Fans were eager for insight into the preparations so, for a LIFE cover story leading up to the bout, both men—the disciplined Frazier and the loose Ali—gave the magazine’s reporters and ...

“The pictures I made of Ali training in ... “The two places Frazier communicates best,” wrote LIFE’s Thomas Thompson in a March 1971 cover story for the magazine, “are in the ring ...

Subscribe to the magazine ... tapping Frazier on the forehead as though testing for termites. But these acts, designed to steal time, failed in their purpose. Ali's time was past.

Ali became the undisputed heavyweight champion for an unprecedented third time on ... told a defiant Frazier, "It's all over. No one will forget what you did here today." The cover features ...