Ali-Frazier: The “Fight of the Century” 50 Years Later

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fifty years ago today, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met in their first iconic boxing match, known as “The Fight of the Century.” It was 1971, with the civil rights movement in full swing and the nation divided over the war in Vietnam. Jeremy Schaap, boxing historian and host of E60 and Outside the Lines, shares how political and cultural views were projected onto Ali and Frazier, with their different personalities, history and fighting styles. The night itself was a grand celebrity spectacle (Frank Sinatra took a gig as a photographer, just to get in the building). And while Frazier won unanimously, the fight has a more complex and nuanced legacy. Half a century later, it remains one of sports’ biggest moments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You wait until I get Joe Frazier.
0:03.1	I'm going to whip Joe Frazier.
0:04.6	I'm going to show him what the real world champion is.
0:07.0	We're going to sell this.
0:07.9	We just signed the contract and it's all over.
0:10.8	You get your ticket, you come to see it, because I'm going to give him a good whooping.
0:16.0	They called it the fight of the century.
0:19.2	50 years ago today, Undefeated Muhammad Ali squared off against undefeated Joe Frazier
0:24.1	in Madison Square Garden, the hottest ticket in town with the World Heavyweight Championship on the line.
0:31.2	The fight transcended sports capturing the entire planet's attention.
0:36.7	And today, a man who knows more about this fight than I will ever know about anything,
0:42.0	ESPN's Jeremy Schab tells us why, a half century later, Ali Frazier 1 has yet to be
0:49.4	typed.
0:50.8	I'm Pablo Torre. It's Monday, March 8th.
0:54.4	This is ESPN Daily.
1:01.0	Jeremy, it's great to talk to the only person I know,
1:03.8	who I believe has childhood photographs of themselves with Muhammad Ali.
1:07.8	You should be my sister.
1:09.9	She does as well, Pablo. Yeah, no. I do. It's my claim to fame.
1:15.4	Jeremy Shapp hosts E-60 and Outside the Lines. He's studied and written about boxing for decades.
1:22.7	In 1974, when Ali was preparing to head to Zaire to fight George Foreman, my father at the time was the
1:30.1	editor of Sport Magazine. And he had a long relationship with Ali going back to before the 1960
	...

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