BoxRec

Ali-Frazier I, March 8, 1971. I was in junior high school and had to cut lawns on weekends for a month to earn the $10 it cost to buy a ticket for the closed-circuit telecast at Memorial Arena in Victoria, British Columbia. I was already a hard-core fight fan, but this one took my appreciation of the sport to another level.
Where did YOU watch it??

- I didn't and these knitting grannies here would rather squabble over arcane fighters in grainy film patches.

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=245972

I was in a small community then, but I'd seen both train in Houston and Ali was magnificent in Shiny new Astro Hall where Joe in a seedy downtown gym could never match the golden magnificence of Ali. I was old enough to understand the fight would be hotly contested, hot enough for Ali and NOI to contest the result.

I read the newspapers, Ring, and Sports Illustrated and couldn't understand how Ali could lose to a vastly inferior physical speciman. In retrospect, tarring Joe as an Uncle Tom just made Joe that much more ferocious, and that herky jerky low profile bob and weave coupled with thunderous body shots chopped Ali down to size is the way I saw it yrs later.

Joe and his family took a lot of abuse over Ali's slurs. End of the day Joe has the best prime scalp in boxing in the most primal display of the sweet science I've ever watched, so now after he's long gone, his family can celebrate with a shiny new bronze in his gym.

It's crazy cos I remember the night that Lewis fought mason and it fell on the 20th anniversary of Ali vs Frazier 1 and the BBC produced a short on it (on youtube)...my goodness I remember the Lewis fight like yesterday and it's mad to think that the distance of time from then til to now is 30 years and when the mason fight was broadcast it was only 20years in time from ali vs frazier 1
As someone once hypothesized; the correlation between time and age is a matter of fractions....

I was a toddler. I never saw it live. But, in 1990, NBC Sports televised the videotape of the fight.

Marv Albert, and Ferdie Pacheco were revisting the fight with interviews to Ali and Frazier in between rounds.

Oh, what a fight! What a night! And I was not there to see it live. But, when you see the replay, you can feel the atmosphere of the event. I can imagine for those that saw the fight live on tv and at the same arena of Madison Square Garden were feeling.

It was the greatest fight of all-time. No doubt about that. Better than Ali-Frazier III, Duran-Leonard I, Louis-Conn I, better than any fight in history.

Both guys performed extraordinary. Ali on defeat was brilliant. But, it was Smokin' Joe's finest hour. It was the greatest boxing performance of all-time in my view.

The greatest fight that I have seen live:
Sugar Ray Leonard WTKO14 Thomas Hearns (I)

The greatest fight of my lifetime:
Joe Frazier W15 Muhammad Ali (I)

Can you imagine what numbers this fight would have done or what purses Frazier and Ali would have received had this fight taken place in the 21st century as opposed to 1971?

Quite simply the biggest fight ever.

Syntax Error wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 10:18 Can you imagine what numbers this fight would have done or what purses Frazier and Ali would have received had this fight taken place in the 21st century as opposed to 1971?

Quite simply the biggest fight ever.

They both got $2.5m each that fight..

Which is ONLY $16m today..

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 11:02

Syntax Error wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 10:18 Can you imagine what numbers this fight would have done or what purses Frazier and Ali would have received had this fight taken place in the 21st century as opposed to 1971?

Quite simply the biggest fight ever.

They both got $2.5m each that fight..

Which is ONLY $16m today..

I always Wonder about these inflation calculators...I know it takes in consideration everything but I bet you if you bout $2.5m of house in 1971 it would be worth more than $16 today...what do you reckon??

evrenb wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 11:12

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 11:02

Syntax Error wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 10:18 Can you imagine what numbers this fight would have done or what purses Frazier and Ali would have received had this fight taken place in the 21st century as opposed to 1971?

Quite simply the biggest fight ever.

They both got $2.5m each that fight..

Which is ONLY $16m today..

I always Wonder about these inflation calculators...I know it takes in consideration everything but I bet you if you bout $2.5m of house in 1971 it would be worth more than $16 today...what do you reckon??

You're right.

Based on that, it doesn't sound spectacular at all.

It just goes to show that both men were spectacularly underpaid.

Ali was 50 years ahead of his time in a promotional sense.

With his mouth allied to the internet, social media media and TV etc, he would add zeros to the overall numbers.

evrenb wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 06:24
As someone once hypothesized; the correlation between time and age is a matter of fractions....

Well I was eight and a half when this fight turned ten..and ten years ago sounded SOOO LONG AGO to me!!!

AntonioMartin wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 12:33

evrenb wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 06:24
As someone once hypothesized; the correlation between time and age is a matter of fractions....

Well I was eight and a half when this fight turned ten..and ten years ago sounded SOOO LONG AGO to me!!!

So you were born in 1972 lol

Syntax Error wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 11:41

evrenb wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 11:12

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 11:02

They both got $2.5m each that fight..

Which is ONLY $16m today..

