Jerry Izenberg on Ali-Frazier 50 years ago:
Before that fight hippies and hard hats were fighting in time square of all places with pipes and baseball bats. It was horrible.
People then decided their choice of which fighter they would root for was based on the war. Ali had no quarry with the Vietcong so 60% or so were rooting for Ali. The other 40% were routing for Frazier. That night in the arena I would 70% was pro-Ali because they were New Yorkers and they had the money and they went to the fight.
The fight itself was fantastic because of the emotion and because of the crowd. But really not because of the fight. Now I don’t care what anybody else says, I’m my own judge and I use my own scorecard, Joe Frazier won that fight by a couple of rounds.
Related: Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier Revisited 50 Years Later