ring. As the years went on Ali wenton winning but the years were passing and that was having some affect on him. In 1970Muhammad fought against Jerry Quarry and even though Ali did win the fight it wasnoticeable that he was moving slower than he did in the late 1960’s. He began takingmore punches instead of dodging and dancing from them like he used to do, but he wasalso stronger this time around. Out to recapture the title of Heavyweight Champion, Ali jumped back intotraining camp to train. The bout was one of three legendary fights between Ali andFrazier. Since the title was taken from him and was not lost in the ring many people feltAli was still rightfully the Heavyweight Champion. Ali openly ridiculed Frazier showinglack of fear for his opponent. Despite all of Ali’s negative remarks, Frazier was a toughopponent. The actual fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was absorbing morepunishment than he ever did before. In the fifteenth round the unthinkable happened: Frazier hit Ali on the jaw with a bone crushing left hook and that knocked him to thecanvas. Ali did bounce back up as fast as he went down, but when the fight ended, it wasclear that Frazier was the winner. It was Ali’s first professional loss but he was not readyto quit. On March 13, 1973, Ali was given his second professional loss (and a brokenjaw) by Ken Norton, but Ali won the rematch. Ali-Frazier II took place the next year andbecause Frazier had lost the title to brutal newcomer George Foreman, neither werechampions, but even so the fight was still a legendary one. Ali came out the winner andFrazier demanded for a rematch but first Ali had to travel to Zaire to get his title backfrom the current undisputed World Champ, George Foreman.The big battle between Ali and Foreman was to take place in Africa because DonKing, an ex-con and up-and-coming boxing promoter, suggested he could give thefighters 5 million dollars each if the fig...
