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Boxing History

Ring in the fight of the century

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Fight of the Century Joe Frazier vs Muhammad Ali

We were stranger at night, mentioning when a guy with a trilby standing next to me in a male urinter in Madison Square Garden asked: “How do you make a guy?”

“Okay thanks, Mr. Sinatra.” I stuttered.

“Who is fancy?” He asked.

“Well … Ali,” I answered hesitantly.

“No, the phrase will destroy him,” a broken answer has come.

End of conversation. We returned to press places – Sinatra was accredited as a photographer for Life magazine, and I was a modest juvenile writer from Southern London, including the fight of life.

Is it really exactly half a century ago that I found myself next to “Ole Blue Eyes and such literary fixtures as Budd Schulberg and Norman Mailer on Mecca Boxing? One of about 760 media (500 other applications were rejected), chronicing one of the most memorable episodes in Annals of Sport. I even have to get caught now when I remember about pure size and greatness.

As a lover of Ali, I was surprised by the concise release of Sinatra his chances. But of course, aged Warbler was known that he hates him because of his stand in Vietnam, and probably because Ali was the only character even more known all over the world than he himself.

Recent York, Recent York. It really was a night. The city was living with licking. In Madison Square Garden, the atmosphere was so intense both before and during the fight that two viewers died of heart attacks.

The fight of the century was a thrill for me. When we were waiting for the gladiators’ entrance, we in Ringside were delayed with brilliant red baseball caps blue and the Frazer Vi Insignia badge, strongly on our heads.

They were distributed by the wonderfully laconic head of public relations, John XF Condon. (XF standing for Xavier Francis). Some of the more venerable members of my trade, led by Daily Mirror’s The slightly valuable Peter Wilson protested that he was not annulled. “You don’t really expect that we will sit here, John,” Doyen issued from tabloids. “Well, Peter,” answered Condon. “Yes, there is a crowd with a capacity of 20,000 tonight, and another 5,000 outside is trying to break the door to get. If so, in Ringidide there are riots, the cops will want to know which heads hit and which do not hit.”

“Half of Hollywood seems here tonight”, my good friend Colin Hart with Sun He noticed to me when he looked at the mass ranks of A-Lister.

Earlier during the WAG-in Condon dinner, which had a great affinity with British Hacks, he asked a few of us, including Hart, Peter Moss from the Daily Mail and the deceased REG Gutteridge, if we would like to meet the Burt Lancaster, who was a commentator on the colors of the fight. Burt Lancaster, a trapezoid star, hence to eternity and many other Macho movies? You will bet.

“Hey, Burt. Greepe to these lime writers,” he called Condon to Lancaster, who turned away from watching fighters in breaking the scales. He was wearing a Rouge, brilliant red lipstick and eyelashes, stout with mascara, fluttering in our direction. “Hi guys” – he added. “Don’t love their muscles!”

“A friend of me!” He exclaimed London Evening News and ITV Gutteridge commentator, clearly surprised by the actor’s sexuality. It was of course another world.

A few weeks later, Lancaster was arrested in Hollywood while wearing women’s clothes. Three times a five-person father turned out to be a transvestite and one of the gay clicks (not because the word had this connotation) or bio-sexual ranning celebrities, along with Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter.

Condon seemed surprised that we didn’t know. “It’s showtism for you,” he chuckled.

We liked Condon. There was an aged school PR who did not take prisoners. At a press conference after a fight (in which no veterans participated, when they were hospitalized-Frazier for six weeks) noticed the singer Diana Ross, sitting in the first place of the packed media hall.

“With whom, with a little lady?” He asked.

“I am Diana Ross,” she went.

“I know who you are, a little lady,” said Condon. “Did I say who with? What media they represent?”

“Well, none,” she said. “Only I, Diana Ross.”

“Sorry, a little lady,” Condon said. “Out. This is only a strictly working press.”

And supremes superstar had to drill. Can you imagine a similar scene today, PR is dared to remove such celebrities such an escalate from a press conference? They prefer to remove reporters … how times change.

Only a handful of directors in the garden on March 8, 1971 are still with us and I think that other octogenarians Hart and I are the only two survivors of British diaries that still write about boxing.

