JEFF POWELL's FIGHTS OF THE CENTURY: Can Canelo Alvarez v Terence Crawford break its way into the definitive list of the greatest boxing megafights?

Roll up, roll up for the Fight of the Century.

Boxing’s age-old clarion call is ringing out once more. Along the fabled Strip in the Nevada desert as Mexico’s living legend Canelo Alvarez defends his undisputed world super-middleweight championship against America’s current finest Terence Crawford.

The Fight of the 21st Century? We shall see this Saturday night as two icons approaching the end of their distinguished careers strive to put a climactic touch to their legacies.

Although both are well into their 30s it is by no means beyond Canelo and Crawford to surpass the less than majestic efforts of Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquaio when laying their shaky claim to the crown – thus far.

The preceding centuries produced several more compelling claimants to the crowns of their ages.

Evaluating the best calls upon not only the skills, courage and drama involved but also each fight’s impact on social history.

THE FIGHT OF THE 19TH CENTURY

John L Sullivan v Gentleman Jim Corbett

Olympic Club, New Orleans, USA, September 7, 1892. CORBETT won by knockout in the 21st round.

By a supreme irony, one of the greatest heavyweights of all time sustained his only defeat in one of the most iconic fights in the annals of the prize ring.

Sullivan answered the deafening public clamour to come out of three-year retirement and face Corbett, the putative successor to his throne.

A fairly wealthy man, he did so ‘more for the history of our game’ than the one thousand-dollar purse. Had he not done so the 'Boston Strong Boy', as John L was nicknamed, would have retired undefeated with more victories than Rocky Marciano. 

But his role was destined to be that of passing the torch to a modernised era of boxers trained in the gym rather than the hard school of street fights. Or in Sullivan’s case, in saloon slugfests with ‘any man in the room who fancies his luck’.

Those unofficial bouts and many more in fairgrounds are believed to have extended his record to some eight times more than his formal reckoning of 51 fights, 38 by knock-out, two draws, and that solitary defeat.

A Warner Bros film would portray how the younger Corbett’s speed and more cultured technique caught up with Sullivan by way of stoppage in the 21st round of a compelling contest. ‘If had to lose,' said John L, I’m glad it was to an American.’

He remains unique in his double distinction as the last bare-knuckle heavyweight champion and the first gloved world champion under the Queensberry Rules. His longest fight had come in a 75th round (yes, SEVENTY-FIFTH) knockout of Ireland’s Jake Kilrain, for both those titles.

That, and a blood-drenched 39th-round stoppage of England’s Charley Mitchell were other contenders for the fight of this century.

Sullivan went on to pursue a multi-faceted life as a theatre-loving stage actor, a baseball umpire, the boxing writer who pioneered the advent of sports back pages in a Boston newspaper and a bar owner who became a motivational lecturer in favour of alcohol prohibition. As well as a consultant to two United States presidents.

THE (FIRST) FIGHT OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Jack Johnson v James J Jeffries

Reno, USA, July 4, 1910. JOHNSON won by TKO in the 15th round.

This fight was about so much more than the world heavyweight title. It was a melting pot in the post-slavery racial divide in America.

Johnson was the first black world heavyweight champion, Jeffries the 35-year-old former champion carried shoulder-high out of six-year retirement as ‘the great white hope.’

The provocative, symbolic date chosen for this explosive clash of cultures was July 4 - US Independence Day - the build-up was riven with racist abuse way above the scale which would be punishable by a long term of imprisonment in the State of Starmer.

Jeffries himself fuelled the fire by declaring: ‘I am going into this for the sole purpose of proving that no negro can ever beat a white man.’ Some inflammatory reports suggested he may have used the other N-word.

Forty-eight hours before the fight, fashionable author Jack London described Jeffries as ‘the chosen representative of the white race and this time the greatest of them’.

The New York Times – my how Times change – began the day with an editorial including this passage: ‘If the black man wins, thousands and thousands of his ignorant brothers will misinterpret his victory as justifying claims to much more than mere physical equality with their white neighbours.’

