Frank Sinatra knew history was about to unfold, which is why he finagled himself a photographer’s credential that allowed him to get even closer to ringside than the ringside seats. Drug kingpin Frank Lucas knew, too, which is why he donned his most extravagant chinchilla fur coat (price tag: $100,000) to cruise down the aisle at Madison Square Garden. Diana Ross knew, Bob Dylan knew, Burt Lancaster, members of the Kennedy family, former presidents and assorted local, state and federal political stars knew, and most of all – Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier knew. They knew history … was coming. “It had to be now,” Frazier said prior to his death in 2011. “It was time.” Fifty years ago, the lights of New York’s indoor sports cathedral shined upon two of the greatest heavyweights to have ever lived in a contest seismic and significant enough that, well, here we are half a century later. Still talking about it. There are times in sports when history creeps up upon us, extraordinary developments that extend long into the memory yet which gave no indication they were coming. The Fight – billed as if there was no other that mattered – was not one of those. It was a sledgehammer, a juggernaut, a frenzy of anticipation. There were converse opinions on who was going to come out on top when Ali and Frazier met for the first time, but resounding agreement on one thing – this was going to be an event for the ages. There have been a ton of articles written about Ali-Frazier over the past couple of days and some truly excellent ones among them. Some were nostalgic, some rip-roaring, some focused almost entirely upon the fistic events within the ring and others only consumed with the social ramifications that took place beyond it. In the Washington Post, Kevin Blackistone gave a marvelous retelling of a plot by anti-war protestors to use the fight as cover to infiltrate an FBI building and expose Vietnam-related wrongdoing. The bout was so big that the plot orchestrators knew there would never be a better opportunity to remain undetected, because everyone was going to be tuning in, mostly by radio. In The Athletic, Lance Pugmire interviewed several key figures who were in attendance and who shared this reality: that there was nothing bigger, nothing better and, on that night, simply nothing else to be doing. “When the doors finally opened, those with tickets went through hell to get inside as the crowd surged forward in an unstoppable tide,” legendary boxing historian Bert Sugar wrote for USA TODAY in 2016. Jerry Izenberg, 90, the author of Once There Were Giants: The Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing, is the pre-eminent voice on the Ali-Frazier era, and loves to talk about their remarkable rivalry. “So much tension,” Izenberg said. “From an emotional perspective, it stands alone.” One of the reasons we still celebrate that night, when Frazier leveled Ali with a huge left hook in the 15th round and went on to claim a points victory, in return handing Ali his first career loss, is because we will never again know a time in sports like it. The world is so intrinsically different now. Being a sports fan in the early 1970s required patience above all else. There was not as much on television and far less of it was live. Professional sports games were often shown on tape delay. There was no internet, obviously, and so no readily-available access to past highlights. No social media to chat about it all. And, for the most monumental clash of heavyweight titans imaginable, no pay-per-view. For those that didn’t have the means or connections to get inside MSG, the only option was to trek to one of a few hundred theaters dotted around the country, where a ticket to view the closed circuit telecast could be had. Both men have passed now, Ali’s long battle with Parkinson’s ended in 2016, yet their legacy remains, undimmed. It is enough to make you wonder if we see things the same now. Sports is like candy – delicious – but the downside of getting all you want is that even the best of it doesn’t feel so much like a treat anymore. Ali-Frazier was a treat, albeit one that came at a fraught time in American society. The overwhelming issue of the Vietnam War split the two men and the public support. In one corner Ali, the conscientious objector who had been banished from boxing for his stance, and across from him Frazier, the son of sharecroppers who had tried to join the military and was unfairly seen as a symbol of the conservative movement. “Everyone picked a side,” Izenberg said. “There were no neutrals.” Ali and Frazier would go on to make their rivalry a trilogy, meeting two more times. The second installment, in 1974, was a dour affair that Ali won by unanimous decision, with the third – The Thrilla in Manilla – a brutal war that Ali won again, which took a fierce physical toll on both fighters. But when we look back at that memorable first fight, it raises the following question: Is there an event that could happen today that would rival it for effect and impact? It is hard to see how. Head-to-head sports provide the most raw and simplified emotion, and the violence of fights adds intoxicating danger. But boxing is nowhere near as relevant as it was back then. Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum tried to tout the upcoming Anthony Joshua v. Tyson Fury heavyweight clash as the biggest fight since Ali-Frazier, yet even the master hype man stopped short of directly likening the two, perhaps feeling it would be a form of sporting sacrilege. We are now at a time in sports when we don’t know what shortage means and should be thankful for that fact. It is part of why we cherish the past, with the best bits of history being those that won’t happen again, at least not the same way. Ali-Frazier was billed to be historic beyond compare and it even outstripped the sales pitch. Not many sports matchups are all-consuming enough that we celebrate their birthdays, too. Here’s what others have said … Branson Wright, The Undefeated: “No sporting event received the hype, worldwide attention, political debate or even the racial divide within the Black community, as the Ali-Frazier fight on March 8, 1971. It was a bout called the ‘Fight of the Century,’ not only because it matched two undefeated heavyweight champions for the first time, but because of what the fight symbolized beyond the ring.” Larry Merchant, New York Post: “The fight carried a tremendous weight because of everything that was at stake. It was what Frazier and Ali represented to people socially at the time, whether it was the civil rights effort or the anti-Vietnam [War] effort.” Gene Kilroy, Muhammad Ali’s long-time friend and adviser: “Nobody would have beaten Frazier that night. I mean nobody. Ever.” |
