Today is the 40th anniversary of the first Muhammad Ali–Joe Frazier fight for the heavyweight championship. It was the greatest sporting event — not the greatest fight, but the greatest sporting event — of my lifetime.
Both Ali and Frazier were undefeated. Both were genuinely great boxers. Ali, arguably the greatest athlete of the 20th century, was also probably its most controversial. When he fought Frazier, he had only recently returned to the ring after having been stripped of his title and banned from boxing for three years for refusing to be drafted during the Vietnam War. He changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam in 1964. No athlete in American history combined Ali’s charisma and talent or provoked such strong feelings of love and hatred. And no athlete equaled Ali’s ability to generate attention and excitement in a sporting event.
The fight was a cultural moment. No single athletic competition that I’m aware of has ever drawn quite as many famous people, with the likes of Norman Mailer, Woody Allen, Frank Sinatra, and Burt Lancaster in attendance.
I was a young boy at the time of the fight, and I recall listening to the radio (KONA in Richland, Washington) with my older brother as announcers summarized the fight every three rounds. Frazier won a unanimous decision, and rightly so. But of all the moments of the fight, the one that stands out most to me was Ali being hit by a ferocious left hook by Frazier early in the 15th round. Rather than stay down, as almost any other fighter would have done, Ali rose at the count of three or four and ended up rallying in that round, though to no avail. That moment demonstrated one of the most underrated talents of Ali, which was his ability to absorb punishment and take a punch.
The buildup to the Ali-Frazier fight was extraordinary — and the fight exceeded the anticipation. It was an epic event, dominating the attention of the nation in a way that no sporting event ever had, and might never do again.
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