Last night I stumbled on the Ali Frasier bout from 1974. Starting about half way through II. Talk about leaving it on the arena. Those guys went at it. Toward the end I was pretty much holding my breath because it felt like any second one could knock the other out....even though I pretty much knew how it would end.

I was an Ali fan from early on. I remember when he changed his name fro..m Cassius to Ali. I remember my uncles being against it. I have no memory of what my Dad said about it but I suspect not much. I loved his activism for racial rights.

The history books say Ali and Joe grew old together that night in Manilla. The fight ended with Joe not going into the ring for round 15. The second part of 14 he was nearly defenseless as Ali landed a lot of punches, though they were both so tired they could barely scratch their nose.

In later years Ali confessed to playing things up about Joe to bolster the gate and regretted what it did to Joe. Joe for many years would not forgive Ali but near the end of Ali's life when he was clearly being ravaged by the disease he finally died from, (was it parkinsons?) I believe Joe did shake Ali's hand.

Great stuff!

Too bad we did not understand what all the blows were doing to their brains.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.