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1971 boxing match
the "Fight of the Century" between U. S. athletes Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali
The fight is widely regarded as the biggest boxing match in history and arguably the single most anticipated and publicized sporting event ever. An international audience observed the spectacle. It was the first time that two undefeated boxers who held or had held the world heavyweight title fought each other for that very title. The bout held broad appeal for many Americans, including non boxing and non sport fans. Ali, who had been stripped of his titles by boxing authorities for refusing to submit to the draft for the Vietnam War, had become a symbol of the anti establishment public during his government imposed exile from the ring. In contrast, Frazier supported U. S. involvement in the war, and he had been adopted by elements of the public with alternate views. In addition, both men possessed intense personal animosity towards each other. Frazier won in fifteen rounds by unanimous decision. Ali dealt with his first professional loss. It became the first of a trio of fights, followed by the rematch events Super Fight II (1974) and the Thrilla in Manila (1975). Both of those fights were won by Ali.

On the evening of the match, Madison Square Garden had a circus like atmosphere, with scores of policemen to control the crowd of outrageously dressed fans, kids, and countless celebrities, from Norman Mailer to Woody Allen. Unable to procure a ringside seat, Frank Sinatra took photographs for Life magazine instead. Nelson Mandela, who was in prison in South Africa during the event, spoke about how excited everybody was about this fight. Artist LeRoy Neiman painted Ali and Frazier as they fought. Burt Lancaster served as a color commentator for the closed circuit broadcast. Though Lancaster had never performed as a sports commentator before, he was hired by the fight's promoter, Jerry Perenchio, who was also a friend. Perenchio enlisted sports owner Jack Kent Cooke as financial backer of the fight with a bank guarantee of $4,000,000 which provided the bulk of the fighters' $5,000,000 fee. The other commentators were famed boxing play by play announcer Don Dunphy and former light heavyweight boxing champion and heavyweight competitor Archie Moore. The fight was sold, and broadcast by closed circuit, to 50 countries in 12 languages via ringside reporters to an audience estimated at 300 million, a record viewership for a television event at that time. Riots broke out at several venues as unresolvable technical issues interrupted the broadcast in several cities in the third round. And, although no live radio coverage of the fight itself was allowed under the terms of the promotion, the Mutual Radio Network did broadcast the fight the night of March 8, with announcers Van Patrick and Charles King, together with many other sports commentators, providing round by round summaries live as they came out over the UPI and AP wire services. The referee for the fight was Arthur Mercante, Sr After the fight, Mercante, a veteran referee of hundreds of fights, said: "They both threw some of the best punches I've ever seen." The fight itself exceeded many fans’ expectations and went the full 15 round championship distance. Ali dominated the first five rounds, peppering the shorter Frazier with rapier like jabs that raised welts on the champion's face. Ali was visibly tired after the sixth round, and though he put together some flurries of punches after that round, he was unable to keep the pace he had set in the first third of the fight. At 1 minute and 59 seconds into round eight, following his clean left hook to Ali's right jaw, Frazier grabbed Ali's wrists and swung Ali into the center of the ring; however, Ali immediately grabbed Frazier again until they were once again separated by Mercante. At 2:10 of the eleventh round, Frazier staggered Ali with a left hook, Ali's knees buckling—only bouncing off the ropes keeping Ali from again hitting the canvas. For the remainder of the round, Ali stumbled around the ring backing again and again into the ropes and grabbing at Frazier as Frazier continued battering him until the fighters were separated by Mercante at 2:55 into the round. Heading into round 15, all three judges had Frazier In the lead (7–6–1, 10–4, and 8–6), and Frazier closed convincingly. Early in the round, Frazier landed a left hook that put Ali on the canvas. Ali, his jaw swollen noticeably, got up at the count of four and managed to stay on his feet for the rest of the round despite several terrific blows from Frazier. A few minutes later, the judges made it official: Frazier had retained the title with a unanimous decision, dealing Ali his first professional loss.

Ali refused to publicly admit defeat and sought to define the outcome in the public's mind as a "White Man's Decision". Frazier lost the title 22 months later, when he was knocked down six times in the first two rounds by George Foreman in their brief but devastating January 22, 1973, title bout in Kingston, Jamaica. Ali split two bouts with Ken Norton in 1973 and was viewed by many as on a downward slide before a win in a rematch—Ali–Frazier II—in January 1974. That October, Ali shocked the world with a victory in Kinshasa, Zaire, over the heavily favored Foreman to regain the heavyweight title in The Rumble in the Jungle.

The fight provided cover for an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to successfully pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, which exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti war movements, on the basis that guards listening to radio coverage of the fight would be distracted from their duties. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Muhammad Ali, and the FBI's goals included their gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school.