manila.

The early rounds were for Ali. He hit Frazier with more power and cleaner punches, and Joe rocked him several times. But Fraser continued to move forward inexorably.

The situation changed in the middle of the meeting. Ali is tired. Fraser struck him with lightning-fast blows. Muhammad grabbed his arms and Joe pushed him into the ropes where he hit him with punches.

Ali regained the lead in the 12th round, shaking Frazier and began to process rhythmically. In the next round, his left hook caught Joe's face. Frazier was hurt but finished the round.

In the 14th round, Ali resumed his attacks. Fraser's left eye was completely closed and his vision in his right eye was limited. He was spitting blood. Ali's blows were accurate. Joe couldn't see them.

Fraser's trainer, Eddie Futch, stopped the fight after the 14th round.

Associated Press boxing journalist Ed Schuyler later said: "" was the one I've ever seen. When everyone looked around the ring, I realized that I had witnessed something great. The pace was very high. It was hell from start to finish. I have never seen two boxers be able to do this, ever.”

Jerry Eisenbar journalist: “What happened was not just a fight for the heavyweight championship. Ali and Frazier were fighting for something much more important than that. They were fighting for a completely different title."

I saw a lot of tapes of meetings with Muhammad before watching Ali-Frazier III. We looked at his career chronologically and dedicated the book I wrote to "Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times".

But this time it was different.

Even though it was one of Muhammad's greatest triumphs, there was no joy on his face as we watched his third fight with Frazier.

In the past, we watched together as Henry Cooper delivered a perfect left hook to Cassius Clay. This seemed to amuse Muhammad.

But watching Ali-Frazier III, to be honest, Muhammad was hurt again. Sitting next to me, he winced when he missed some of the blows from Joe. When the fight was over, he turned to me and said: “Fraser went to the right before I did it. I don't think I could continue."

Joe had his own memories of Manila that he shared with me:

"We were gladiators". Fraser told me. “I didn't want any favors from him and he didn't ask me anything. I don't like him, but I have to say that in the ring, he acted like a human being. In Manila, I hit him hard, these blows could have destroyed the building. And he accepted them. He endured everything and answered. So I have to respect this man. He was a fighter. He hurt me in Manila. He won. But, I sent him home in worse condition than when he arrived."

Acquired his signature left hook thanks to a pig

American heavyweight boxer Joe Frazier has died at the age of 67. The famous boxer spent the last days of his life in a hospice in Philadelphia. A few weeks ago, Fraser was diagnosed with liver cancer, and there was little chance of recovery.
Joe Frazier retired from sports in 1981. In 1994, he played one of the main roles in Nick Stagliano's film Resident of Angels.
Joe Fraser was also fond of rock music and even organized his own group, “Knockouts,” which performed in nightclubs. Critics doubted the boxer's musical abilities, which, however, did not stop him from taking his hobby very seriously.
In the last years of his life, he was quite active, sometimes traveling around America and being present at iconic boxing matches. Shortly before his death - in September 2011 - he went to Las Vegas for the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz, where he eagerly signed autographs for his fans.
In amateur boxing, the legendary athlete reached the highest peak, becoming an Olympic champion in 1964. And then he held the title of the best professional boxer in the heavyweight division.
Fraser shone in the ring in the late 1960s and early 1970s, holding for several years simultaneously two world heavyweight champion belts (according to WBC and WBA). He defeated such famous athletes as Oscar Bonavena, Geri Quori, Jimmy Ellis.
Many experts consider the fights with Muhammad Ali in 1971-1975 to be the pinnacle of his career. In addition, Fraser fought twice in the ring with the great George Foreman - and lost both times.
In total, he had 37 fights in the professional ring, won 32 of them (27 by knockout), and lost four.
Joe Frazier's boxing style was tough and uncompromising. His signature blow - a left side kick - sent more than one opponent to the floor. Fraser himself once joked that he owed the “acquisition” of this blow to the pig that broke his left arm when he was a child. The hand was fused at an angle that allowed the blow to be struck along the optimal trajectory.
Joe Frazier has been named boxer of the year three times by The Ring magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). His fights against Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Jerry Quori were voted fights of the year.
In 1990, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and in 1998, The Ring ranked Frazier as the eighth greatest heavyweight of all time.

To get a boxing license, he deceived an ophthalmologist

The fight took place in incredible Philippine heat - more than 30 degrees. From the first to the fifth round, Ali had the advantage; from the sixth to the 11th, Frazier dominated.

