Thrilla in Manilla - That should never happen again.

[Heckler]

I just watched Manila again and i hope that a fight that brutal never occurs again. The amount of punishment dished out. The amount of punishment Ali took in the mid rounds was simply ridiculous. The later rounds in particular the 14th round is hard to watch, the number of unanswered right hands and flurries Joe took to the head whilst defenseless and essentially blind... im suprised he didn't incur major neurological damage himself. Joe's knees buckled multiple times, those punches just keep coming and you could see the blood flying... that fight should of been stopped then and there. Anyone that criticizes Futch for stopping that fight is nuts, another 3 minutes of that treatment and he mighta died. Frazier is definately, on par with a few others the toughest man to ever step between those ropes. He is one of the most underrated HW's of all time, and the lack of respect he gets is just bull****.

[Yogi]

That fight was obviously quite brutal, especially the last few rounds of it when Ali really laid into Frazier and hurt him with what seemed to be every punch that he landed...But unlike yourself, Heckler, I'd personally LOVE to see as many fights like that as possible, because there's nothing like seeing two fighters (especially high quality fighters) lay everything on the line in hopes that they're the one with their hand raised at the end of the night.

[Heckler]

I didn't mind it until the latter rounds. When a fighter is defenseless, and recieving multiple unanswered blows, knees buckling... its time to call it a night.

Look whats happened to fighters like gerald mcclellan.

[Southpaw Stinger]

That fight was obviously quite brutal, especially the last few rounds of it when Ali really laid into Frazier and hurt him with what seemed to be every punch that he landed...But unlike yourself, Heckler, I'd personally LOVE to see as many fights like that as possible, because there's nothing like seeing two fighters (especially high quality fighters) lay everything on the line in hopes that they're the one with their hand raised at the end of the night

Damn right! I would pay a lot to see fights like that. Nothing beats it, two old rivals meeting for the final time in a brutal war that displays skill and bravery. Beats watching 12 rounds of Williams vs Harrison staring at each other...

[smasher]

I just watched Manila again and i hope that a fight that brutal never occurs again. The amount of punishment dished out. The amount of punishment Ali took in the mid rounds was simply ridiculous. The later rounds in particular the 14th round is hard to watch, the number of unanswered right hands and flurries Joe took to the head whilst defenseless and essentially blind... im suprised he didn't incur major neurological damage himself. Joe's knees buckled multiple times, those punches just keep coming and you could see the blood flying... that fight should of been stopped then and there. Anyone that criticizes Futch for stopping that fight is nuts, another 3 minutes of that treatment and he mighta died. Frazier is definately, on par with a few others the toughest man to ever step between those ropes. He is one of the most underrated HW's of all time, and the lack of respect he gets is just bull****.

In stark comparison I watched Tyson-Ruddock I yesterday and it's laughable how quick Richard Steele was to jump in and 'save' Razor. I was never a huge fan of referee Carlos Padilla but in fairness to him I think he just got caught up in watching that great fight. He did say in a later interview that he was going to stop it in the 15th as soon as Frazier started to get hit again.

We all know however that if Padilla had stopped it anywhere from rounds 13-14 the Ali legend would be under attack for 'a fixed fight pre-mature stoppage' instead of today's flavour of the month 'Ali was going to quit.'

[Heckler]

He did say in a later interview that he was going to stop it in the 15th as soon as Frazier started to get hit again. - ah thats good to hear, i was under the impression that the referee would of allowed Frazier, defenseless to get a beating for another 3 minutes.

[Frazier's 15th round]

On my scorecard, Ali would have won Manila 7-6-2 if they both lasted the distance. You have to watch it closely to see that the punches landed on each were almost dead even until the last 3 rounds, where Ali hits him over and over. I had heard that Frazier landed 440 punches, so I figured Ali must have landed like 700, but watching the fight very closely, that's not true.

I gotta hand it to my man Ali for sucking it up in the last few rounds.

[Fearless]

Someone have this on video?

I keep hearing about this fight... I have to see it!

[Da Iceman]

omg this cant be true. a man who picks strawweights over ali finally own up. butterfly would love this

[mokele]

Frazier was an all-time great inside fighter

All through Joe Frazier's career I cannot ever remember seeing him clinch. There have been only a handful of fighters like that in boxing history, almost all of them stalkers and punchers. Foreman rarely clinched, David Tua has never clinched to my knowledge, and surprisingly the rather slender Felix Trinidad never clinched in any of the fights of his that I saw. The same can be said for Julio Cesar Chavez. Rocky Marciano never clinched. I never saw Marvin Hagler clinch. The still very active Winky Wright never clinches. Suffice it to say that these are my favorite fighters.

Anyway, after the Frazier-Ali fight in Manila I remember reading somewhere years ago that Frazier would pick a spot on the body of an opponent and keep hammering that spot over and over, a few times every round when he got them pinned to the ropes. Ali could take a body shot better than just about any heavyweight I ever saw, but even he was suffering from Frazier's beating to the body. After Frazier cut the ring off and trapped Ali on the ropes, Ali would take 1 or 2 body shots and then tie up Frazier, holding him behind the head. This happened over and over, maybe 3 to 5 times every round. Frazier didn't land that many body shots, maybe only a few each round, but they were thrown with conviction and they mounted up. Ali wanted to quit after the 10th round of that fight but his corner pleaded with him to continue. He summoned the will to keep fighting and the rest is history.