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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

10 times WBC changed the game

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Vitali Klitschko WBC

  1. Reduction of 15-order
    After the death of Deuk Koo Kim during the fight with Ray Mancini in 1983, WBC issued a principle that stated that the maximum distance for the fight for the championship would be 12 rounds.
  2. I weigh at least 24 hours earlier
    Due to the fears of weakening of the boxers due to the weight production process, and then the fight on the same day as the indicator, the day before the introduction of defects.
  3. Intermediate weight classes
    Sport once had only eight classes, but now it has 17 (well, 18, if you include the producing weight). WBC introduced several novel divisions, recently in weight, super-medium weight and circuitous weight.
  4. Gloves without your thumbs
    In 1983, Everlast created the first thumb glove and was accepted by WBC due to fears related to eye injuries associated with the “thumb”. Today, the thumb is attached.
  5. Doping tests
    WBC were one of the first to enforce doping tests after the fight, and in 2016 introduced their immaculate boxing program, which required the fighters to want to be classified to register in random tests.
  6. Retired
    Masters who retire, still having the title of WBC, are usually awarded with the status of a “retired”, which means that if they return, they will automatically get a shot to the current master. Vitali Klitschko [above] He started it in 2008, when he returned to defeat Samuel Piotr.
  7. Four ropes
    It often happened that boxing rings have only three ropes, but WBC made it obligatory for all rings to put up the championships that consist of four.
  8. Diamond Championships
    A bit nonsense championship that appears in the “historical” battle in the division. Manny Pacquiao won the first welterweight division when he defeated Miguel Cotto in 2009.
  9. WBC Cares
    The organization performs a significant charity work with WBC Cares, which since founded in 2006 has over 160 volunteers around the world (their British branch is managed by Scott Welch).
  10. Franchise championship
    The franchise championships, which were introduced with great mockery in 2019, are different than diamond, silver, transient titles and allows masters to move between divisions, ignoring mandatory obligations and doing almost what they like. Probably it’s best not to start with this …

Read our interview with the President of WBC Mauricio Sulaiman HERE

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Boxing History

The Green Man: The Pub/Boxing Gym, which attracted Tommy Farr, David Bowie and more

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Tommy Farr

Blackheath-Urocza, a wealthy, relatively deciduous part of the south-eastern London-does not have obvious boxing ties. From sport, he is best known as a starting point in the London marathon and for the apartment of the world’s oldest open rugby club. But return 60 to 90 years, and the surrounding area had a prosperous boxing gym, popular among the best characters of this sport.

The green man was a pub on Blackheath Hill with boxeria above him. He shot in importance as a boxing plant in 1937, when two world warriors, Great Britain Tommy Farr And America Petey Sarron decided to train there. The British weighty title Farr was preparing for Showdown on April 15 with Max Baer, ​​who would ultimately lead him to a heavyweight title defining the career with Joe Louis four months later. The prevailing champion of the world featherweight, Sarron, was preparing to fight with the same Survivist-first in this country-a former British Lightweight King Harry Mizler.

At the beginning of April Boxing news The columnist “The Watcher” visited Green Man Gym, and then using the boxing manager Walter Daya and the seriously striking seafarer Jim Lawlor to see Train Farr and Sarron. The banner above the door proclaiming “Tommy Farr and Petey Sarron Tround here” told him that he was in the right place. However, he arrived too overdue to see how the warriors were working and said that Farr was changing after his session.

“Tommy welcomed me warmly when I regretted that I was too overdue. Jim Lawlor was at hand and he welcomed me a lot, invited me to a cup of tea, and I was very worried about showing me. The wardrobe was equipped with a shower bath, rubbing the table and everything. Large windows overlooked Blackheath and said that here was the perfect place to prepare here. to the competition, because such a wonderful open space – and it could be high – and it could be up – and it could be up.

“Tommy finished the dressing, and then I was taken over to junior high school. A full -size and properly staged ring was erected in a roomy and well -lit room, while ordinary amenities necessary for training had a desire for training. The place was vast enough to issue the program, and Lawlor told me that they introduced several amateur shows.

“The presence of Tommy Farr and Petey Sarron will undoubtedly bring them a lot of publicity and recommendations, because in addition to the fact that the British champion was very enthusiastically focused on it, later I learned from Jimmy Erwin, the world champion manager that he was looking at all training exercises in the south of England, not finding a place that suited him better.”

In 1939, Jock McAVoy trained at Green Man-Swoim with his first training in London-his last fight with Len Harvey’s rival, in a program that set a attendance record in Great Britain over 90,000. Seventeen years later the Green Man’s gym was still busy when Dick Richardson prepared for his clash of December 1956 Nino Valdes.

In the 1960s, the pub became a popular place of music where Paul Simon, Manfred Mann, Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott performed. In 1963, 16-year-old David Bowie played there with his first professional band The Konrads. At this memorable concert of Bowie, until then, the saxophonist entered as the main singer, when the band’s frontman cut his foot on a broken glass in the cloakroom in a pub. Then Bowie took the position of the singer. Unfortunately, for sentimental fans of boxing or music, in 1970 a green man was demolished. Today, there is an indefinite block of flats in its place.

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Boxing History

Version – Marco Antonio Barrera wins a furious and electrifying rubber match over Erik Morales

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Marco Antonio Barrera

Marco Antonio Barrera in MD 12 Erik Morales
November 27, 2004; MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV
Mexican warriors Barrera and Morales ended their epic trilogy in a properly urgent style, creating another unforgettable war. Entering in the start, in the case of the Super Feather WBC Morales belt, the series stood with one winner per item. Morales won the initial meeting in Super-Bantam in 2000, and Barrera secured the creation of a rematch in 2002 in a featherweight-the decisions were questioned. Accordingly, the verdict in the rubber match also caused a debate. As in the previous two meetings, bitter enemies got involved in a furious fight, and the electrifying 11 round turned out to be particularly cruel. Ultimately, Barrera went to the top and adapted Morales’s achievement, becoming the three world letter.

Do you know? At that time, WBO Feather Highland Scott Harrison was interested in an observer in Ringside. He hoped to catch the winner.

Watch out for: In the middle of nine, the fighters are involved in the clinch, and Barrera is bursting morale at the back of the head with a legal apparatus. Uninvited by his opponent, Morales refuses to touch Barrera gloves when the judge was asked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctlipjgecq

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