In June 1976, a second fight took place between Frazier and George Foreman. Frazier lost by knockout in the 5th round. After this fight, he did not enter the ring for five years.

Uncle Tom vs Butterfly

The name of Joe Frazier, included in both Boxing Halls of Fame, is inextricably linked with the name of another ring master - Muhammad Ali. Frazier received the title of professional world champion in 1970 - after Ali was stripped of the title in 1967 for refusing to fight in Vietnam. In the fight for the world title, Frazier defeated Jimmy Ellis in New York.
However, many boxing fans did not recognize him, arguing that the real champion was Ali, who had then fallen out of favor. Frazier would not be himself if he avoided meeting with the supposedly real champion. He openly declared his readiness to meet with Mohammed and, as he later claimed, was at a reception with President Nixon on the issue of returning Ali's boxing license.

In March 1971, Smoking Joe beat the great Mohammed.

The unscrupulous Ali used Frazier to enhance his own fame. Those insults (“Uncle Tom”, that is, the lackey of the whites, and also “gorilla”, “freak”) that Ali threw at him earned him the reputation of a fearless warrior, eloquent and brilliant, and after that Joe had to wash himself off for a long time. Therefore, it is not surprising that Fraser spoke about Butterfly (as he called Ali for his famous saying: “I flutter like a butterfly and sting like a bee!”), to put it mildly, without reverence.
Ali was eloquent, handsome, boastful, bright and charismatic. Nature did not endow Fraser with any of these qualities. But he had a championship belt.
And so, in March 1971, a fight was held in New York between the current champion and the former but present champion (from his point of view). Called then and still called “the fight of the millennium.”
“At the beginning of the fight, Mohammed had the advantage and, as usual, showed off his best. He spoke nonsense and made faces. He was a master of these things, but they didn’t work on me,” Fraser said. - I entered the ring as if I was going to work. By the sixth or seventh round, when I had already started to break him, I remember he started up: “You’re cool, Joe, aren’t you? You're cool, right?" Towards the end he began to choke and said that he was dying. And I told him: “Man, you’re in the wrong place. This is not your place. I’ll wipe the floor with you.” There was always a lot of chatter in fights with Ali. The referee kept shouting: “Less talking, guys.”
In the 11th round, Frazier nearly knocked Ali out. For almost a minute he was hanging around the ring like he was drunk, but he never fell. In the 15th round, after Fraser’s trademark left side, Ali still fell - Joe became the first boxer who managed to defeat the “king of the ring.”
In January 1974, a year after losing his title to Foreman, Joe Frazier faced Ali a second time - and lost on points. The outcome of this battle is still considered controversial, and most experts are confident that the forces were equal.

"Thriller in Manila"

The last fight between two boxing superstars - Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali - took place on September 30, 1975 in the suburbs of Manila. This fight, called the "Thriller in Manila", went down in boxing history as one of the greatest and most brutal fights. Before the fight, Ali outdid himself with insults, rhyming “thriller,” “Manila,” and “gorilla,” by which he meant Frazier. It was disgusting, but most of the world laughed at Fraser along with their idol.
The fight took place in incredible Philippine heat - more than 30 degrees. From the first to the fifth round, Ali had the advantage; from the sixth to the 11th, Frazier dominated.

"Thriller in Manila" 1975

The last three rounds the boxers were so exhausted that they fought almost blindly, most of the blows did not reach the target. After the 14th round, Fraser's second showed him three fingers and asked him to count them. “One,” Joe croaked. The coach stopped the match, deciding not to risk the life of his ward. At this very moment, Mohammed was just asking his second to take off his gloves - he, too, was unable to continue the fight. Fraser was counted defeated. Muhammad Ali walked to the center of the ring and collapsed unconscious. “Hey, don't! I’ll deal with him now!” - Fraser wheezed. But the coach, wise Eddie Futch, said: “No, that’s it. No one will forget what you did today."
Yes, no one has forgotten what Fraser did back in Manila. “It was like death. I have never been closer to death,” Ali recalled.
In whose favor the fight would have ended if Fraser’s coach had not stopped him remains a question. “Thriller in Manila” received the status of “fight of the year” according to The Ring magazine.
“The most difficult opponent for me was not Ali, but Foreman,” said Joe Frazier. - I won against Ali, but not against George. But was I the most difficult for Butterfly? Don't know. He fought bigger guys than me. I was always too small for a heavyweight. He took his toll not so much with power, but with... guess what. With the heart, that's what. I went into every fight with one thought: “I’ll wipe the whole floor with them now!” This is what I took. This is probably why Ali had a hard time with me. He’s used to everyone being afraid of him.”
In June 1976, the second fight took place between Frazier and George Foreman. Frazier lost by knockout in the 5th round. After this fight, he did not enter the ring for five years.
In December 1981, Frazier returned to boxing. He entered the ring against the little-known Floyd Cummings. At the end of 10 rounds, the judges gave a controversial draw. After this fight, Joe Frazier finally retired from boxing.

