Thrilla Manila

It has been 45 years since the most celebrated match of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier took place in the Philippines. But until now, Thrilla in Manila remains one the most talked about boxing fights of the century

- Maritess Garcia Reyes

It was 10 am in Manila on the first day of October 1975. The sun was unforgiving. Despite the intense heat, the aluminum-roofed Araneta Coliseum (then referred to as the Philippine Coliseum) was exploding with cheer, jampacked with more than 36,000 people waiting to witness what would be a historic match between two boxing legends. “We were fortunate to host Thrilla in Manila at the Araneta Coliseum on October 1, 1975. Consistently ranked by USA sportswriters as probably ‘the world’s best boxing match in sports history’, the fight was the culmination of a three-bout contest between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship of the world,” says Jorge L Araneta, chairman and CEO of the Araneta Group.

The bout started on a high note, with Frazier, cloaked in blue, entering the larger-than-usual 6.4sqm ring, followed by Ali, who had incessantly thrown provocative words at the former for months leading to the match up until the time the two were called to the centre of the ring. “You don’t have it, you don’t have it! I’m going to put you away,” Ali was caught on camera, to which Frazier smiled and replied, “We’ll see.” Both were determined to crush each other to get the throne to what would later translate into arguably the greatest fight in boxing history.