I always Wonder about these inflation calculators...I know it takes in consideration everything but I bet you if you bout $2.5m of house in 1971 it would be worth more than $16 today...what do you reckon??

You're right.

Based on that, it doesn't sound spectacular at all.

It just goes to show that both men were spectacularly underpaid.

Ali was 50 years ahead of his time in a promotional sense.

With his mouth allied to the internet, social media media and TV etc, he would add zeros to the overall numbers.

My mother and father bought their family home in 1978 for £11000 ..now worth £500,000 So do the math there !!!

evrenb wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 13:51

AntonioMartin wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 12:33

evrenb wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 06:24
As someone once hypothesized; the correlation between time and age is a matter of fractions....

Well I was eight and a half when this fight turned ten..and ten years ago sounded SOOO LONG AGO to me!!!

So you were born in 1972 lol

I so was..lol!

Ole maannnn

This was one of the most important significant fights in the history of boxing. Two undefeated heavyweights battling it out in the most decorated well known centerpiece of the world New York City Madison Square Garden. It does not get any better than that. The fight itself turned out to be a classic. It lived up to the hype and then some. It was a highly competitive contest with both men giving everything they had. The crowd live and anyone viewing on closed circuit television did not leave disappointed. Joe Frazier fought the fight of his life and rightfully deserved the decision. Ali to his credit up until this time always was questioned about his heart people were not sure. This evening he silenced his critics and fought with heart and determination. The left hook Joe landed in the 15th round dropping Ali may have stopped anyone else but Ali finished strong and punching back. Yes a great encounter Joe Fraziers defining moment of his career. This was by far his greatest victory. I believe took more out of Joe Frazier than Muhammad Ali. The 50th anniversary both men have been deceased for many years now but this epic encounter will live on. It was truly one for the ages.

evrenb wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 13:52

Syntax Error wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 11:41

evrenb wrote: ↑08 Mar 2021, 11:12

I always Wonder about these inflation calculators...I know it takes in consideration everything but I bet you if you bout $2.5m of house in 1971 it would be worth more than $16 today...what do you reckon??

You're right.

Based on that, it doesn't sound spectacular at all.

It just goes to show that both men were spectacularly underpaid.

Ali was 50 years ahead of his time in a promotional sense.

With his mouth allied to the internet, social media media and TV etc, he would add zeros to the overall numbers.

My mother and father bought their family home in 1978 for £11000 ..now worth £500,000 So do the math there !!!

My mom and dad bought a house in the city no shack a large house for 10500.00 in 1965. It is worth well over 100 thousand today.

In honor of Joe's sensational victory, today I posted several additions to his amateur record here on BoxRec.

I saw the highlights of that unforgettable night and still blows me away. What a fight!

After that fight, Smokin' Joe was never the same.

elmersalsa wrote: ↑09 Mar 2021, 13:30 I saw the highlights of that unforgettable night and still blows me away. What a fight!

After that fight, Smokin' Joe was never the same.

They both weren't the same.

DrDuke wrote: ↑09 Mar 2021, 15:10

elmersalsa wrote: ↑09 Mar 2021, 13:30 I saw the highlights of that unforgettable night and still blows me away. What a fight!

After that fight, Smokin' Joe was never the same.

They both weren't the same.

I think that Smokin' Joe suffered the most

elmersalsa wrote: ↑09 Mar 2021, 15:35

DrDuke wrote: ↑09 Mar 2021, 15:10

elmersalsa wrote: ↑09 Mar 2021, 13:30 I saw the highlights of that unforgettable night and still blows me away. What a fight!

After that fight, Smokin' Joe was never the same.

They both weren't the same.

I think that Smokin' Joe suffered the most

He did.

He shouldn't even have fought this fight in the first place, so it's doubly remarkable that he put in the performance that he did.

He never hit the same heights again.

Ali suffered less, at least initially.

Ali went on to have a good 1972 and other great nights thereafter.

Syntax Error wrote: ↑12 Mar 2021, 01:38

elmersalsa wrote: ↑09 Mar 2021, 15:35

DrDuke wrote: ↑09 Mar 2021, 15:10

They both weren't the same.

I think that Smokin' Joe suffered the most

He did.

He shouldn't even have fought this fight in the first place, so it's doubly remarkable that he put in the performance that he did.

He never hit the same heights again.

Ali suffered less, at least initially.

Ali went on to have a good 1972 and other great nights thereafter.

It reminds me of the Julio Cesar Chavez vs Meldrick Taylor I fight. It would have been the case if Taylor would have survived the last round. He would have won by decision, but that fight took a lot out of him also. Ironically, Taylor and Smokin' Joe are from Philadelphia.

So, the case would have been, the Philly fighters won the fight, but they were never ever the same after their respective brutal contests.

Ali suffered ? Not career wise. He went on to notch his most impressive win over 3 and a half years later.

What I find incredible was that Ali was back in the ring just over 3 months later. Against Jimmy Ellis....unfathomable today. Considering what a major fight it was...