Fight of the century
Getty images

Colin, who will write his own memories on Sunday Shining. He catches my views on how a huge opportunity it was.
He says: “I doubt that today’s fans can appreciate how gigantic this fight was and how good Ali and the Frazier were.

I would say that compared to this fight they call the proposed struggle of this century, Tyson Fury against Anthony Joshua, will be at the top of the bill at York Hall, Bethnal Green. Does anyone really care about fury and Joshua in China or Africa? But then the whole world talked about Ali and Frazier. It was really global, even though there was no pay-per-view-only TV from a closed circuit. It was so huge that even the Soviet Union, in which professional boxing was then banned because he sent two reporters from the TASS State Information Agency.

Yes, it really was an epic meeting that offered the world.

Until the evening, Fight Madison Square Garden had a circus atmosphere with dozens of police to control the crowd. Eight best in Recent York were assigned to act as 24 -hour bodyguards for Ali, who received numerous threats of death from Redneck Fractions.

This was not my first visit to the garden or the first meeting with the phrases. I discussed his free competition for the title of world champion with friend Ali, Jimmy Ellis, but if I have any claims to fame, it was because I was the first to put Smokin ‘Joe on the floor! Truthful. Seven years earlier, in 1964, as still soggy behind the debutant of Ears Debutant in a fleet press group based on the street, I was sent to my first Olympic Games in Tokyo. In these early days, security was much more loose than now, and we, the types of media, could wander the Olympic village without care. This is what I did when he threw himself around the corner on the bike at a enormous, fat juvenile man in shorts furiously at speeds. He saw me rather delayed. I jumped; He twisted, slipped and fell firmly. I recognized him from his shirt as a member of the United States team, one Joseph William Frazier, their heavyweight representative in a boxing tournament. I swallowed when I looked at the cursed figure spread before me. “My God,” I thought. “I am in trouble here!”

Fight of the century

I was worried that he was very hurt enough to get him out of games – or worse. Was something broken? Adolescent Joe – he was 20 years aged – at first he looked, and then pulled out, rubbing the grazed knees. He smiled shyly and apologized. “I’m sorry, I think I was walking a little quickly,” he said. “My fault. Are you okay?”

I nodded and my sigh with relief was heard. We hugged our hands and wished him luck in the upcoming Olympic tournament, hoping that this almost disaster did not damage his chances.

It wasn’t. Then he won the gold medal, arranging the destructive ball of the left hook, which was to become his trademark in the semi -finals against the Russian, on whom he broke his thumb. This injury restricted his power to hit in the finals when he developed German Hans Huber on the decision of the majority.

The next time I saw that the amazing left hook in action was in Madison Square Garden six years later, when Ellis knocked down and then exploded him on Grotesquelo swollen jaw ali in the 15th and final round, because he clearly won the first of the most dramatic trilogy in boxes. The report, which I returned to my newspaper group immediately after the fight, began: “The legend was listed. A man who hypnotized the world of his mouth of magic is no longer the greatest …”

The clash of Ali’s Shock were news on the first page around the world, London Evening Standard simply managed the great, delayed report of George Whiting: “Ali-Oot!”

The fight itself even exceeded her promotional noise. At the end of the 14th round, the phrase led on the results of the results of the Ace Arthur Mercante judge and two ring judges, and even as involved Ali-Shile I could not disagree with the final assessment of Mercante 8-6-1. Ali spent these three and a half years in exile in exile, with only two balmy -up fights, he finally caught up with him.

But the phrase, 205 pounds of smoldering injuries, was absolute in the pursuit of revenge, which he was looking for “Uncle Tom” of the bad and twisting tickets he survived from Ali in accumulation. He was a worthy winner.

Returning from the garden in the early hours, the air at 7th Avenue was still electric – and not only from shocks obtained from acrylic wallpaper in the hotel where we lived, Statler Hilton, celebrated as a stationary Hilton.

To be straightforward, when it comes to boxing, it wasn’t really the fight of the century. Ali against Frazier III, The Thrilla in Manila four years later, in my opinion three times was a good ring spectacle. “Closest to dying”, Ali was to notice. However, there is no doubt that their first garden event was the boxing of the century.

I still have a baseball cap and a perfectly produced 1.50 USD program, with his stunning cover of the celebrated sports artist Leroy Neiman, as well as other souvenirs, which, as I was told, can be worth a few beans for grandchildren when I go through.