Immediately after the fight in Manila, Ali began to apologize to Frazier for all his past antics and insults. He apologized to his son, to his friends, he apologized in his book, but he was never able to apologize to Fraser in person. “It was he who apologized to the newspaper, not to me,” said Joe, who never forgave Ali.
Even Parkinson's disease, which struck Butterfly, did not give Fraser a reason to relent. He caustically commented on any appearance of the trembling and silent Ali in public. When a shaking Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, Frazier sat at home and grumbled that he would have gladly pushed him into the torch: “It wasn’t boxing that did that to him, not boxing. It was his own life that punished him. His own life and this is the “greatest.” You have to pay for everything."

Roman KIM,
Russian Professional Boxing Federation (Moscow):

Joe Frazier was considered one of the best body punchers in the history of boxing, as well as the owner of the fastest and hardest left hook. His style is based on continuous pressure on his opponent; he seems to stick to his opponent, relentlessly following him throughout the entire space. In the legendary fight with Mohammed Ali, he won because Ali was always especially vulnerable to left blows, and Frazier just had the most deadly left hook, with which he knocked down Mohammed in the final 15th round. His coaching and promotional work, which he took up after completing his sports career, evokes great respect. For example, he raised his own son to be an excellent boxer.

Artyom BOGATOV,
marketing specialist (Irkutsk):

A legendary fighter who deserves great respect has died. I read Muhammad Ali's condolences to Frazier's family. I really want to believe that they are sincere... In any case, I will never forget how after the knockdown that Joe sent Ali to, the latter threw mud at the world boxing legend for many years. My personal opinion is that Joe has always been better than Ali. Fraser always remained a very decent person. And this is worth a lot. The fact that Joe personally asked the US President to allow Ali to fight him also speaks volumes. That fight between the two champions (as well as many others in which Smoking Joe participated) serves as a clear example for young boxers. And as long as this continues, great champions will live.

Pavel KOYKOV,
Head of Production, IP Lopatkin (Kirov):

Joe Fraser for me is, first and foremost, 1975's Thriller in Manila. It seems incredible how much strength, patience, perseverance in achieving goals, and the will to win in this and all other battles this man has. Muhammad Ali, of course, looks more presentable compared to the short, lively Frazier, but in terms of the entertainment value of the fight he is inferior to this tireless boxer. It seems that Joe simply does not notice the missed blows and cheerfully jumps around the ring throughout all rounds. Without a doubt, Frazier was still from that cohort of boxers who went out to fight, and not to earn money. Only a passionate person can fight with such dedication.

Alexander REMZHOV,
co-owner of the cafe "Marshal" (Kirov):

From time immemorial, strength and courage have been valued in any society. Gladiator fights have been a traditional spectacle of masculinity since ancient times. Today, one of the most popular incarnations of this spectacle is hand-to-hand combat called “boxing.” Joe Fraser was one of the most worthy representatives of his craft, who made more than one generation of people remember him. The courage of the man who stepped into the ring with one eye open against Muhammad Ali and won was truly admirable. May he rest in peace!

Vitaliy Klichko,
WBC world boxing champion:

Unfortunately, I did not know this great man personally. But I always treated him with great respect and am proud that today I own the title that at one time belonged to him. This is a great loss not only for his loved ones, to whom Vladimir and I express our sincere condolences, but also for all boxing fans. Together with Fraser, a whole era is leaving us. A generation of great boxers is passing away, on whose experience and achievements we were educated and, I am sure, young athletes will continue to be educated.

