The Fight of the Century is 52 years old. The impossible has come true! Muhammad Ali has fallen to his knees for the first time in his career. Who was his conqueror?

The Fight of the century shocked all boxing fans. 8. march 1971 will forever go down in boxing history as the day the legendary Muhammad Ali lost for the first time.

The Vietnam War had overlapping implications for the sport

In the ring, he flew like a butterfly and stung like a bee. We recently brought you the story that created a legend. At just 22 years old, Cassius Clay dismantled the most fearsome boxer of the time, Sonny Liston, to win the heavyweight boxing title of the world.

Six years later, on March 8, 1971 to be exact, he was to face Joe Frazier for the unified championship belt of all organizations, but that was a different man altogether. Ali was no longer the brash kid the media and fans said it was time for someone to punish him in the ring.

At the time, he was a respected boxer and a man whose fingers reached far beyond the confines of the regular sport. But let’s go back a few years in time to when the U.S. Army drafted him to fight in Vietnam.

Muhammad Ali lost his titles after refusing to join the war

“I have no problem with the Viet Cong,” said the then 25-year-old boxer. “I don’t know why I should put on a uniform and go drop bombs and bullets on brown people somewhere 10,000 miles from our border while so-called blacks in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights. This war is against the teachings of the Koran.”

Of course, he inspired many of his followers with his public rejection, and the beloved boxer became an outlaw once again. The Boxing Association stripped him of his world championship titles and all boxing licenses. Ali thus did not appear in a fight for three years before opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow in the United States and his position began to grow again.

Then in 1971 he got his boxing license back and all charges were dropped. Nothing prevented him from fighting Joe Frazier, who was hailed as the “Fight of the Century”. Frazier was until then an undefeated boxer who held his stripped belts.

The best met 52 years ago today. "The Fight" saw the best fight each other in what some saw as the Fight of the Century pic.twitter.com/NvVEIJyW07

— John Rawling (@RawlingJohn) March 8, 2023

The fight of the century divided the world

Muhammad Ali, as we knew him from before, of course managed to promote the fight in such a way that the whole world became interested in it. “He’s too ugly and stupid to be a champion, ” he insulted his opponent and of course mentioned the political context.

Frazier, on the other hand, was a supporter of American involvement in the Vietnam War. The struggle, then, was not just between two men, but was dividing American society as a whole. Moreover, the two boxers were united by a huge animosity that went beyond the personal level.

The atmosphere in Madison Square Garden that night was deafening and few could have imagined that the then legendary Muhammad Ali would fall to his knees. When the two men faced each other in the ring afterwards, Ali’s huge height advantage was evident.

The fight itself lived up to its name and Joe Frazier did the unthinkable

But that didn’t play much of a role in the fight itself. Both men went at each other with a good amount of vigor right from the opening bell. Frazier, aka “Smoking Joe”, in his typical fashion, swung his head from place to place and kept the pressure on his opponent.

He in turn hit his opponent from the retreat with his counters, but his hardest shots didn’t seem to work on Frazier at all. The first rounds went clearly Ali’s way. Halfway through the fight, Ali was running out of juice, but it was no wonder. His pace from the start of the fight was incredible and he was landing some of the best shots of his career.

But Joe Frazier was driven by some inexplicable engine that night that kept driving him forward. From the seventh round, it was “Smoking Joe” who took the reins of the fight. 14 rounds of the best boxing the world has ever seen. By the last fifteen rounds, Frazier was leading on all the judges’ scorecards and Ali was struggling to stay on his feet on several occasions.

But the champion left nothing to chance and knocked out his opponent with his signature left hook early in the round. He later admitted it was the hardest punch he’s ever landed on anyone. But Ali showed his greatness and within moments he was back on his feet and looking to keep boxing. The shocked hall roared and Frazier couldn’t believe his eyes.

On this day 1944,

Joe Frazier was born.

🥊Olympic Gold
🥊Undisputed Heavyweight Champ
🥊32-4-1(27 KO’s)

Here he is becoming the first man to beat Muhammad Ali.

Is this the best single win in boxing history?

RIP ‘Smokin’ Joe 🙏🏻pic.twitter.com/zcgbMpy3yW

— Steve Boxman (@SteveBoxman) January 12, 2021

After the final bell, the scoring judges decided that Joe Frazier remained the champion and the unthinkable became reality. If anyone expected Ali to accept the result and the rivalry would end with this match, they would be wrong. Ali refused to admit defeat publicly and what happened next is one of the greatest rivalries in the boxing world. But that’s for another time.

For fans of combat sports, this crazy fight should almost be a must-see. A link to the full fight between the two greats is in the video below.

Source: Wikipedia, Youtube channel – Ringside videos, Twitter accounts – John Rawling and Steve Boxman