Thrilla in Manila
| Date | October 1, 1975 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Araneta Coliseum, Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBA, WBC and The Ring undisputed heavyweight titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ali wins by corner retirement in round 14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier III, billed as the Thrilla in Manila, was the third and final professional boxing match between undisputed champion Muhammad Ali, and former champion Joe Frazier, for the heavyweight championship of the world. The bout was conceded after fourteen rounds on October 1, 1975, at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines, located in Rizal at the time of the event (later Metro Manila shortly after the event). The venue was temporarily renamed the "Philippine Coliseum" for this match. Ali won by corner retirement (RTD) after Frazier's chief second, Eddie Futch, asked the referee to stop the fight after the 14th round. The contest's name is derived from Ali's rhyming boast that the fight would be "a killa and a thrilla and a chilla, when I get that gorilla in Manila."
The bout is almost universally regarded as one of the best and most brutal fights in boxing history, and was the culmination of a three-bout rivalry between the two fighters that Ali won, 2–1. Some sources estimate the fight was watched by 1 billion viewers, including 100 million viewers watching the fight on closed-circuit theatre television, and 500,000 pay-per-view buys on HBO home cable television.