Happy “Thrilla in Manila” day everyone!!!
It’s been 50 years to this day, since Ali defeated Joe Frazier in the 3rd and final fight of their epic trilogy.
The greatest trilogy of all time.
No other “3 piece” had as much talent, “ebb and flow”, ability, savagery, knowledge… than October 1, 1975.
Ali and Frazier both, are the absolute epitome of a true fighter.
When they stepped into the ring they both became Archetypes… symbols of man’s ability to endure… Literally willing to die in order to win.
This fight is almost impossible to explain… It’s incredibly complex and multi layered… Physically, emotionally and mentally.
2 heavyweights, with power, hitting each other with the endurance of lightweights… Over 15 rounds… Once the middle rounds hit and the horse hair gloves parted like the red sea, it was practically bare bones raking one another’s skulls…
Their knuckles hurt and they still beat one another.
The heart of both Ali and Frazier cannot be measured.
Who can fight when they’re tired? Who does that?
The saying goes, “fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
Not Ali and not Frazier.
When you’re tired… You barely remember the rules. The stores and the shelves are empty… there is no energy to recharge the effort… So the brain takes over.
The brain taking over when you’re tired is a study in frustration. You’re too close to the surface… You feel pain… Your instincts go haywire. Instinct cannot comprehend.
Both fighters tapped into what they are. What they used to be and used up everything they had left for this fight.
This should’ve’ been Ali’s last fight.
Should’ve been Joe’s as well.
But when you fight on heart, whom you really are becomes so apparent… and if you know boxing, that’s when you see the true beauty of Ali and Frazier both.
The superficial damage to their faces didn’t tell the real story of the abuse to their brains… The snuffing out of their vital synapses.
The neurons that can never be reignited.
The very thing that fighters today refuse to put on the line wasn’t even a negotiation point back then.
It wasn’t a sport. It was a real fight.
Just your fists.
That’s what’s so amazing about boxing. The limitation. The fight’s limitations cause primitivism and at the same time intelligence… magnificent creativity.
For me “The Thrilla” is a very hard fight to watch. Even to this day. I loved both fighters equally.
I was a newspaper boy… Delivered the Vancouver Province and the Sun… as well as the Richmond Review… I saw the results.
These fights won’t happen again… Fighters today are technical… measured… unwilling to gamble their life.
Who could blame them. We’ve all seen the ramifications of taking one too many.
But again… their greatness. Don’t tell me about most guys who fight out of the seat of luxury. They’re more an opportunist than a fighter.
Ali/Frazier… That’s the core.