When Muhammad Ali Made Frazier Quit On Stool JJ

This is the most violent fight of Muhammad Ali’s entire career. It was October 1st, 1975. This was the third fight in one of boxing’s greatest rivalries. Frazier had won the first meeting, Ali the second. Now, in Quezon City in the Philippines, they’d settle it for good. The fight started at 10:00 in the morning to suit American television schedules.

Temperatures inside the arena reportedly reached 107°. The bad blood between the two men was real. Ali’s taunts in the build-up had cut deep, and Frazier never fully forgave him for it. Neither man would ever be quite the same after what happened next. >> Take your damn load and get away from that jab. Ali working up a sweat.

Frazier looking to work the body. FRAZIER KEEPS SMILING AS HE CORNERS Ali to the ropes. Ali beats him to the punch. Ali apparently doesn’t want to >> Ali has gone around the right. >> [cheering]

>> Round one went almost the opposite of what everyone expected. Frazier didn’t wait to work. He came forward smiling, stalking low, straight to the body from the opening bell. Ali stood flat-footed and traded instead of dancing away, the way he always had before. By the final 10 seconds, Ali was grinning and piling on shots of his own, enough to claim the round on most scorecards.

>> Frazier always loses the first round. >> [cheering] >> Working the body. >> [cheering] >> Frazier is working the body almost exclusively. >> [cheering]

>> Frazier kept coming in round two, chasing Ali around the ring and lunging in with body shots every time he closed the distance. Ali spent most of the round moving backward, circling away from the power, but when he did plant his feet and counter, his punches were cleaner and more accurate, and that’s what the judges noticed most.

>> Ali’s corner, round three, scheduled for 15. Good punches. This is almost a replica of Ali and Foreman last year. >> In round three, Ali tried something that

had worked against George Foreman a year earlier in Zaire. Leaning back on the ropes, covering up high, letting Frazier punch himself tired against a raised guard. Frazier didn’t fall for it completely. He mixed in uppercuts, hunting for a gap through Ali’s gloves. Eventually, Ali worked his way back out of the corner and answered with a series of his own right hands and left hooks.

>> This round four. Frazier the blue down Frazier the blue down and Ali the white. Ali with the ropes again. Frazier looking for a spot. HE’S NOT WASTING PUNCHES, HOWEVER. To the body. Ali with those quick hands

AND SHARP SHOOTING. >> ROUND FOUR WAS FOUGHT AT A sizzling pace. Both men pummeling each other while taking their best shots in return. Neither willing to give an inch of ground. By the end of it, the crowd inside the arena was already chanting Ali’s name. He sat down with his trainer, Angelo Dundee, looking completely comfortable.

He had no idea what the next round was about to do to him. >> Neither fighter looks the least bit tired so far. Although Frazier has taken a good going over. Frazier’s using his right hand a little more now.

> Wow. Ali really got nailed. >> [cheering] >> Round five is where everything changed.

Ali retreated to the ropes trying the rope-a-dope one more time. The same tactic that had worked so perfectly against Foreman. But, this time Frazier’s punches did far more damage than anyone in that arena expected. He wasn’t wasting shots on Ali’s high tight guard anymore. He was going to the body underneath it [music] round after round and it was working.

>> Into round six. 1/3 of the fight is over. It’s going to go the distance. It’s the mouth piece. Sorry. Ali dancing for the first time. Ali is looking for a flat there. That’s not a good round for Frazier. >> In round six, Frazier unloaded a genuine

flurry, [music] powerful left hooks that forced Ali all the way back to the ropes again, unable to answer. When the bell finally rang to end the round, Ali did something he almost never did. He sat down on his stool. It was the first time all fight he’d needed to rest sitting down instead of standing at the ropes.

>> Round seven scheduled for coming back. Ali dancing for the first time. He just put a right hand to the head for the first time. FRAZIER ROLLED WITH REFEREE, BREAK. REFEREE >> ALI FIGHTING A smart fight now, picking up breaking off the action when he wants to. Regained Ali lost TO THE FIGHT.

ALI GOT IT IN THERE. >> [cheering] >> Ali came out talking, same as he always did. “Old Joe Frazier, why I thought you were washed up.” Frazier had an answer ready. “Somebody told you all wrong, pretty boy.” Then he went back to proving it, walking Ali down while Ali tried to stay a distance, spearing him with single shots. It wasn’t enough.

Frazier’s aggression won him the round anyway. >> I got that earlier. Joe is really starting to smoke and looked a little bit shaky from the go, but Joe is starting to smoke and I think they’re going at a pretty good pace now and uh >> Little by little, the supporter is obvious now. Ali knocked down. >> [cheering] >> A big rally by Ali.

