Customer Reviews

Thrilla in Manila - Ali vs. Frazier III 1975 [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

October 1st, 1975, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier meet in Manilla for their third epic battle. NBC Sports put together this special program for its "Greatest Bouts of All-Time" Series, which originally aired in the early 1990's. Hosted by Marv Alpert and the "Fight Doctor" Ferdie Pachecho, the two review the bout round by round with commentary from Frazier, Angelo Dundee, Eddie Futch, and the referee Carlos Padilla. It is very well done, with a good introduction to the fight, the controversy that surrounded it, Frazier's personal hatred of Ali, and of course the exciting bout itself.

The fight is spectacular, Ali taking the early rounds, Frazier taking over the middle rounds, and then the slugfest finish! Both fighters gave everything of themselves in this their last fight. Although I personally believe their first fight in 1971 was better, this is certainly a fight worth every frame of film. It is certainly one of Ali's greatest fights.

Highly recommended for all fight fans.

Jim "Konedog" Koenig, Fight Fan

This is definatly, by far, the best fight ive ever seen in my whole life, packed with toe to toe action the whole fight. This is a fight everybody will love and for fans of the sweet science and Ali, this is an absolute must have, its more than worth the money. After seeing tons of fights and being a soon to be fighter myself, i know a good fight, and this is a great fight in every sence of the word.

Loved every second of it and if I could Id give it 50 stars.

This was not a championship fight, this was a WAR. It's was obvious, then and now, that Frazier detested ALI. ALI always publicly humiliated Frazier, either by calling him a gorilla, chump, uncle tom, etc... By this time, their third and final battle, this was simply a war of attrition. Their wasn't much dancing by ALI, and Frazier constantly stalked his prey as ususal. Simply back and forth action for 14 rounds. Can't get any better than this!! Other than probably their first battle "The Fight of the Century".

A fight full of drama, high tempratures, non-stop action, blood, mouthpieces flying around the ring AND OUTSIDE, emotions, courage...and da power of da heartz of men.. this was an all-out WAR. The best heavyweight clash ul ever see.. no heavyweight in these days can put together a fight like these two men on that hot gruesome day.. Ali showed speed, accuracy, aggression, brains, courage, an outstanding chin and all round great athletisicm, frazier.. a TANk with No Reverse Gear..constantly coming forward.. every man giving everything they had up till the last round of the fight. like i said..no heavyweight has ever come close to showing bravery courage and absolute physical strength as these two men..on that hot day..in the philiipines. its a must see! hardcore boxing fan..rocky fan even..or a sports fan..or even to witness the power given to these to men by the almighty god.. its 10* not 5...

Grown men were crying at ringside at the conclusion of this fight. Ali and Frazier took the human spirit into new and uncharted territory in this brutal and brutalising fifteen round epic.

Frazier on Ali : Lawdy, lawdy, he's a great champion. I hit him with shots that would have brought down the walls of a city.

Ali on Frazier : That's a man ! That's a man ! I take back everything I said about Joe. I don't want anybody to say a bad word about him ever again.

Great action packed fight from rounds 1 to 14. All Ali fans (like myself) should posses this video.Both Ali and Frazier went to their physical limits in trying to obtain the victory. As a person who has seen other Frazier fights I can tell you that Frazier put more effort into this fight than he did in his whole proffessional career. That includes the "Fight of the Century" (Ali-Frazier I). Ali seemed to bring out the fire in him.

Also great officiating by referee Padilla. He does a great job of handleing both fighters (especially Ali who had a habit of holding) thus allowing for continuous action.

I personally disagree with the other reviewers who claim that the commentary was weak. Perhaps Flip Wilson and Hugh O'Brien were not that great but Dumphry and Norton do a fine job. Especially Ken Norton. I feel Norton offers a rich contribution to this video. Norton does an excellent job of anylising the strengths and weaknesses of both fighters. And believe me he's on point. As a boxer himself who had faught Ali (twice at this point in time) and was a sparring partner for Frazier it's easy to understand why Norton has such great knowledge. It's also interesting to note that Fraziers cornerman Edie Futch was Norton's former handler.

I urge all of you viewers (and future purchasers) to listen to Norton's comments at the same time you watch the fight and you'll agree with me that Norton's on point with his anlysis. He should give Foreman and Vinny Panzianze some pointers on how to to better commentary of boxing matches. I feel that Norton should seriously consider becoming a regualar commentator of todays fights. NORTON'S BETTER THAN GEORGE FOREMAN WILL EVER BE AT BOXING COMMENTARY.

My only dissapointment was that unlike the "Rumble in The Jungle" this video doesn't have a post fight interview. I felt that the "Rumble's" post fight interview was very interesting (not to mention exciting). I would liked to have heard what the boxers and trainers had to say. A little bit of the post fight interview is on the "Ali:The Whole Story" series. I had assumed that much more of this would have been on this video. I was thus surprised when none of it was shown.That's why I gave this video 4 instead of 5 stars while I rated the "Rumble" a perfect 5.

One thing is for sure:ALI IS THE GREATEST!

This was simply one of the most brutal boxing matches of all time. Non-stop action for 14 rounds. Plus this video has the entire fight and even the pre-fight introductions. The only drawback are the lousy TV commentators: Don Dunphy, Ken Norton, Flip Wilson, and Hugh O'Brien. I'd rather hear Howard Cosell; at least he knew how to properly describe the action.

This is the actual footage from one of the greatest, most memorable heavyweight bouts in modern boxing history. The before fight info and ring-side color commentary from such heavyweight luminaries as Ken Norton only add to the spectacle. Highly recommended!

This is the best boxing match in history. No one is clear precisely what drove Ali and Frazier to take each other to hell again and again, but watching this reminds you that Frazier had the worst attitude an opponent can have: "I refuse to lose". It doesn't matter how many times Frazier gets his mouthpiece knocked out, nor does it matter to him when Ali starts opening up his face like a can of tomatoes. He absolutely refuses to give up.

Ali employs the rope-a-dope not like he usually did (with absolute ease), but with a kind of quiet desperation. Frazier keeps bombarding him with shots that sound like huge hands striking bongos. At times this gets so intense that you expect them to jump out of the ring and start beating each other up.

You can feel how important this is when you watch it. Ali ultimately triumphs, of course, but what Eddie Futch told Frazier is undeniably true: "No one will ever forget what you did here tonight". Their first fight is great, true, and it isn't a rubber match; but it cannot live up to this final consummation of personal hatred between Ali and Frazier.

This is required material for anyone who loves boxing, also giving us a sense of how underappreciated Joe Frazier was until just recently.

The "Thrilla in Manilla" is without a doubt the best heavyweight fight I have seen. One of the best feuds in sports. This fight showed the skill, the passion, and above all else, the courage of both men. Neither man was willing to go down to the other. This fight went back and forth, each man giving and receiving a tremendous amount of punishment. Yet each man kept moving foward, neither man ever backed down. This was one of the hardest hitting, action packed fights of all-time, but because it was for the world title, and because the two fighters were Ali and Frazier and with everything between them, that it why it is the best heavyweight fight of all-time.