THRILLER IN MANILLA (1975)

The Thrilla in Manila was a famous boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, fought at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City of the Philippines on October 1, 1975. The bout is often ranked as one of the greatest fights of 20th century boxing, and is the climax to the bitter rivalry between Ali and Frazier.

Produced by Don King and broadcast to many countries worldwide with HBO's antenna, The Thrilla in Manila had a tremendous media following.

The city of Cairo had apparently been considered as a possible host to the fight: The August 1975 issue of Ring Magazine had a fictitious fight-poster of Ali-Frazier III on its cover, which listed Nasser Stadium in Cairo as the place the fight was taking place.

The mood of the two fighters and their camps could not be further apart. In Ali's camp the mood was jovial, and lighthearted. According to Ali's longtime physician and cornerman Ferdie Pacheco, it was believed by Ali and his trainers that Joe Frazier was washed up after his devastating loss to George Foreman, and the relative ease with Ali had defeated Frazier in their rematch after that fight seemed to bear this out.

The general consensus was that Ali was doing Frazier a favor, giving Joe one last big payday before sending him off into retirement, and as a result Ali did little training, instead concentrating on the torrid affair he was having with Veronica Porche, and amusing the vast entourage that had come to be nicknamed the "Ali Circus". Later, when Ali's then wife Belinda Ali found out that not only was Ali carrying on this affair but was introducing Veronica as his wife, she stormed into the Philippines, causing yet another distraction.

Frazier, meanwhile, was training with a grim and determined intensity. Frazier had never forgiven Ali for the cutting remarks Ali had made before their first fight, particularly Ali labeling Joe as stupid and painting Joe as a "white man's champion" when Frazier, the son of a sharecropper in the South and a survivor of ghettos in New York and Philadelphia as an adult, had suffered the effects of prejudice and discrimination at least as much as Ali had. Furthermore, Frazier felt that Ali had betrayed him because Frazier had lobbied to have Ali's boxing license restored and even lent Ali money during his ban from the ring, and then Ali had turned around and lashed at Frazier verbally in order to promote the fight. This, combined with the derision heaped upon Frazier by Ali fans had served to spark a bitter hatred for Ali, and Frazier trained relentlessly to beat Ali.

Worse yet, Ali tried to promote further interest in the fight by taunting Frazier at every opportunity, most famously by punching a rubber gorilla meant to represent Frazier during a press conference while saying "It's gonna be a chilla, and a killa, and a thrilla, when I get the Gorilla in Manila." So, when they got into the ring Frazier was, as in the first bout, an angry warrior while Ali was overconfident and underprepared.

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