Sergey PLATONOV,
senior lecturer at the Department of Economics and Management in Construction (Irkutsk):

Great man and athlete. Joe Frazier will not only remain forever in the memory of the boxing community. He is history! We always look back to compare the present with history. And we compare with those who can be counted using the fingers of one hand: standards of excellent fighters, courage and character, something that we so lack today. And in the character of Fraser, the aspect of courage was especially important to me. This man was fearless and stood up in any situation. There are often difficult moments in life, and it is such people, being role models, who force you to get up and move on.

Today the great American boxer, WBC and WBA world heavyweight champion (1970-1973), 1964 Olympic champion Joe Frazier would have turned 71 years old.

ANGLE FOR LEFT HOOK

Turn your body to the left and then put all your power into a side kick with your left... The signature hook of Joe Frazier, Smoking Joe, so nicknamed by his manager Yank Durham for his ineradicable desire to “hit so that his gloves smoke.” How many great fighters, including the greatest Muhammad Ali, were killed by this main blow of Frazier, expected by his opponents, but, nevertheless, always unexpectedly arriving from his disguised confusion of attacks with both hands. A short side kick, delivered with the arm bent at the elbow, and a long one, Fraser’s favorite, the so-called “swing” (English: to swing), which determined the outcome of most of the 27 fights he won by knockout.

It is curious that Joe himself claimed that he received his signature blow from... a pig, and told a story about how once in childhood, while chasing pigs on his family's farm, he was knocked down by a huge hog and, in the fall, broke his left arm at the elbow. Then this arm fused incorrectly, as a result of which he could only straighten it at an angle. But the angle turned out to be ideal for a hook...

OLYMPIAN FROM GOD

The now deceased famous Soviet heavyweight, European ’65 champion Alexander Izosimov lived for 33 years with a thorn in his heart, regretting that it was not him, the USSR champion of 1964, who was in excellent shape, who was taken to the Olympic Games, but Vadim Emelyanov, who was not eligible that year. was even among the winners of the national championship. “I had a great chance to deal with Fraser there,” he asserted. And the head coach of the USSR national team, Viktor Ogurenkov, admitted more than once after Tokyo that 20-year-old Fraser did not look invincible there, despite the fact that he won three out of four fights by knockout , including against Emelyanov.

Who can tell now what Smoking Joe’s boxing fate would have been like if he had not won the Olympic Games, not to mention if he had not gone there at all. But they had to go there, since they lost the pre-Olympic qualifying fight to Buster Mathis, but the final coaching choice in favor of Joe was determined by the injury his competitor soon received. However, Fraser himself had a different opinion on this matter. He had no doubt that it was not the coaches who made him an Olympian, but God himself, who “figured it all out and understood who he needed most”:

Mathis didn’t want to train,” Fraser claimed. “I woke him up in the morning and dragged him for a run. I have always had an iron rule: three miles every morning. We started together, I ran a mile and a half one way, and on the way back I met him... God understood who I was, what I wanted and slowed down Mathis a little...

By the way, Fraser won the final Olympic fight against the German Hans Huber with a broken finger on his right hand...

THERE ARE NO CHAMPIONS WITHOUT VICTORY OVER CHAMPIONS

And five years later, on February 16, 1970, he became the world champion in the two most prestigious versions of professional boxing (WBA and WBC). More precisely, six years later - on March 8, 1971.... Oddly enough, but the answer to the question: “When did Fraser become the world champion? ”, indeed, causes difficulties even for specialists. He officially received this title on February 16, 1967, when he defeated the owner of these belts, Jimmy Elias, ahead of schedule. Joe entered that fight as a world champion... of New York State (by the way, he won this title against Buster Mathis, thereby taking revenge), with 24 fights in the professional ring (19 of which ended in a knockout) and zero in the “ defeat." Knocked down the technical Ellias twice, forcing him to refuse to continue the fight after the fourth round.

But the victory did not bring much joy to Frazier, since Elias was the so-called “paper champion”, having received the most prestigious WBA belt without a fight after it was scandalously taken away from Muhammad Ali, who was deprived of his boxing license for refusing to serve in the American army. What kind of champion are you without defeating a real champion? Moreover, against the backdrop of that truly champion charisma possessed by “the second man after the president” Mohammed Ali, Fraser’s serious passion for rock music with his own rather dubious musical abilities, aggravated by such performances of the “Knockouts” group he created, aroused most boxing fans, At the very least, bewilderment prevented them from recognizing the new champion.

