Though this fight is often dismissed as the comparitively mediocre filling sandwiched between two all time great heavyweight classics, it steadily built into another rousing encounter over the second half, each man taking it in turns to produce terrific rounds.
Far from the walkover for Ali that many believe this rematch victory to be, Frazier actually scored effectively to the body whenever Ali sought to hold behind the head, inbetween Muhammad’s more eye catching work at centre ring and during Frazier’s attempts to work his way in. Ignore those close quarter moments and it’s Ali by a landslide. Take note as we should (and acknowledge that Ali’s holding is an illegal tactic), and it’s the close run thing the fight actually was.