Boxing's Most Important Fight

Ali – Frazier I: Forget the politics surrounding this fight. You can even forget boxing’s arguably greatest rivalry between Joe Frazier and Ali. These two fighters were both paid 2.5 million dollars each. In 1971, this is unheard of. These two are both known as “The Million Dollar Fighters.” There were fights that generated more money, however I always felt that if the value of the dollar was put into play (70’s vs. 21st century) this might still have generated more money than any other fight in boxing history. How big was this fight? The “Irish Republican Army” stopped fighting to watch it. Frank Sinatra had to sneak into the “Press Section” to get a seat. Any and every star showed up at this one. It’s also lucky that the biggest fight ever lived up to it’s reputation and might’ve been the greatest fight ever. Ali and Frazier set the tone for what is now known as “The Super Fight.” Since this contest, we’ve had lots of million dollar purses and record after record is broken as PPV continues to fly. In my judgement, this is the fight that made all that possible.

Other fights welcome.

Maybe in the monetary aspect.

But I'd put Louis-Scmelling II over Ali-Frazier for importance.

I can't argue with either choice.Johnson-Jeffries should be mentioned as well.Huge build-up to this fight due to the huge racial overtones.

NBrooks5 wrote:

Maybe in the monetary aspect.

But I'd put Louis-Scmelling II over Ali-Frazier for importance.

Brooks, I was about to make a whole list and put Louis-Schemeling II as the number two fight. Instead I wanted the board to add fights. I'm interested to know why you think it (Louis - Schmeling II) has greater significance than Ali - Frazier I.

WinstonSmith wrote:

I can't argue with either choice.Johnson-Jeffries should be mentioned as well.Huge build-up to this fight due to the huge racial overtones.

Great choice. I would think the importance of this would be that America had no other choice than to respect Jack Johnson as it's champion. The first Black HW Champ had a great deal of people that didn't want to believe he was the best Heavyweight in the world. The Jeffries fight put that insanity to rest.

Who can forget Jack London's plea,"Jim Jeffries must emerge from his alfalfa farm and remove that golden smile from Jack Johnson's face."

Imagine someone saying something like that today.

4445Frank wrote:

NBrooks5 wrote:

Maybe in the monetary aspect.

But I'd put Louis-Scmelling II over Ali-Frazier for importance.

Brooks, I was about to make a whole list and put Louis-Schemeling II as the number two fight. Instead I wanted the board to add fights. I'm interested to know why you think it (Louis - Schmeling II) has greater significance than Ali - Frazier I.

If Louis doesn't win the second fight what happens to the Heavyweight Championship of the World? From 38 to 45 someone would have had to go to Nazi Germany to get it back. I really don't think the Nazi propaganda machine would have ever allowed anyone with a chance to win to get a fight.

I won't even bring up the point of a black man sticking it to Hitler (even though Schmelling was adamant about not being a Nazi).

Its cloe

Louis vs Schmelling 2 was listened to by over 100 million people around the world via radio

Ali vs Frazier was huge

its between those two

Johnson vs Jeffries is another up for consideration

NBrooks5 wrote:

4445Frank wrote:

NBrooks5 wrote:

Maybe in the monetary aspect.

But I'd put Louis-Scmelling II over Ali-Frazier for importance.

Brooks, I was about to make a whole list and put Louis-Schemeling II as the number two fight. Instead I wanted the board to add fights. I'm interested to know why you think it (Louis - Schmeling II) has greater significance than Ali - Frazier I.

If Louis doesn't win the second fight what happens to the Heavyweight Championship of the World? From 38 to 45 someone would have had to go to Nazi Germany to get it back. I really don't think the Nazi propaganda machine would have ever allowed anyone with a chance to win to get a fight.

I won't even bring up the point of a black man sticking it to Hitler (even though Schmelling was adamant about not being a Nazi).

I agree with you. Believe it or not, it looks like Louis - Schmeling had an edge in social implications over Ali and Frazier. Ali - Frazier I, for all the politics involved, , had a mostly financial effect on the fight game. Impossible to say which one was more important, which is why Louis - Schmeling was number two on my list. I also like Johnson vs Jeffries for reasons already stated.

all 3 had different important meanings and all are excellent choices.

louis=smelling for all practical purposes was the most significant..