Former World Heavyweight Champion, George Foreman has listed two of the greatest boxing fights he had ever witnessed.
Foreman, 71, picked Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier fight the James Toney and Iran Barkley fight.
He was asked him to name some of the greatest fights he had seen and he replied: “I saw Ali/ Frazier; the Toney/Iran Barkley; these fights were to of the best I ever saw ( from ringside )”
He did not specify the Ali/Frazier fight he was talking about. Ali and Frazier fought three times, with Ali winning two and Frazier winning one.
In the first fight in 1971, in a classic 15-round battle, Joe Frazier broke the wings of the butterfly and smashed the stinger of the bee, winning a unanimous 15-round decision over Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden.
The fight was dubbed: ‘Fight of the Century.’ It was the boxing match between WBC/WBA heavyweight champion Joe Frazier (26–0, 23 KOs) and The Ring/lineal heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (31–0, 25 KOs), held on Monday, March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The second fight, tagged: Super Fight II was a non-title boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The second of the three Ali–Frazier bouts, it took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on January 28, 1974. Ali was a slight favorite to win, and did by a unanimous decision albeit a controversial one, in which Ali clinched 133 times.
Ali-Frazier fight
The Thrilla in Manila was the third and final boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. It was contested in 1975 for the heavyweight championship of the world at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines, on Wednesday, October 1.
The venue was renamed from Araneta Coliseum, specifically for the match. Ali won by technical knockout (TKO) after Frazier’s chief second, Eddie Futch, asked the referee to stop the fight following the end of the 14th round.
James Toney and Iran Barkley fight
In the fight between James Toney and Iran Barkley in 1993, Toney won by a technical knockout in the 9th round. The venue was Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