But my personal memories of this magical night are priceless.

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Boxing History

Freddie Mills, promoter Boxing news

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Freddie Mills

A lot was written about Freddie Mills, such a hero in the years after the Second World War. I contributed to the documentary about him, regularly appearing at BBC Four, in which I described him as a man who was at that time a man who bet on the British ghost bulldog. Many nonsense was also written about this man and I don’t have any time for the absurd theory that he was somehow involved in the murder of “Jack The Stripper” – he was not.

Today he is particularly well remembered in the tragic way of his death. He certainly fought in later years after his business ventures began not to go. When he withdrew from the ring in 1950, he initially did very well and soon became so known as “Celebrity”, regularly appearing on television on all programs, from quiz games to musical functions. He also forged a compact acting career. Less known in it is his tiny time as the best boxing promoter, the side line he liked, in which he managed to succeed.
In 1951, Freddie managed several useful warriors, including good boys from Bristol. In January 1951 he took out a promoter license and tried to set regular shows at Bristol City football, Ashton Gate, where he planned to take part in his two juvenile stars, Gordon Hazella and Terry Ratcliffe. His first show took place on May 28, 1951, and both Hazell and Ratcliffe won the complex foreign opposition. That night eight thousand went through the gates, and Freddie began to try. He was promoted here, every great success.

In August 1952, a terrible tragedy met with the seaside town of Lynmouth North Devon, when a fierce storm caused earnest plaintiffs, and 34 people lost their lives. The local boxing community gathered quickly, and Freddie was at the forefront. Within a month, he organized a charity show in nearby Barnstaple to lend a hand the Danger Fund, and one of the most outstanding local civic dignitaries, as well as the former weight champion in world weight, Terry Allen from Islington, who presented the exhibition, free of charge.

Freddie was used to larger stages because he honored them all as a boxer, and hired an Empress Hall, Earls Court, in which boxing was staged for many years, in March 1952 he took over the place from David Braitman and Ronnie Ezra, who promoted several years. His first program was attended by a local hero, Joe Lucy, Yolande Pompey and Freddie King from Wandsworth, another warrior in which Mills was interested.

In his program, Mills said, with typical playness, that “I try to provide the best possible talent at popular prices, and all dissatisfied customers can meet me in the ring.” He did not have to worry that customers would not be satisfied, because Freddie issued many programs there in the next four years, and most of his best competitions are perlera. His first British title took place in 1953, when one of his favorites, Joe Lucy, raised a free featherlight belt from another London, Tommy McGovern.

Freddie was undoubtedly the most popular British boxer when he was lively and no one else reached his appreciation until Henry Cooper appeared in the 1960s. That is why it is satisfying to notice that the juvenile Cooper Boxed for Mills at the Earls Court show in 1955, stopping Joe Crickmar from Stepney to win his eighth professional competition.

Our photo this week shows that Frank Williams from Birkenhead hugged his hands with his opponent Gaetano Annaloro from Tunisia, while weighing before the 10-Runder second promotion of Freddie in the Earls Court in April 1952.

When Freddie stopped promoting, in 1956 he moved to other business and media projects and, as we know, he was dead at the age of 46.

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Boxing History

That day Andre Ward fought the last fight

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Sergey Kovalev

Sergey Kovalev shook. Right hand with Andre Ward He blew him up his chin and left him fears of the Russian legs of “Krushera”. He was seriously hurt.

Ward did not see it at the beginning. He became, leaving Kovalev on his feet. But then he stood up over him, hammering the Russian into the ring, feeding the arrows. Kovalev was eating in the ropes, fading him, folding on the hook.

Kovalev was trapped in ropes, pressed between the bands. He looked miserably at the judge, complaining about the low blow, but Tony Weeks stated it as a sign of anxiety. He fell to wave him there, and then, at 2-29 eighth round. Lithe championships in the world were resolved. Andre Ward has preserved the titles of IBF, WBA and WBO.

The Russian seemed spent at the moment, but soon explained his indignation. “He didn’t hurt me. I got tired, but I could still fight,” said Sergey. “He hit me [with] Low strokes several times during the fight. I don’t have a metal ass. “

He came to the fight, complaining about the decision of points in the first fight in November last year, about a department evading promotional duties and allegations that a team of Americans tried to prick their coach, and Kovalev left even more, fighting on a weekly intervention. “Who knows who would have victory if he did not stop fighting. I did not agree,” he added.

