Smokin' Joe's visit to 1970s Port Moresby

by RICHARD JONES

A SUMMER holidays re-screening on Channel 9 of the Muhammad Ali movie Ali, starring Will Smith, rekindled some old PNG boxing memories for me.

There will be some boxing fans among the readership for whom this piece might spark some recall.

In 1975 Muhammad Ali's greatest opponent Smokin' Joe Frazier and his entourage visited Port Moresby. Frazier had a few days earlier stopped Jimmy Ellis, former Ali sparring partner and a ranking heavyweight in his own right, in the ninth round of a bout staged in Melbourne.

The Frazier party stopped over in Moresby for a short recuperation period and Joe even boxed a few, exhibition rounds in the outdoor Sir Hubert Murray Stadium ring. His opponent that night was James "Digger" Annand, perhaps best known to people who followed Papua New Guinea sport in connection with his rugby league playing days for the DCA club.

Former world heavyweight champion Smokin' Joe was stocky with enormous thighs (he had to have his boxing shorts specially tailored) and the fit, blond Annand towered over him.

Digger poked out his long, left leads as the ex-champ bobbed and weaved underneath. Mercifully Joe didn't throw the famous Frazier left hook which had sent Ali sprawling to the canvas in their first fight: the 1971 world championship bout at New York's Madison Square Garden.

The Moresby stadium was packed that balmy evening more than three decades ago. As the ring announcer I recall a number of Papua New Guineans bursting from their grandstand seats, pushing through the security cordon and throwing a few choice words Frazier's way from ringside.

"Joe Fraz-ee-yah. You not in the same class as Muhammad Ali," was the common refrain before the interlopers were hustled away.

Just as Ali had proved in central Africa in 1974 when he regained his world crown from George Foreman, he was idolised across the globe. Africans mobbed Ali whenever he went for a training run in the streets of Kinshasa, Zaire. His training venue was crowded with fans each day.

Frazier was certainly a great fighter and he was in town, but for the 70s Papua New Guinean boxing fans in Moresby Ali was their man.

The Will Smith film, by the way, covered Ali's life and career from just 1964 when he upset Sonny Liston to take the title, to 1974. So the Rumble in the Jungle when Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round in Zaire to regain the world title was covered.

We even got a shot of the actors playing President Mobutu and Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in session in a presidential palace dining room.

But the classic 1975 Thrilla in Manila when Ali stopped Frazier in 14 rounds in the Philippines capital - an epic rematch and a fight generally regarded as one of the top three in heavyweight boxing history - was not shown.

The film covered Ali's career only until 1974. So there was nothing as well of his title loss to Leon Spinks and eventual rematch win over Spinks - both fights staged in 1978 - to take the world heavyweight title for an astonishing third time.

23 January 2008

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