So menacing was the racial tension that unusually for Nevada at the time guns were banned from the open-air arena. The temporary ring erected in downtown Reno was regarded by many as ‘Johnson’s scaffold’. Before he climbed through the ropes Jeffries added: ‘It is my intention to go right after my opponent and knock him out.’

Good luck with that, Big Jim. His ‘negro’ brilliantly outboxed him from the first bell, inflicted the first three knockdowns of his career and forced his corner to throw in the towel in the 15th round.

The reaction across America was infinitely more violent and deadly than the fight itself. Race riots broke out in 25 states from Texas to Colorado and in 50 cities including New York, Washington, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston and St Louis. Twenty-five people were killed and hundreds injured.

Several US states banned cinema screenings of the fight, citing safety concerns, but there could be no censoring of Johnson’s elevation to the pantheon of the ring.

Nor of his place in history. Not even as he aggravated all the more the so-called ‘moral majority’ in America with his penchant for white women. Three of whom he married.

Never mind all the knock outs on his long record, on that afternoon in cowboy country he struck a humungous blow for civil rights.

THE REAL FIGHT OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Joe Frazier v Muhammad Ali - Part I

Madison Square Garden, New York City, USA, March 8 1971. FRAZIER won by unanimous decision after 15 rounds.

In terms of the magnitude of the event, the mass hysteria of expectation and the roll call of A-plus-list celebrities in the most hallowed of all boxing arenas, there has been nothing in boxing to quite compare with this. Nor did this blockbuster lack for cultural and political significance.

Muhammad Ali had polarised world opinion - most sharply of all in America – by refusing to be drafted into the military for the Vietnam War and his conversion to the Black Muslim extreme of Islam. The former Cassius Clay’s comeback from the suspension of his boxing licence and stripping of his world heavyweight championship came to a crescendo with this challenge to the man who had taken possession of the belts in his absence.

Smokin’ Joe Frazier had supported the Greatest of All Time in his anti-war stance and then helped him financially through his three and a half years in the wilderness. 

His reward? Ali called him an Uncle Tom, the worst insult that could be inflicted on a black man. Especially by an African-American brother.

Payback was to come in the fight which was described by Sports Illustrated as ‘cutting deep into the thicket of our national psyche’.

The great and the good and assembled to witness Frazier’s revenge on a glittering night out for the guys and dolls. Frank Sinatra, denied a ringside seat among the likes of Woody Allen and Norman Mailer, persuaded Life magazine to accredit him as their photographer. Old Blue Eyes proved as accomplished with a camera as with a microphone and his pictures made the front cover of the magazine and several pages inside.

Similarly, movie star Burt Lancaster nabbed a gig as a colour commentator on the closed-circuit TV broadcast. Nelson Mandela joined a then-record 300 million television viewers as he watched from his prison cell in South Africa.

The world saw that the genius of Ali had been rusted by his long lay-off and his stamina drained. He opened up with all the razzle-dazzle first seen at its most brilliant in his crushing of that much-feared monster Sonny Liston.

But as the juice began to run out Frazier’s demon left hook staggered him in the eighth round, buckled his knees in the 11th and sent him crashing to the canvas in the 15th for one of only four times in his career. A distinction shared by our own ‘Enery Cooper.

Ali rose at the count of four but as he staggered through to the final bell, that famously resistant jaw was swollen into a gargoyle. The three judges, one of them the referee Art Mercante, scored unanimously for Frazier.

In keeping with the convoluted racial context, Ali described the verdict as ‘a white man’s decision’ after the first fight of what would become one of the most epic trilogies in boxing history.

THE SPORTS EVENT OF THE 20TH CENTURY

George Foreman v Muhammad Ali

Stade du 20 Mai, Kinshasa, Zaire, October 30, 1974. ALI won by knockout in the 8th round.

The Rumble in the Jungle, a concept of Don King’s vivid imagination, broke all the old conventions of big fight promoting.

