Those of us who are old enough to remember when Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier in the fight of the century back in 1971 at the Madison Square Garden, after Ali returned from a three-year hiatus from the sport because of his refusal to register for the draft, recall what a big event it was. Though Frazier won that memorable battle, Ali would later regain his crown as heavyweight champion and establish his title as “The Greatest,†and to this day he remains one of the most influential sports figures of all time.
This Saturday night, the fight of this century — so far — will take place when Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao step into the ring at the MGM in Las Vegas. It’s an exciting matchup of two great fighters, but we long for the old days when we could watch the big fights on network television — who could forget the fight calls of Howard Cosell on ABC-TV?