muhammed ali and joe frazier

their third fight was called the thriller in manilla ... i'm watching a documentary about it now .... i actually watched it on tv as a kid ... i remember at the time i so badly wanted frazier to win ,because i detested ali's big mouth and the disgusting things he said about frazier ... i wanted joe to shut him up .... watching it now i feel a bit different ...i'm not as blood thirsty as i was ...what i see now is two brave heavyweights fighting as if they're middleweights .... they were bloody marvellous .

That was a pretty good rivalry they had going then. However, since I wouldn't even consider Joe Frazier to be one of the top 10 heavyweight fighters of all time, whilst considering Muhammad Ali to be the greatest, a better matchup to check out would be the Ali - George Foreman fight. There was an award winning documentary about that one too, titled When We Were Kings that you might want to check out. Each were in their prime at the time, and both would make my list if 5 of the best heavyweights of all time (with Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, and Gene Tunney being the others).

The sport just isn't what it used to be, pretty much fizzling out once Lennox Lewis retired.

interesting leon ... i saw the first ali frazier fight ... was amazing ..the foreman ali fight was featured last week .. and as a kid i was sure that ali was going to be slaughtered and was distraught when he knocked out the invincible george .... watching it now it's obvious to see that ali was an absolute genius in the ring ... i saw ken norton fight him and at the time everyone agreed that norton won ...but ali got the decision ...that fight is featured next week ... did you not rate the young mike tyson leon ?

I had to check but I was mostly right George did Like Ali as an opponent.George went to Nixon to get Ali back in the fight game. I did not know that George loaned Ali money when he was not fighting. You both have forgetton about the man who made it and all around show the Mouth

To this day I can still see George calling him Clay

As for the best ever heavy weight it has to be Jack Johnson. He fought against just about ever thing to win the title.

joe frazier put a lot of effort into helping ali when he was banned but ali turned on him after his licence was restored to him ... george is doing great now with the grill sponsorship ( turned down by a very regrettable hulk hogan apparently )..and jack johnson really went through the racist treatment during his career ... surprised there's not a movie about his life .

And check this out. This is Ali's daughter, Leila. She too is a fighter I've learned, and a real bad a** too from what I've heard. You'd never know it to look at her.

Uploaded at ImageFra.me

Uploaded at ImageFra.me

i've seen a bit of her fighting ... she did it when people still frowned on female boxing ... but i must say ,her dad ...even though a guy...still moved more beautifully than she did .

That is what surprised me is that Ali turned on him after all Georgedid. yep I own one of Georges grills.

Had to check I thought there was a movie kind of based on Jack's life Check out "The Great White Hope" You may have been to young for this one.

Here is the Man that played Jack

Even at this age James Earl Jones still looks like a fighter not to be messed with.

well that photo didn't come through for me ,but i know mr jones ... voice of darth vadar i believe .

rope a dope was interesting

I saw Mike extensively in his early fights, when they were featuring them almost monthly on boxing shows, leading up to his championship fights and Michael Spinks. Iron Mike had one devastating weapon, which was his punch of course, as nobody had quite a knockout punch like his since George Foreman was in his heyday. The problem with Mike, though, is that he didn't really have much else well developed in skill or training (his original trainer died when he was young). When watching his early fights, he would just hunch himself up and edge towards his opponent, constantly putting up his arms or hugging his opponent, waiting for the right moment, and then, BAM, it would be over. Problem with that, though, was that, while it worked against lesser opponents and even guys like Spinks, who was a converted light heavyweight, once he faced guys who had the stamina to withstand his punches, like Evander Holyfield, who was extensively trained for just that, then he became easy to beat. He would never have done well against dancers like Ali and his contemporaries or Larry Holmes (in his prime) or guys with a chin like Marciano, or even punchers who were simply taller than he was and could outreach him/avoid his punches. And his record shows that, as he never really beat anybody worth mentioning.

in my early teens in 70's, around 1970, somewhere in there. my boy, " howard cosell " and " muhammed ali " starting " the love affair ". all ali's fights were great to watch, but now i can't remember one to tell you about. the last fight, i remember watching, the famous one " spinx vs holmes " when michael bit off holmes's ear. michael should eat ate sandwich before his fight. after that fight, i try to watched a few more fights with contenders, but i lost interest in boxing. i was bored by them, i was in middle 20's then. howard costell was the best, what he did. without him, i don't think i would like boxing so much, howard make fun to watch.

Yeah, he was definitely ahead of his time, a boxer who knew how to be patient and wear his opponent out before delivering the knockout punches. He's in my top 10, however I just can't put somebody who had 13 losses at number one.

Here is my top ten:

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Rocky Marciano
4. George Foreman
5. Gene Tunney
6. Jack Dempsey
7. Jess Willard
8. James Jeffries
9. Jack Johnson
10. Larry Holmes

Yeah, that was when heavyweight boxing was in its heyday, before greed finally destroyed the sport by moving all championship fights off the air entirely and to closed circuit/pay per view and by fracturing the unanimous title into two or three belts. The only thing that kept it popular in the 90's was that the purist line of "winning the title in the ring" was still intact, tracing from when Larry Holmes was still champion all the way to Lennox Lewis. That ended when Lewis retired as champion.

I would agree with most of these. I had forgotten about James Jeffries. would move Johnson up .

As for the best fight I ever saw it had to be Sugar Ray vs Duran. I know not a heavy weight fight but wow that was a fight in Montreal