With money and public approval in scant supply in America, King persuaded Zaire president Mobuto Sese Seko to finance the event, with a helpful guarantee of the two $5million purses provided by Libya's fellow dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Towards the end of lengthy acclimatisation in the heat and humidity a cut right eye sustained by Foreman in training caused a five week postponement, for which King persuaded both fighters to stay in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ali’s playful entertaining of the locals, not least his magical skill with card tricks for the children, made for a contrast with Foreman’s grumpiness - which whetted anticipation around the world.

Not that many gave the aging Ali much of a bettor’s chance against the eight-years younger Foreman whose punching power was terrorising boxing, even as he sent Joe Frazier to the canvas six times in two rounds in his winning of the undisputed world heavyweight title.

Never write off the Greatest. Ali was expected to keep hitting and dancing away from danger. But he had told trainer Angelo Dundee that he was nursing a secret strategy, about which he would reveal nothing further.

After taking a rat-a-tat burst of right handers from the first bell, an already confused Foreman saw his challenger lolling back on the ropes as the next few rounds went by. And the more Big George chased after him – landing sometimes but frequently missing – the more he punched himself out.

Rope-a-dope, as Ali would famously label the tactic, was born. Backed up by demoralising psyche.

When Foreman landed flush on the chin in the seventh round with one of his last, desperate humdingers Ali whispered in his ear: ‘That all you got, George?’ The trap was set.

An estimated one billion around the world watched in awe and amazement as a bewildered Foreman stumbled onto a five-punch combination in the eighth round which set up him up for the right-hand missile which pitch-forked him into the canvas.

The Oscar-winning documentary of the entire saga was entitled: When We Were Kings. That they were.

THE THRILLA OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Joe Frazier v Muhammad Ali - Part 3

Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City, Philippines, October 1, 1975. ALI won by corner retirement after the 14th round. 

One year after the Rumble in the Jungle, promoter Don King found another dictator in an exotic clime to bankroll the trilogy fight between Ali and Frazier, which he proclaimed as the Thrilla in Manila.

Ali, with his renowned turn of rhyming phrase, went further by announcing: ‘It will be a killa and a chilla when I get that gorilla in Manila’. Another insult for Frazier to compound Ali calling him an Uncle Tom before their first fight of the century.

The second installment of this fabled trilogy had been a calmer, quieter walk in that New York Garden which provided Ali with revenge for his 1971 defeat. Now came one of the most brutal conflicts in ring history, fought to a standstill in steaming 120-degree heat.

Frazier had been told by his renowned trainer Eddie Futch: ‘If you kill the body, the head will die.’

As Smokin’ Joe went for the internal organs, so the Greatest of all Time battered Frazier to the head. All through 14 of the most violent rounds ever seen. Unremitting. Unrelenting.

So swollen was Frazier’s face that he was virtually blind, but still Futch had to forcibly prevent him rising from his stool for the 15th and final round. Moments before, Ali was asking his cornerman Dundee to cut off his gloves and stop the fight.

‘Look across the ring,’ Dundee told him. ‘They’re pulling Joe out.’

Immediately after his hand was raised in victory, Ali said: ‘That’s the closest I’ve ever been to death.’

The courage required of him by Foreman and now Frazier proved to be his redemption in the eyes of many in America who had denounced him as a traitor for dodging the Vietnam draft. Not long after he became a global as well as national treasure.

THE SHORTEST FIGHT OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Marvin Hagler v Thomas Hearns

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, USA, April 15, 1985. HAGLER won by TKO in the 3rd round.

For two rounds and two minutes, two of the most dynamic punchers in the annals of middleweight boxing engaged in a brief but unforgettable war.

The formidable Marvelous Marvin was reigning as the undisputed and undefeated world champion. Hitman Hearns had knocked out everyone in his path to the light-middleweight title.

As they were about to leave the dressing rooms Hearns was berated by his master trainer Emanuel Steward for ordering a massage that afternoon.

Advised that this would have weakened his legs the longer the fight went, Hearns stormed out from the opening bell, looking for a quick KO.

He staggered Hagler early, only to ignite a fire fight. As they traded multiple blows of thunder Hearns broke his right hand and Hagler’s forehead was slashed open. All part of what would be acclaimed as the Round of the Year.

