Ali v Frazier - 'It was like death. Closest thing to dyin' that I know of'

[RandySF]

Ali was in control in the early rounds, but Frazier refused to yield ground, coming on through the champion's punches, bullying him back to the ropes. Ali was impressed. In a clinch, he muttered to Frazier: "Joe, they told me you was all washed up." Frazier growled back: "They lied."

By the fourth round Ali's punches had lost zip. He was tiring. The heat, the bright lights, the muggy, oxygen-deprived atmosphere and Frazier's toughness were wearing him down. The exchanges proceeded with such brutal intensity that questions hung in the air. How much more could Frazier take? How much more did Ali have left? Frazier had trained to go 15 hard rounds if necessary. Ali had expected an early finish. But round six passed and Frazier was still there in front of him and, worse, now coming at him, unleashing damaging hooks to the body.

Ali was to say later: "Man, I hit him with punches that would bring down the walls of a city. Lordy, he's great! Joe Frazier is one hell of a man. If God ever calls me to a holy war, I want Joe Frazier fighting beside me."

Both men continued to batter each other with such relentless savagery that you began to fear for their lives, marvel at their courage, the extent of their will to win. In round 12 Ali regained the initiative, staggering Frazier again. In round 13, a jolting left hand sent Frazier's gumshield spinning into the crowd. He was spitting blood. His left eye was completely closed and his right eye was closing. He could no longer block or evade Ali's blows.

After the end of round 14, Futch stopped the fight. "I was thinking about Joe's family, how much they loved him," Futch told me shortly before his death three years ago. "People still ask me why I pulled Joe out when there were only three minutes left. My answer has never changed. I tell them that I'm not a timekeeper. I'm a handler of fighters."


http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/boxing-ali-v-frazier-it-was-like-death-closest-thing-to-dyin-that-i-know-of-316051.html

[denbot]

1. .

[NBachers]

2. I remember listening to this fight on the radio. I lived in Miami at the time. I remember thinking

that neither fighter would be the same after this battle. It seemed like they both took so much out of each other, that they'd never recover to the men they'd been before.