Happy 40th Anniversary to the Thrilla In Manila.

On October 1, 1975, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali battered each other for fourteen rounds. At the end of the fourteenth round, both guys were done. Frazier couldn’t see. Ali compared how he felt to death. Eddie Futch wouldn’t let Frazier go out for the fifteenth, probably saving Ali just as much as he did Frazier.

Tim Dahlberg wrote a great piece about the fight for Yahoo! Sports. There’s countless great material out there if you want to learn more about the fight. HBO Sports did a documentary on the fight. Mark Kram wrote the highly regarded Ghosts Of Manila.

Some call it the greatest heavyweight fight of all time. If you haven’t watched it, see for yourself.