Frazier understood this perfectly well, and was literally eager to fight, doing everything in his power to ensure that their meeting with Ali in the ring took place. Few people, for example, know that Smoking Joe, as the current world champion, obtained an audience with the then US President Richard Nixon and personally asked him to bring Muhammad Ali back to boxing. “If you want to fight this man, this is your rightful champion. “He’s yours!” - so, according to Frazier, Nixon answered him then, and this is the presidential “he’s yours!” provoked him even more. After this, the fight, which would later be called the “fight of the century,” simply could not fail to take place.

ANSWERED FOR “UNCLE TOM”

In anticipation of him, the country was divided into two camps. Everyone who protested against the war in Vietnam and generally protested against something (no matter what) was on Ali’s side, naturally considering Frazier and those who supported him to be traditionalists, although Frazier was not one. High-octane gasoline was added to the already brightly burning fire by Mohammed Ali, who, as Fraser aptly put it, spun the press as he wanted. What kind of offensive words did Smoking Joe hear from him! But everything went by, within the laws of the genre, until Ali, who was not shy about self-promotion methods, called his opponent Uncle Tom. This went straight to Fraser's heart. For these words, he hated Ali for the rest of his life, not forgiving him until his death, since a more offensive nickname, especially at that time, could not be invented: Uncle Tom for whites was a shameful label that was hung on all blacks who shied away from fighting for their rights. But Fraser was not like that.

“Boy of the Giants” took place on March 8, 1971 at New York’s famous Madison Square Garden (many, including the arena’s managers, believe that this fight is still the most prestigious event in its history). It should be noted that all the tickets were sold long before him, despite the record high prices.

After the first five relatively equal rounds, the advantage gradually began to pass to Frazier, who, showering his opponent's body with a hail of blows, patiently waited for him to finally lower his hands and open his jaw for his main left blow. And in the eleventh round, as it seemed to many, he waited until Ali, pressed against the ropes, missed two powerful left hooks to the head and staggered. His knees buckled, but by some miracle he survived. But only in order to delay the historical moment awaited by Fraser’s fans until the last fifteenth round. At the very beginning, Ali lowered his right hand to strike from below, having forgotten, apparently from fatigue, about Frazier’s “pig kick” that was in ambush. “I remembered” when I found myself on the floor for the first time in my career. He jumped up about “four”, but then in the remaining two and a half minutes he was already thinking only about not being knocked out before the end of the fight, the outcome of which was a foregone conclusion at that moment...

MOHAMMED ALI: “I WAS CLOSE TO DEATH”

Only after this fight did Smoking Joe become the undisputed champion in the eyes of everyone, even though he won, as many still said, if not a shadow, then only a worse version of Ali in the mid-60s. But this was not Fraser’s problem - he did his job honestly, he won with his heart, as he liked to say.

Then, having already lost his title in January 1973 in a fight against George Foreman, he would meet Muhammad Ali twice more. The last time was on October 1, 1975 in the Philippines, in a battle that went down in history under the name “Thriller in Manila.” Take the time, young generation of boxing fans, take a look: it can be easily found on the Internet. It was a tough fight in the terrible heat of two, albeit already aging at that time, but the greatest fighters. Mohammed Ali would later say that he would have been close to death, and Frazier, whose left eye was completely swollen (his right eye had poor vision before the fight), was not allowed out by the coach for the last fifteenth round...

“I won our second fight, despite the fact that Mohammed won it. “I would have won the third one if I hadn’t been stopped,” said Fraser, and he carried this belief that he had never lost to his main rival throughout his life, which ended on November 7, 2011 in one of the hospices in Philadelphia. Alas, his famous “swing” was powerless against liver cancer.

Recreating the current face of the great confrontations in a series of photographs, Ali remains silent and looks at the camera with an unblinking gaze, standing next to Joe Frazier. That's it, the circle is closed, these two are side by side again, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. They can no longer, and do not want to, hate each other.

Ali is as much a child of his era as the rebellious and protesting youth of the 60s, numerous fighters for their rights, the rock movement, huge cars that ate cheap gasoline, and Martin Luther King. A big wave was coming - and Ali, formerly known as Cassius Clay, was on its crest. His reputation was very bad, first and foremost he was "the man you love to hate" and only then "The Greatest". Now it doesn’t matter how or at what moment this happened - and much stranger characters turned out to be big heroes.