But Ward was in the process of expelling him from the competition. He had Kovaleva in a perilous place, and for me it was more a matter of the schedule of detention by a judge when the American finished him, and not the result was somehow illegal.

In the sharper evaluation department and his team they thought that Kovalev was looking for a way out. “He abandoned. I know what I have and I was lucky to show a high level of skill against the best in the world,” said Andre. “I think there should be a discussion if there is a deliberate foul, over and over, if I try to get out of trouble and hit him low because I am wounded. But when he bends, sometimes you hit a guy on the waist line …

Coach Ward Virgil Hunter can take some debt collection. Before the fight, he said that he trained his man for a victory in a knockout, at that time he was an unlikely perspective. But Ward proved that he could hurt “Krusher”.

The Russian decided that Mauling Clinches Warda was frustrating, but the American was also more effective in the middle, working in a close sucking in difficult hooks and upper. It has not been denyed now that Kovalev felt bodies. As the first half of the competition progressed, his hands were drifting lower, baseing gloves on the hips when he sucking in the air.

He revived too much, leaning after a low blow, as if he wanted to make a judge to intervene. He also left himself earlier in the eighth round, leaning at the waist, trying to emphasize another low blow, but the judge said nothing. Ward could then bring him a leisurely blow, but he refused.

“I was confused,” said Ward. “When I hit him with a shot, he tried to behave as if it was a low blow. It was border. I looked at weeks like” Can I go? I can’t go? “I didn’t want to score a point, I didn’t want something crazy to happen.”

It was far from the threat with which Kovalev began the fight. He caught a higher than Ward, looking like a stronger man. He moved and launched the lead right next to his body. Andre came down the law and tapped on a stab. These shots were not discouraged by Kovaleva, and his march lasted the attacker.

But most importantly, Ward began to choose the land in which the battle fought. Kovalev wanted him at the end of straightforward blows. But Ward either maneuver clearly, circled around him, or flowed forward, binding Sergey more and more moved in clinchs, but, most importantly, they also work on the inside.

He captured Kovaleva under many shoots and made the Russian miss many of his blows. He worries him during the opening of the exchange, especially when Sergey brought his bulky stab, Ward began to include these numerous threats. They were neck and neck after the first half of the fight (on two cards of judges and in my opinion).

But Ward’s strength attacks on the body affected. Kovalev was breathing heavily. Nevertheless, he stabbed firmly. Sergey threw himself right at the end of the seventh round, but only after surviving a wide left hook did he get into the head.

“I think he was almost the same as for the first time, so I knew what he liked to do and what he didn’t like to do. A high -quality warrior, but I was able to do several different things tonight,” Ward said.

“I am not fighting a C -class warrior. I fight the world champion, so he doesn’t separate you much in this kind of fights.”

But he added: “I am used to the vigilance of the uncomfortable. I train this way. I knew that he was approaching the round. I could say.”

When Ward began to wear in the competition, the decisive right cross began.

The blow drilled Kovalev’s jaw, wounded him like never before. It was a moment of truth.

From there, Sergey solved, rolled up by the ring, when Andre was tearing from the front. Kovalev shot, imprisoned on the ropes. Even with the last blow, he was in a bad position, there is nowhere to go. It is straightforward to understand why the judge who had to give his judgment at this wild moment spared him a further punishment.

“He was on his feet. I showed that I could hurt a larger man,” said Ward. “I did what I had to … Ref may allow it a little longer. But it’s not my fault. This is not my problem. I did my job.”

Sometimes even a knockout can be questioned. But Ward is undoubtedly the best weight for airy in the world. It dominates in its second weight class. After shocking Mikkel Kessler, controlling Carl Froch and taking Chad Dawson, this win is another key moment in search of size.

“It seems that they are constantly knocking the giants one by one,” says Ward. “Can I now get to the pound list for a pound? Is it possible?”

I suspect yes.