So it raged on. Hagler’s legs did indeed start wobbling in the furnace of round two which ended with blood pouring ever more freely from the head of Hagler, who, fearing he may be stopped by the gash, went for broke in the third.

Hearn connected with a couple of Hail Marys, only for Hagler to send him stumbling back against the ropes with one right hook and flat on his face with another. Hagler was hoisted aloft, he and his handlers drenched in his blood. Hearns was carried half-conscious to his corner.

Too short to be the Fight of the Century, but certainly the greatest three rounds of all time.

THE MASTER CLASS OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Marvin Hagler v Sugar Ray Leonard

Caesars Palace. Las Vegas, USA, April 6, 1987. LEONARD won by split decision after 12 rounds.

Leonard, who had boxed only once since his first retirement three years earlier, was moving up from his reign as a former light-middleweight champion for his first fight at middleweight. And that against the intimidating figure of Hagler, with his destructive punching power.

All who loved Sugar Ray pleaded with him not to do this, but he told anyone who would listen that while working as a TV commentator at Hagler’s most recent fight he had seen a way to beat the beast.

He stipulated a large ring, 10oz gloves instead of eight-ouncers and a fight over 12 rounds rather than 15.Hagler agreed compensation by way of a slighter higher share of the $23million purse.

The pattern of the fight never changed, round after round. Hagler pursued his man in search of a stoppage. Leonard, who had discerned the champion to be slowing down as he approached his own retirement, increasingly irritated Hagler by nipping in to pepper him with brisk combinations, then slipping away into the open spaces of the big ring before finishing each round with an eye-catching flurry to catch the eyes of the judges.

It was pick-pocketing of genius order. Nor was he hurt at any point. When the cards were counted, controversy erupted.

‘Robbery,’ cried those who had predicted or gambled on a Hagler victory, then perceived him to be the aggressor in the fight. And never mind that Leonard was calculated to have thrown and landed more punches.

The decision was split. One score each of 115-113 and one of 118-110 in favour of Leonard. The latter came from way out of left field, but by my reckoning 115-113 to Sugar Ray was on the money.

A masterclass, indeed, by one of three best boxers ever.

THE FIGHT OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Floyd Mayweather Jnr v Manny Pacquiao

MGM Grand Garden, Las Vegas, USA, May 2, 2015. MAYWEATHER won by unanimous decision after 12 rounds.

The archetypal big fight of this century, with its protracted and oft-interrupted negotiations delaying the meeting between the two greatest boxers of their generation until they were past their prime.

The world waited six years for Mayweather and Pacquiao to get their star-studded act together. They wrangled over myriad sticking points but the principal reason , as it has been so often in recent decades, was the nickname which Mayweather gave himself so appropriately: Money.

Pacquiao seemed the more willing for much of the time. Mayweather was also focused on edging his way towards the high-water mark of retiring undefeated, which he would eventually accomplish after his 50th bout. One more than Rocky Marciano’s record.

By the time they met in the ring they were showing wear and tear but the financial rewards had risen to astonishing heights – 38-year-old Mayweather $180m, 36-year-old Pacquaio $120m. Astonishing numbers even though they both arrived on fight night as damaged goods.

Mayweather was found with an IV drip in his arm, apparently to stave off hyper-dehydration. That was approved by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, yet they refused permission for Pacquaio to be given painkillers for a ruptured shoulder.

The performance was about the best they could do in the circumstances. Mayweather as the smooth boxer, Pacquiao the heavy puncher. 

Money was given the unanimous decision, the PacMan cited the punch stats marginally in his favour as proof that he should have won.

What a pity that Mayweather, the five-weight world champion, and Pacqiuao, the only eight-division world champion in the history of the hard old game, left it so late.

The Fight of This Century? As the Wall Street Journal remarked after doing the accountancy: ‘Good we have 85 years left to top it.’

Can Saul Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford raise the bar this Saturday night, even though they too are well into their 30s? We can but hope.