Boxing: 50 years of Madison Square Garden: The most legendary boxing fights in the MSG

The night of the 4th. March two big boxing matches will start in New York. While heavyweight world champion Deontay Wilder will face unbeaten rival Luis Ortiz (live on DAZN) at the Barclays Center Brooklyn, Sergey Kovalev will face Igor Mikhalkin (live on DAZN) at the same time. The scene of the second fight is the legendary Madison Square Garden. The MSG celebrates its 50th anniversary at this location. SPOX has made a selection of the most legendary fights in the Mecca of boxing.

The 8th. In March 1971, the MSG fought a fight that was announced as the “Fight of the Century” and went down in history: Muhammad Ali met Joe Frazier for the first time. Ali returned with the fight from his three-year exile after being convicted of conscientious objection to military service in 1967. In the course of the trial, the unbeaten boxing champion was not only deprived of his title but also his boxing license. In Ali’s absence, Frazier won and defended the heavyweight title without defeat.

In addition to the sporting aspect, the fight also had a special cultural appeal. Ali was considered a rebel not only for his conscientious objection to military service, but was also a supporter of the Black Supremacy ideology. Frazier, on the other hand, was also African-American, but he stood for a completely different trend in American society. He was considered a “good Negro” by the whites, so Ali mocked him as “Uncle Tom”.

At the first encounter of two unbeaten heavyweight champions Frazier kept the upper hand. He was able to weaken his opponents in the course of the fight mainly by head and liver strikes and did not let himself be irritated by the “clowneries” of Alis. In the end, Frazier won the fight unanimously on points, Ali could not beat him several times before the knockout. save them.

In the second fight of the two legends in Madison Square Garden just under three years later, Ali took revenge with a narrow victory.

The duel between Duran and Moore on 16. Due to its one-sidedness and brutality, June 1983 remains in the minds of boxing fans to this day. On his 32nd birthday. Hands of Stone “Roberto Duran dominated the fight for the semi-middleweight title against unbeaten favourite Roberto Duran and won the eighth round with a technical knockout.

The fight was so one-sided that both Moore’s mother and his girlfriend fainted in the audience and pleaded for an end to the bloodbath. In retrospect, the referee was harshly criticized for not finishing the match earlier.

The Referee also played a decisive role in the biggest mass brawl in the mecca of boxing: on the 11th day of the Olympic Games. July 1996 Andrew Golota dominated the fight against Riddick Bowe and led clearly on points. However, the victory believed to be certain was snatched away from Poland. Due to repeated low strokes Golota was disqualified in the seventh round.

As a result, Bowes’ team rushed into the ring to attack Golota. One of the rioters repeatedly hit the Pole on the head with a mobile phone. This was followed by a huge mass brawl between the parties of the two fighters, which could only be resolved after more than half an hour. The result was disastrous: 15 spectators, nine policemen and a member of Golota’s team were taken to hospital, 16 people were arrested.

The fact that you can also leave a lasting impression in the boxing world without violence was shown by the audience on 13. March 1999. Actually, Lennox Lewis seemed to be the clear winner after the unification fight in the heavyweight against Evander Holyfield.

But when the jury judged the fight as a draw, many of the over 21,000 spectators at Madison Square Garden let their displeasure run wild with whistles and boo-boots. The controversial decision led to a rematch eight months later in Las Vegas, which was won by Lewis.

The scene was outraged:

Page 1: The most legendary fights in Madison Square Garden before the turn of the millennium

Page 2: The most legendary fights in Madison Square Garden in the 21st century. century