Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali agreed to meet for the second time, on January 28, 1974 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. After his knockout loss to George Foreman in January of 1973, Joe had one more bout that year, vs. Joe Bugner on July 2 in England. Frazier got back on the winning path with a 12 round decision win, to set up the rematch with Ali.
Ali had struggled with Ken Norton in 1973, lost to him on March 31 in San Diego, and barely won their rematch in September. The ex-champ squeezed in one more bout in ’73, traveling to Jakarta to win a twelve round decision over some guy named Rudi Lubbers. With his rematch with Frazier now set, Ali went into serious training to avenge his loss in their memorable Super-Fight of March 8, 1971.
Five days before their fight, both Ali and Frazier met in the ABC studios in New York City with Howard Cosell. After Ali called Joe ignorant on a number of occasions, Joe stood over him, challenged him, and both men wound up on the floor wrestling. The bad blood between the two was obvious, and despite claims from people over the years that the two were friends, nothing could be further from the truth.
I was only 13 at the time, and didn’t see it live on closed-circuit. Reading about it in the newspapers and sports magazines I got in the mail would have to suffice. It wasn’t until years later that actually saw the entire bout, and to me was definitely a clear cut victory for Ali. Muhammad outboxed Frazier, kept him at bay with his jab, was never hurt, and finished the bout in control, earning the twelve round decision.
Frazier was a loser in a big bout again, so took five months off before returning to ring action against Jerry Quarry on June 17, 1974 back in the Garden again. Joe was impressive, stopped Quarry in the fifth, and was back in the winning column again.
That October, Ali shocked the world by knocking out George Foreman in Zaire, to regain the heavyweight championship. Frazier not saw an opportunity for another shot at the title, and hoped that the new champ would actually give him one.
On March 2, 1975, Joe traveled to Melbourne, Australia for a rematch with Jimmy Ellis. Joe won via a 9th round TKO, and came back to America with one thing on his mind, a third fight with Ali.
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