When Ali was stripped of his championship title and boxing license for refusing to join the US Army (Ali was not required to go to Vietnam and kill someone there), Frazier, who became a champion during Ali’s absence from the ring, transferred money to Ali through his manager, asked President Nixon for him and himself repeatedly emphasized that he did not consider himself the best - until he beat Ali. The friends chatted merrily and planned various PR campaigns, Ali ran to shout to Joe Frazier's audience, Frazier called the studio when Ali gave another live interview, but all this came to an end.

The battle at the Araneta Coliseum in the capital of the Philippines was only the final chord of a war that had been going on since 1971. The Cadillacs and Lincolns in which Ali's team was traveling had difficulty making their way through the crowds of people along the entire route, and Joe Frazier arrived and checked into the Hyatt almost unnoticed by anyone. The very first interview for the assembled press - and Ali takes out of his pocket (“I have no idea where he got this?” recalls his cutman Ferdy Pacheco) a small rubber figurine of a gorilla. And he repeats: “It will be murder, horror, and thriller when I get to this gorilla in Manila.” He started hitting this rubber toy, saying: “Hey, Joe, hi, gorilla! We are already in Manila! Then someone brought a five-foot monkey doll into the training room, and Ali beat it too. As if that wasn't enough, he showed up at Fraser's training session, insulted him at length while standing on the gym's balcony, and then threw a chair down. A few days before the fight, he came to Fraser’s hotel and threatened him with a pistol - as it would later turn out, a toy pistol, but Fraser had no time for jokes. “Hey, Joe, I’ll get you, I’ll shoot you!” Ali performed these antics every day, and did not admit out loud that he was doing this only in order to at least slightly drown out his fear, gain self-confidence and deprive his opponent of it.

On October 1, 1975, at 10.45 am local time (the fight was broadcast to the whole world via satellite, and this time was optimal for Europe and the USA), the first gong sounded. Ali and Frazier met each other's eyes again and fought blow for blow. Breaking through Ali's hooks and jabs whistling at his temple and past his jaw, Frazier closed the distance, cut Ali off from space and drove him to the ropes. There Ali was forced to grab Frazier's arms and neck and hold him. Ali tried to move and throw quick series, but Frazier eventually ended up getting close. But at the entrance to the inside, having taken three or four heavy fast blows on defense and sometimes on the head, Joe was knocked out of the position to start the attack, and sometimes he was simply stunned and the referee again and again separated the fighters from the clinch.

Here Frazier throws two hooks - Ali turns sideways towards his opponent, and another blow follows - to the champion's kidneys. Ali winces in pain. This is no longer the old “fluttering” Ali, and he knows that his legs are not so fast and light, and will not be able to take him to a safe distance. He stays nearby and decides to take the fight. Joe hits brutally and very selectively - he plants uppercuts under the heart, in the liver area, then transfers the fire along the floors - up, to the head, and Ali is forced to grab him again and lightly press on the neck from above. A forbidden move, but the price of victory is too high. Ali knows that Fraser is also not young, he will soon run out of oxygen, and he will slow down... Ali says: “Joe, they told me that you are already finished!” Frazier lands a left hook that nearly takes Ali's head off and responds, "They tricked you, champ, they tricked you..."

By the 13th round the fight turns into a massacre. Joe's right eye is swollen shut, the hematoma is filling with blood, and he cannot see the blows that are coming at the target from that side. Ali looks a little better, but any blow could break the last thread connecting his head to the central nervous system. But then a few right hands through the arm shake Frazier's head... Ali goes to his corner after the end of the 14th round on unsteady legs. “Cut them, take them off!” he says to Angel Dundee, pointing to the gloves. He's ready to give up. He doesn't want to continue. In the opposite corner of the ring, Joe sucks in the heavy, hot air that contains more blood than oxygen and hears, “You can’t go on.” Too much effort has been given. Too much hate. Too much drama. The corner keeps Frazier out for the 15th round.

Suffering from Parkinson's disease, almost unable to speak or move on his own, Muhammad Ali himself became a monument and a living reminder of Thriller in Manila. A sad monument to hatred, cruelty and inhuman will.

“Well, Butterfly and I knew different times. There were a lot of emotions then. But I forgave him. I had to. You can't keep this to yourself forever. There were scars on my heart, I dreamed for years that it would hurt... It's time to end this. We needed each other to give you one of the greatest fights in history." Joe Fraser.

Perhaps both of these vindictive and bellicose gentlemen are not paragons of virtue. But we should give them credit - they both held on until the last.