BoxRec

gilgamesh wrote: ↑06 Oct 2025, 17:55 Plus given where they were in the fight. They had given Joe every opportunity to fight back into the fight. Futch is a lifetime Boxing man. He knew what he had in Joe. A warrior who was beaten, couldn't see, but would rather die than admit he was beaten. Futch wasn't going to let him die, and Thank God for that.

Precisely.

yeah, but it has been reported in some places that Muhammad Ali didn't even want to even go out for the 15th round.
If so, Joe Frazier would have been awarded the fight.
But what if simultaneously* both of the corners had told the referee that their fighters weren't coming out for the 15th?
Would that fight have been declared a draw ?

* that just may have been the longest word that I have ever posted on this board in 20 years !

Caractacus wrote: ↑07 Oct 2025, 13:04 yeah, but it has been reported in some places that Muhammad Ali didn't even want to even go out for the 15th round.
If so, Joe Frazier would have been awarded the fight.
But what if simultaneously* both of the corners had told the referee that their fighters weren't coming out for the 15th?
Would that fight have been declared a draw ?

* that just may have been the longest word that I have ever posted on this board in 20 years !

That's actually a really good question

I'd think it'd just be a case of which corner the referee happened to have heard first. He can't be in both corners at the same time.

Yeah, but what if the ref had a (secret) favorite of the two ?

BTW what were u all doin' 50 years ago this month ?

gilgamesh wrote: ↑07 Oct 2025, 13:28

Caractacus wrote: ↑07 Oct 2025, 13:04 yeah, but it has been reported in some places that Muhammad Ali didn't even want to even go out for the 15th round.
If so, Joe Frazier would have been awarded the fight.
But what if simultaneously* both of the corners had told the referee that their fighters weren't coming out for the 15th?
Would that fight have been declared a draw ?

* that just may have been the longest word that I have ever posted on this board in 20 years !

That's actually a really good question

I'd think it'd just be a case of which corner the referee happened to have heard first. He can't be in both corners at the same time.

Boxing being the way it is, after 14 hellacious rounds, they’d probably call it a no contest.
Bring on number 4. Full speed ahead!

Caractacus wrote: ↑06 Oct 2025, 14:05 What if Eddie Futch had said to Joe Frazier at the end of the 14th round.
Okay, if you really wanna do it then , YOU'R OWN YOUR OWN -THEN GO BABY GO !!
(IMOP ,that really crushed and haunted Joe Frazier for the rest of his life that his corner stopped it).

He didn't really complain when it happened. Or when talking right after the fight.

Joe Frazier or Eddie Futch ?
Joe Frazier had said 'Dont stop it boss"
when Eddie Futch told him that he was going to stop it.

ever wonder how many of the aprx 27,000 people there
at Quezon City stadium who were in the same building as the fight was going on are still around ?
(including food vendors and janitors who were too busy to watch the fight other then an occasional glance toward the ring)

Caractacus wrote: ↑08 Oct 2025, 12:10 ever wonder how many of the aprx 27,000 people there
at Quezon City stadium who were in the same building as the fight was going on are still around ?
(including food vendors and janitors who were too busy to watch the fight other then an occasional glance toward the ring)

I often wonder that when I see footage of classic old events.

anyone here know of anyone who saw Ali vrs Frazier III on closed-circuit ?
( where they actually had to leave the house go downtown and go to a theater or arena to watch it ?
I remember I had to find a radio station to listen what was going on, when they had someone
at the closed-circuit theater phone the radio station as to the action after about every other round.
here is a song that was still getting a lot of airplay on the radio station IN 1975.

Ali vrs Frazier III was scheduled for 10:45 am in the morning.
here was the preliminary. Larry Holmes vrs Rodney Bobick.

Here are the names of some of the 27,000 who are still around to have seen the 50th anniversary of the fight.

Don King (94 yrs)
Carlos Padilla jr. (91 yrs)
Woody Allen (89 yrs)
Dustin Hoffman (88 yrs)
Barbra Streisand (83 yrs)
Diana Ross (81 yrs)
Walt "Clyde" Frazier (80 yrs)
Larry Holmes (75 yrs)
Rolando Navarrete (68 yrs)
Marvis Frazier (65 yrs)

Caractacus wrote: ↑08 Oct 2025, 12:16 anyone here know of anyone who saw Ali vrs Frazier III on closed-circuit ?
( where they actually had to leave the house go downtown and go to a theater or arena to watch it ?
I remember I had to find a radio station to listen what was going on, when they had someone
at the closed-circuit theater phone the radio station as to the action after about every other round.
here is a song that was still getting a lot of airplay on the radio station IN 1975.

I travelled from my home town to London (40 miles) to watch the fight on closed circuit at the cinema.
What a night...what a fight!

It was also televised live on HBO. Almost nobody had HBO at the time.

yeah, you had to live in town to even get cable TV back in 1975.
( I remember seeing commercials for HBO on TV for the first time then)
Anyone remember it being broadcast a week or so later on ABC-TV Wide World of Sports ?
for some reason I don't, I do remember reading in the entertainment sections of newspaper ,it being shown at movie theaters a week later as a co-feature in some of the larger cities.

Remember for the really Big Fights back in the 1970's and early 1980's,
if you couldn't get to town to see it yourself at the closed-circuit theater/arena for some reason
(mainly for a lack of $$$ and a car)
you had to listen to a radio station and they had someone there at the closed-circuit
theater to give up-dates during between (some) of the rounds
(as they didn't have cell phones back then in 1975, so the person from the radio station who was there had to go to the lobby to use the pay-phone and then relay it back to the radio station then the guy at the radio station would inform the listeners !

and here is one of the songs you would most likely be listining to in between rounds back in October 1975 !

another one that Joe Frazier had "Boogied on Down to" in Manilla before the fight(probably)
matter of fact, I would not be surprised if the O'Jays themselves were there in Manilla along with
Joe Frazier because they came from Philadelphia too !

and you had better best believe, as Joe Frazier was coming down the isle
to get into the ring with Ali for the 3rd time-he had the answer to Ali's "Jive-talkin" (a left hook for sure !

here is the HBO "LIVE" broadcast October-1-1975


I don't think most of the people in America (like myself )had gotten to see the "Thrilla in Manila"
until ABC-TV had shown the fight in it's entirety several months later (from a different angle of the ring)
(on ABC-TV Wide world of Sports-Sunday January-11-1976 !

BIG FIGHT:Ali vrs Frazier III (23 minutes) played with this feature only a week later at the cinemas across the USA.