‘Thrilla in Manila’ 45 years ago

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”—Muhammad Ali

 

FORTY-five years ago on October 1, 1975, Cubao, Quezon City hosted the biggest heavyweight boxing championship fight in the world held at the Araneta Coliseum.

It was a duel that defined Muhammad Ali both as a sports icon and as a human being.

Ali (48–2, 35 KOs) settled his feud with Joe Frazier on a spectacular 14th round TKO (technical knockout).

Frazier (32–2, 27 KOs) did not fall flat on his face from Ali’s barrage of howitzers that thrilled the local fans including First Lady Imelda Marcos, who got frightened by the impact of the punches thrown and received by both ring titans and “fled” from the coliseum before the TKO.

Trainer Eddie Futch refused to let Frazier continue before the 15^th round when he sensed Frazier’s face was badly swollen.

When referee Carlos “Sonny” Padilla terminated the bout Frazier loudly protested to no avail wailing at Futch, “I want him, boss.”

“It’s all over. No one will forget what you did here today,” Futch barked at Frazier, whom Ali slandered earlier by calling him “ape.”

Both ring gladiators were exhausted and standing only on survival instinct.

Frazier’s lips had been busted and his face was crimson.

Ali also suffered a black eye in both eyes.

Ali described that third duel with Frazier as “next to death.”

 

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The charismatic heavyweight champion admitted later that he asked Frazier to quit after 10 rounds.

“C’mon, Joe, that’s enough. There’s still life after this fight,” Ali allegedly whispered to his nemesis while they were swapping bombs.

I asked Padilla if he heard those words when I had a chance to work with him in 1996 during the 12-round WBF welterweight fisticuffs between Amerasian William Magahin and Australian Brad Moderidge.

Padilla told me he didn’t exactly hear the sentence uttered by Ali, but confirmed “Ali was saying something that only the two boxers had understood.”

I was a kid when the historic tussle between two of the heavyweight’s most feared fisttossers occurred.

We watched the fight on a black and white TV set in Molo district, Iloilo City after our classes at the Iloilo Central Commercial High School (ICCHS) in the morning.

My recollection of the astonishing showdown was based on the journals, magazines and newspaper clippings we had gathered.

I also watched some of the videos of the fight and interviewed some personalities involved in the epic battle here and in the United States.

Nine years ago, I met Sports Communicators Organization of the Philippines (SCOOP) president Eddie Alinea, who acted as Frazier’s press liaison officer, when we covered Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Joshua Clottey in Arlington, Texas.

Alinea said he was assigned by the Office of Media Affairs (now the Philippine Information Agency) to accompany Team Frazier while the boxer was in Manila.

He described challenger Frazier as “a monster in the ring but a gentleman outside.”

 

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Alinea showed to me a black and white photo of a press briefing taken at the Manila Hotel where he sat beside the behemoth champion from Louisville, Kentucky who called himself as “The Greatest” and was formerly known as Cassius Clay.

Alinea, now in his early 70s, also kept some souvenir items bearing Frazier’s signature. He thanked Alinea for the Filipino scribe’s services and presence in Team Frazier weeks before the duel.

According to some boxing experts and historians I met in the United States, the “Thrilla in Manila” was the greatest-ever world heavyweight championship in history.

In terms of heated rivalry, intensity, brutality, action and courageous display of skills, talent and spirit, nothing can beat the “Thrilla in Manila,” many of them claimed.

There have been great marquee names in world heavyweight that emerged after Ali’s exit.

Trevor Berbick, Greg Page, Larry Holmes, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, Mike Tyson, to mention only a few.

But none of them could match his charisma and impact in the hearts of sports fans all over the universe.

The record established by “Thrilla in Manila” has not been broken until today, according to boxing historians.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)