Superfight: Marciano vs Ali
I ordered this movie and am waiting for it to arrive.
I reccomend this to any die-hard boxing fan, for this is a rare piece of history, as this particular fight was only shown two times in the early 1970's and has not resurfaced until it's been put onto DVD format earlier this year.
More or less, the history of this fight all started in 1969, when a Miami-based promoter named Murray Woroner came up with the idea of having a Heavyweight tournament determined by a computer---at the time the most advanced computer was the NC 318---and in the end former champion Rocky Marciano, the only champion to retire undefeated, "won" by KO over former champion Jack Dempsey.
Muhammad Ali by this time was 2yrs into exile, as his boxing license was revoked when he did not join the draft. Ali sued Woroner for $1 million dollars for defamation of character, when he lost to James J. Jefferies, arguably the slowest but one of the most powerful champions, in the computer tournament.
Woroner gave Ali a proposition, to actually film a fight between himself and the computer winner of the tournament Rocky Marciano, and Ali would be paid $8,000 dollars plus a share in the profits. Ali agreed, as did Marciano, who had been retired for almost 15yrs.
Marciano trained hard, if not harder than any active top ten man, and lost over fifty pounds for the fight. Ali and Marciano fought over 75 rounds over a period of a week, and the film, as well as all the information on the two fighters was fed into the computer. Nobody not even Ali or Marciano knew who won the computer's decision.
Marciano died 5 weeks after filming. When the film was released across theatres, the verdict was Rocky Marciano winning by KO in the 13th round of a scheduled 15. Ali's remark was "That computer must have been manufactured in Alabama!"
Several eye witness acounts to the filming actually state that Marciano and Ali did get into actual fisticuffs---as Ali knocked a fitted wig off Marciano's head leading Marciano to hit Ali so hard in the stomach that the "Greatest" was completely helpless and Ali told Woroner to pay him an additional $2,000 else he would not continue, in which Woroner did.
The dvd comes with a booklet with pictures of the fight, and the special bonus features also has the "second fight" of Ali and Marciano, which was released in the UK, who cried foul when Marciano beat Ali, so the UK film ended with Ali winning by TKO in the 8th, because Rocky was busted open with cuts. And much much more.
Last edited by "IRISH" RUFUS MURPHY; 07-04-2006 at 07:40 PM.
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