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Boxing History

Editor selection: When Carlos Zaryate, Alfonso Zamora and the invader on his fronts went crazy in Los Angeles

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Carlos Zarate

It was an exotic fight, with-men, two fighters from the promised land of boxers on an insignificant Inglewood forum. He was out of reach, foreign in every way for a British fight fan. It took me over 30 years to finally watch the fight from 1977 between Carlos Zaate I Alfonso Zamora. The reports were absorbed, the iconic status of the fight protected for a long time against watching the miracle of the fight. They were both world champions in Bantamweight, both undefeated, both adolescent and at some point, the godfather of Mexican boxing, Arturo “Cuyo” Hernandez, managed and managed them. His role is part of the story. They were not only invincible, they were ruthless, able to finish men with almost every blow. Zarys was 25 years aged, WBC champion and undefeated in 45 fights, and 44 ended quickly. Zamora was 23 years aged, WBA master and stopped or knocked on a senseless each of the 29 men he met. It was not an ordinary fight in the times of great boxing history, not a fight that has ever been in danger. In the decade, the decade, a decade, when any nostalgia struggles with the splendor of the day, the two little ones Mexicans shared several rounds of size. They belong, they are history.

However, before the first bell on the night of genius and madness, it is necessary to travel a little further in your schedules. We all know that the biggest fights in history are not the number of cases, they happen because of pride, stupidity, harm, rights and hundreds of external reasons that motivate the warrior.

Hernandez sold a contract for $ 40,000 to the boxer’s father. He never offered ZARAT’s contract for sale. This movement was personal and the plain feud of blood was inevitable from the perceived betrayal. But Hernandez was a ruthless man, and business in boxing is always to be only a business. However, Zamora was a traitor to the Clan, an enemy.

“I liked the boy, still like that. But to get rid of my father, I would sell a Pinto bean sack,” said Hernandez. This is a fight.

Kabala Aged Los Angeles Fight Fight entered this contract, promising each boxer a record bag of $ 125,000. The seventies were probably the last decade in which Los Angeles took place on the highest box of boxing, and when the city delivered itself, it delivered. The fight was agreed to one pound above Bantam’s weight limit, it would be only for the Macho belt and everyone left the ring as a master.

The forum was in a part of the city, often called Little Mexico, and in the night 13,966 tickets sold. This place was sweated, don’t make a mistake. The problem was that we did not deny it – it was expected, and the police were in their characteristic white helmets with their naked desire for confrontation. Crosses in the ring, looking for a pliable head to bury your long sticks. And, like fans, they would not be disappointed.

Richard Steele is the third man.

After only 54 seconds, the opening round is happening something really crazy. The fragility of the blows, the intensity of both boxers is interrupted when a fat man wearing a cozy white vest and a pair of gray fronts and climbs the ropes. The man gets between two boxers, raises his finger, has something to say, is on a mission, and then takes the pose kung fu. It happens that the fight has stopped and Steele just looks. The man just stands there.

Then the white helmets correspond and attack the ring. It’s wild, trust me. Five police of riots evict a man from the ring, the package and sticks him while flying. Then he is pulled and kicked from the ring, and his departure screams Zakopane near Ryki, when the boxers throw blows again. The fight is not even a minute.

Every blow is cruel, they fight, as if there was something bad on the line, and Zarys is hurt in the first. This is the fight of miracles and in the third round of Zamora begins to disappear. Zarys drops his great rival in the third. After the fourth Zamor, it is more than twice as much, she once hit tidy and slow by Zara. I would like to be there in affordable places for this fight.

When Zamora is on the back for the second time in the fourth round. His father climbs through the ropes and throws a moist towel from surrender to his son and lands on his face. However, he does not approach his affected boy. The fight officially ended in 71 seconds of the round. But Zamora SNR has unfinished business and she bursts Hernandez with a blow or two or three. The boxer is still on the floor when the ring is again besieged and the men begin to throw blows at each other.

Riot police return, this time six of them, and they are lost in a swing in a low -circuit 30, which took over the ring. It was the only possible ending.

Zamora lost the title in the next fight, lost three of the next seven and left boxing when he was only 26 years aged. It is rarely mentioned on the lists of Mexican idols.

Zarys lost the title next year with Wilfredo Gomez, lost over 15 rounds with Lupe Pintor in 1979 and gave up in 1988 after losing another fight with Daniel Zaragosis.

Zarys is a great Mexican, he won this fight, and his position will never have doubts. It was a fight that could permanently change man. The fate and life of a comic superhero on the Y fronts remain unknown. What a fight.

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