In this 1971 file photo, Joe Frazier heads for a neutral corner, as a dazed Muhammad Ali struggles to stand during their heavyweight championship in New York City. Frazier, the former heavyweight champion, has died. He was 67.

PHILADELPHIA - FILE: (EDITORS NOTE: THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY CONVERTED TO B&W) Joe Frazier, the former Heavyweight Champion of the World poses for a portrait at his boxing gym on March 18, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was reported that former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier was diagnosed with liver cancer over a month a go and is now under hospice care November 5, 2011.

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 1974, file photo, Muhammad Ali, left, and Joe Frazier fight in a 12-round non-title fight at Madison Square Garden in New York. Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier is seriously ill with liver cancer. His personal and business manager says Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, the 67-year-old boxer was diagnosed four or five weeks ago and is under hospice care.

The sad news of Joe Frazier’s death brought back a rush of childhood memories.

Many of you are no doubt too young to remember this, but there was a time when the heavyweight championship fights between Muhammad Ali and Frazier were bigger than the Super Bowl.

Their first titanic bout, on March 8, 1971 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, wasn’t just a boxing match, it was one of the most famous sporting events of the 20th century.

Ali, ever the showman, called the fight “the biggest sporting event in the history of the whole planet earth.” It was the first time two undefeated heavyweight champs had met for the title.

It was billed simply as “The Fight.”

You could watch the event live only if you were at The Garden along with Frank Sinatra and other celebrities, or if you paid a hefty fee to watch the fight at a movie theater on pay-per-view.

My brother Steve and I were forced to listen to a round-by-round reenactment on the radio.

When Frazier won a unanimous decision and decked Ali with a vicious hook in the 15th round, the world shook.

I still have a copy of the Sports Illustrated cover story of that fight. The headline “End of the Ali Legend.”

The headline was premature, to say the least. Ali’s legend was just beginning. As was Frazier’s.

Their third fight, the “Thrilla in Manila” on Oct. 1, 1975, was one of the most brutal, and certainly the most heroic, heavyweight fights of all time.

The event was painted, like a work of art, in an SI article by the late Mark Kram. It remains one of the finest articles about a sporting even that I have ever read. Do yourself a favor and read it.

In Manila, Ali and Frazier battered each other in 100-degree heat. The fight was carried around the world on closed-circuit TV before an estimated 700 million people in 65 countries. The fight swung back and fourth — each fighter reeling from blacksmith blows, each fighter moments from hitting the canvas.

By the 14th round, Ali was pummeling Frazier’s face at will.

Frazier’s face was a swollen mess, his eyes mere slits. He could barely see.

Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, threw in the towel at the end of the round.

“It’s all over,” Futch replied. “No one will forget what you did here today.”

Afterward, Ali, who was never the same after escaping that ring, said he had never felt closer to death. He described Frazier as “the greatest fighter of all time, next to me.”

There have been countless stories written in the wake of Frazier’s death. One of the better ones, one which provides historical insight into their bitter rivalry, was written by Time magazine’s Sean Gregory.

I can’t remember the last time I paid attention to a prize fight, but there was a time when Ali, and Frazier, really were kings of the world.

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