Comments Thread For: Nothing, Even 50 Years Later, Compares To Ali-Frazier I

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

I've grown a bit as a boxing fan since March 8, 1971. When fight night arrived back then, neither Muhammad Ali nor Joe Frazier was even on my radar. Cake and ice cream? Yes. Style nuances and competitive contrasts? Not so much. OK. Perhaps I should clarify that the fight occurred three days after I turned 2 years old.
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[Ray*]

I think they tried with the Holmes/Cooney shit but it still doesn't compare to Frazier/Ali 1, Ray Leonard/Hearn? Ray Leonard/Hagler? Mayweather/Pac (Non-american), Tyson/Holyfield? The fact that Ali lost his title because he was stripped of it, coming back after some tune ups, accusing Frazier of being the "Good boy" etc, selling the fight in the best way he can, famous people turning up for that fight. And then the fight actually matching the expectations...Meant nothing really can compare to it till now.

[club fighter]

Admitting that I'm really old, this is the fight that got me hooked on boxing.
Still the greatest match I've seen.

[Mario040481]

Fight of the Century in 720p 60FPS I posted last month. For those who may be unaware, you must manually select that the video be shown in 720p 60FPS and you do so by pushing settings button (it looks like a gear) in the bottom right corner of the video and clicking on "Quality" then selecting 720p 60

[PRINCEKOOL]

The last great all america heavyweight fight was Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield I.

That fight signified the end of a era, but? Hopefully not forever.

Maybe Deontay Wilder vs Andy Ruiz Junior, would of been a big fight if both of them would of won their fights vs Joshua & Fury etc

[Rapscallion]

As a total event, nothing compares to Ali-Frazier 1; however viewed simply as a fight, Duran vs Buchanan, which happened 15 months later, surpassed Ali-Frazier 1 as did Holmes vs Norton, Duran vs Leonard 1, Leonard vs Hearns 1, as well as Hagler vs Hearns. I could site many other fights as well. Why? Ali wasn't ready for Frazier in their first fight as was apparent by the eighth round at the latest. Just to make it clear, when I saw Ali vs Frazier 1 on 3/8/71, I could not imagine a better fight, but once I saw Duran vs Buchanan on 6/26/72, I realized that it was a far superior fight. My point being that I was watching Ali vs Frazier as it happened as well as with Duran Buchanan vs finding them on YouTube decades later and then making a comparison. Also for the record, I saw my first prize fight in 1955, so I had literally decades of viewing fights before either Ali vs Frazier or Duran vs Buchanan. I knew Sugar Ray Robinson, Archie Moore, Joe Louis, and Jersey Joe Walcott before I knew Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, or Joe DiMaggio. You may ask if any of the fights I saw pre Ali Frazier 1 were better or not, I have to answer that because of the limits of TV in the fifties and sixties, any fight I saw then was compromised by the technology of that period, and for that reason, I'm not including anything pre Ali vs Frazier 1.

[Rapscallion]

Just a thought: Perhaps the one fight that (if it has not already been mentioned) outdid Ali vs Frazier 1 would be the Louis vs Schmeling rematch on 6/22/38. In an all too racist America, you had the whitest of whites doing everything they could to get to see the fight live (despite the depression still going all too strong) to cheer on Joe Louis against the German, Max Schmeling (even though Schmeling wasn't then nor ever would be a Nazi despite the problems this created for him and his wife during the Hitler years). Why do I say it may have eclipsed Ali vs Frazier 1? Because of how America supported Joe Louis and not his white opponent, Max Schmeling. At that time in America only Joe Louis could have gotten Americans as a nation to cheer on a person of color against a white fighter; however, subsequent to that, many other black fighters received wild support regardless of their opponent's race, and I believe that is because of what Joe Louis did for America on 6/22/38 - changing America for the better.

[Wacked_Out]

Lennox Lewis would starch both of them.

[Drigo]

Not even a dossing Pac-Mayweather come close...

[Drigo]

Lennox Lewis would starch both of them.

What an embarrassing statement. Both atually KO Lewis...