>> [cheering] >> Frazier is very strong and scoring heavily even though he took a lot in this round. Frazier may have even got the round. Ali leaving himself more exposed on the inside. >> [cheering]

>> By round eight, whatever strategy either man had walked in with was completely gone. There was nothing left but two heavyweight champions standing in the center of the ring trading as hard as they possibly could refusing to back up or cover. By every account from ringside that night, Frazier was actually enjoying it.

This was exactly the kind of fight he wanted. >> Round nine, scheduled for 15. Frazier in the blue denim trunks, Ali in white. >> Frazier trying to set him up for the left hook and Ali knows it. And again is beating him to the punch constantly. These are good body shots by Frazier when he gets them in there. Frazier coming in faster. That was now judged

Round almost over. >> In round nine, Ali tried fighting from range again, trying to slow the damage down before it became permanent. It worked, at least a little. Frazier still bulled his way inside in the final moments, but it was narrowly Ali’s round. It would be one of the last rounds that went clearly his way for a long stretch.

>> 10, scheduled for 15. Going faster for this >> Ali, alternatively dancing, fighting

flat-footed, and going to the ropes. >> [cheering] >> It’s been a super fight all the way here in the Philippine Coliseum. So far, a good round for Ali. They’re over in Frazier’s corner. We’re trying to get them out of there. FRAZIER IS HITTING

ALI NOW. With the right hand. ALI WILL PROBABLY OPEN UP all of a sudden. A minute to go in the round. 15 seconds to go in the round. >> Ken Norton >> Between rounds, Ali’s corner had one

message for him before round 11. Find whatever was left of the fighter who’d started this thing. Frazier forced him back to the ropes again, just like he had all night. But this time, Ali didn’t cover up and wait it out. He planted his feet and fired back, landing clean shots directly on Frazier’s face again and again.

>> Frazier seems to be coasting a little bit here. And Ali is pouring on him. >> [cheering] >> in the round. The round half over. Frazier seems to be bleeding from the mouth. First round of blood here. >> By round 12, the fight had completely

slipped. Ali was landing clean, heavy shots at will, and at one point knocked Frazier’s mouthpiece clear out of his mouth and into the crowd. For the first time all night, Frazier looked like a genuinely beaten man. Not just tired, but beaten, and everyone in that arena could see it happening in real time. >> Frazier seems to be coasting a little bit here.

And Ali is scoring on him. Into the round. The round half over. Frazier seems to be bleeding from the mouth. First sign of blood on him. >> The round half over.

Round almost over. >> [cheering] >> What about the interview in the ring? >> Frazier doesn’t have that in the middle

rounds. Frazier is hurt. Frazier is badly hurt. >> [cheering] >> Between rounds 14 and 15, Eddie Futch

made his decision. “Joe,” he said, “I’m going to stop it.” “No, no, Eddie.” Frazier answered. “You can’t do that to me.” “You couldn’t see in the last two rounds.” Futch told him. “What makes you think you’re going to see in the 15th? I want him, boss, Frazier said trying to stand. Futch put a hand on his shoulder.

Sit down, son. It’s all over. No one will ever forget what you did here today. Here’s what almost nobody in that arena knew. Joe Frazier had already been fighting blind for years. A decade earlier, a freak accident with a broken speedbag bolt sent metal shards into his left eye during training. The injury scarred over into a cataract, and by the time he stepped into that ring in Manila, he was legally blind on that side.

A secret so carefully guarded that Frazier had learned to cheat his own commission eye exams, covering the bad eye and quietly switching hands whenever a doctor asked him to test the other one. So, when Ali’s punches closed Frazier’s right eye, his only good one, over those final two rounds, Frazier wasn’t just hurt. He was fighting almost completely blind, throwing punches at a man he could barely see at all.

Within weeks, [music] doctors operated to try to save what was left of his sight. It was already too late to fully restore it. There’s one more thing almost nobody remembers about that same moment. In the opposite corner, Muhammad Ali was asking his own team to cut his gloves off. His cornerman, Wali Muhammad, said it out loud.

Cut him off, meaning Ali was done, too. But Angelo Dundee ignored the request and kept preparing him for round 15 anyway. When word reached Ali that Frazier wasn’t coming out, he collapsed to the canvas himself, completely spent. This fight is remembered as the night Joe Frazier couldn’t continue. The truer version is that one man was fighting nearly blind.

The other was already asking to quit, and somehow neither of them actually stopped until someone else made the call for them. Ali would later call it the closest thing to dying he had ever experienced. Neither man was ever quite the same again.