This American rematch lacks punch

In March 1971, I spent several hours in a dentist’s waiting room, dreading the impending torture of the drill. The only compensation were the handy American magazines, full of arguably the most anticipated sporting event in history—the Big Fight between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.

- NAVTEJ SARNA

Both were undefeated champions: Ali was returning from the wilderness after four years having being stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing the military draft; in his absence, Frazier had emerged as the greatest boxer around. Beyond the boxing, there was an immense cultural rizz that divided public consciousness: Ali the anti-establishment hero, a conscientious objector; Frazier a war supporter. Not just a packed Madison Square Garden but a closed-circuit and free television audience of 300 million waited for Ali’s famed shuffle and Frazier’s killer left hook. In the event, Frazier won in 15 rounds. Ali would avenge the defeat in a 1974 rematch and in the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ in 1975 but by then the world, as is its wont, had moved on; the Vietnam war was over and the oomph had gone out of the contest.