The Fight City Podcast No. 48

Brand new podcast for you, fight fans, hosted as always by Alden Chodash, and it’s a special edition marking the 50th anniversary of quite possibly the biggest prizefight of all-time, that first remarkable battle between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali on this date at Madison Square Garden in 1971. Alden and site editor Michael Carbert discuss the lasting significance of that great battle (and it was Duke Ellington, not Count Basie, on hand for Joe Frazier’s victory party, Mr. Carbert), and then we have an exclusive interview with Arthur Mercante Jr., son of the man who got the call to referee that huge fight for an audience of millions. Check it out:

“So compelling was this match between undefeated champions, a unique clash with both political and racial overtones, that it became boxing’s first truly global event. Fifty countries purchased rights to the closed-circuit telecast and the battle was broadcast to the world in twelve different languages, evidence of unprecedented world-wide excitement and anticipation. It would prove to be the most watched sporting event in world history up to that point. But how could anyone expect the match itself to do justice to such a build-up? And yet it did.”     From “March 8, 1971: Ali vs Frazier I” by Michael Carbert