How 'Thrilla in Manila' changed Ali, Frazier forever

NAMPA/REUTERS Mohammed Ali's blows had swollen Joe Frazier's right eye nearly shut, and he was nearly blind in his left due to a training injury. His face soaked in blood, Frazier argued with his trainer Eddie Futch to let him come out for the 15th round, but Futch stopped the fight. Later, it was revealed that Ali himself wanted to quit.His biographer Thomas Hauser told the 2008 documentary that at the end of the round, an Ali cornerman heard the champion telling trainer Angelo Dundee to “cut 'em (gloves) off”. Never the same again“Round 14 was the closest I've seen somebody come to killing somebody,” Ali's fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco told the documentary makers. But after the Thrilla, “both men were never the same again”, said Nick Giongco, a sports analyst at the Manila Bulletin. He said that although Ali would defend his world title a further six times, and regain it in a rematch after losing to Leon Spinks in 1978, the self-styled “Greatest of All Time” never fully recovered from the “brutal beat down” Frazier had inflicted. Ali would finally hang up his gloves in 1981 aged 39, following consecutive losses to Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. He retired with a win-loss record of 56-5. The “Louisville Lip” died nearly four years ago after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Last fights “Smokin' Joe” (32-4-1) fought only twice more after the Manila epic, being stopped by Foreman for a second time in 1976 before coming out of retirement five years later to draw with the unheralded Floyd Cummings over 10 rounds. Frazier died in 2011.

How 'Thrilla in Manila' changed Ali, Frazier forever

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-12

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How 'Thrilla in Manila' changed Ali, Frazier forever

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-12

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