As we reported the other day, Ali Mall has been working overtime to mount a last-minute Muhammad Ali exhibition before the late boxer’s funeral in the United States on Jun 10.
The event, which will officially open at 2pm on Fri, will be graced by two people who were there during the “Thrilla in Manila” fight of Ali and Frazier at the Araneta Coliseum on Oct 1, 1975, that was watched by 27,000 people in the venue alone.
Jorge Araneta, who owns Araneta Center where Ali Mall stands, will be joined by the outspoken veteran sports columnist Ronnie Nathanielsz.
Expect a tight-lipped and business like Araneta, but keep all ears open to Nathanielsz’s tales, who has been busy the past few days giving interviews to foreign and local media about his experience covering the fight.
Now 80 years old, he still clearly remembers “Thilla in Manila” as, first and foremost, a public relations effort by the Marcos government which was being hit by international criticism for martial law.
“We were three years into martial rule and the Western media, in the usual fashion, didn’t take too kindly to [it],” herecalled in a recent interview with CNN Philippines.
“President Marcos and the First Lady [and chairman of the Games and Amusements Board] Louie Tabuena decided this could be a good way to let the world what the Philippines was like,” he continued.
“And as President Marcos mentioned at the courtesy call of Ali at Malacañang, he told the American newsmen, ‘The reason we brought the fight here is we want to show that there’s peace and order, that the economy is doing well, and now people are content’,” recalled Nathanielsz.
What you likely won’t hear from Nathanielsz, but you can read in this dishy Rogue magazine article, is the who’s-who guest list who were seated in the front rows of the match that cost the Philippines millions of dollars to mount.
Sitting alongside Imelda Marcos and her daughter Imee (who had flown in from Princeton University just to watch the fight), “were Hong Kong shipping tycoon Sir Y.K. Pao, the ‘Onassis of the Orient’; Japanese mogul Akio Morita, the silver-maned founder of Sony; and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Norman Mailer.”
According to Rogue: “The Philippine government put $1 million up front, with Ali guaranteed $4.5 million against 43% of all revenue. Frazier was promised $2.5 million against 22%. The American promoters, Don King and Bob Arum, took guarantees of all foreign television,” wrote Enrique Gonzalez, sports editor of the now-defunct Philippine Journal.
