Ghosts of Manila: The Fateful Blood Feud Between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier

by Mark Kram

When Muhammad Ali met Joe Frazier in Manila for their third fight, their rivalry had spun out of control. The Ali-Frazier matchup had become a madness, inflamed by the media and the politics of race. When the "Thrilla in Manila" was over, one man was left with a ruin of a life; the other was battered to his soul. Mark Kram covered that fight for Sports Illustrated in an award-winning article. Now his riveting book reappraises the boxers -- who they are and who they were. And in a voice as powerful as a heavyweight punch, Kram explodes the myths surrounding each fighter, particularly Ali. A controversial, no-holds-barred account, Ghosts of Manila ranks with the finest boxing books ever written.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Historical, African American, 20th Century

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 2001

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

“We went to Manila as champions, Joe and me, and we came back as old men.”

The above line opens the author’s account of the Ali-Frazier rivalry, and the book’s theme is how their three fights, especially the savage last bout in Manila, left both men as “ghosts” of what they had been.

I was aged between 9 and 14 when the three fights took place. I don’t remember the first one, “The Fight of the Century”, doubtless due to my extreme youth at the time, but at school all us boys talked about the other fights, and the bouts the two also had with George Foreman and Ken Norton. Growing up in rural Scotland, the racial politics of the rivalry went over our heads, but as the author himself comments, it was a time when the title of “Heavyweight Champion of the World” carried more status than it did in later years.

Whether it puts you off or gets your interest, it’s safe to say that Mark Kram 100% took the part of Frazier in respect of the rivalry between the two. He portrays Ali as essentially a simpleton who was manipulated by Elijah Muhammed and the NOI. The author knew Ali over many years so his opinion can’t simply be dismissed. At the same time there are of course many who disagreed with him.

The book outlines how the two men had something approaching a friendship in the 1960s, at least as much as two sporting rivals can have. Frazier disagreed with Ali’s stance on serving in the military but also disagreed with the decision to remove his boxing licence, “Not right to take a man’s pick and shovel” was Frazier’s take on it. Their relationship of course changed with Ali’s verbal taunting of Frazier. Calling him “ugly”, “stupid” and “a gorilla” was bad enough and upset Frazier’s children, but of course it was Ali’s cruel and untrue labelling of Frazier as an “Uncle Tom” that was far worse.

The book presents contradictory evidence about what Ali really thought of Frazier. Personally I gained the impression that for Ali, the comments he made were part of business, about saying the things that would sell fights. To Frazier it was entirely different. He grew up amongst the Gullah people of coastal South Carolina, and Kram quotes a Philadelphia doctor who also grew up there as saying, “To call a Gullah an Uncle Tom would be asking to die. I mean it”. From that moment, as the author put it “Ali sat in Frazier’s gut like a broken bottle.”

There’s enough in the book about the fights themselves to keep boxing fans happy, but ultimately this book is a lament for two fallen giants, one with his body and brain battered into ruin, the other wrecked by the verbal humiliations he suffered and the hatred directed towards him by so many. Many of their fellow fighters also suffered sad endings. It’s a well written book that tells a remarkable tale, but it’s a bit too one-sided.

[John Allen · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading this compulsively readable book (compulsively readable in the same way that eating a pint of ice cream is compulsive, reprimanding oneself afterward for submitting to the lowly instinct), I felt tremendous pity for Mark Kram. I don't think he was so much concerned with portraying the "fateful blood feud between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier" as making an art out of agony, resentments and utter dirt. I would have been more satisfied if Kram had ended each chapter with the following lines: "All is darkness." "All is darkness".

With respect to the reviewer who wrote that "anyone who hates this is into propaganda", I don't think so. This seems like propaganda to me though. Kram uses his limited (and embarrassingly pretentious) command of art to paint a picture that simply does not exist: a noble, warrior-like Joe Frazier up against the terrible, name-calling, vicious, egomaniacal and power drunk Muhammad Ali.

Reality check. Frazier was a guy who dumped his lifelong trainer, Eddie Futch (the guy who helped him get near the top), because of money. Fairly recently he was arrested for beating up his wife while drunk. (I guess Mark would blame that on some flashback to Manila). He wasn't the timid, beautiful soul Mark would have you believe in his downcast dementia. This is only another hallucination Kram sees fit to create in this piece of selective delusion.

Joe Frazier never quite forgave Muhammad Ali for being a better boxer and more of a public figure than he was. I suppose that's understandable: but, for a guy who was so tough, Frazier sure was real sensitive when it came to the PR Ali pulled with him, just like he pulled with every other fighter he stepped in the ring with. The difference is that Chuvalo, Foreman, Liston, Wepner, Patterson, etc--they didn't let it bother them. Larry Holmes later pointed out that Frazier let too much of it get to him when it was only theatre. Not nice theatre, no; but boxing isn't nice. (I don't recall Lennox Lewis crying about Mike Tyson wanting to, in his own words, "eat his kids".) ]

Kram does a cute and completely ineffectual job of minimizing every single accomplishment (and they were grand) Ali pulled off in the ring. The Rumble in the Jungle only requires two pages; Frazier flipping out in a hotel room and the minute psychological motives behind that, however, requires half the book. Hmmm.

Actually, you can tell Kram hates both of them. Frazier less, because he uses him as scrap metal to throw at Ali. In his painful state of cynicism and hatred for self and others, Kram spares neither fighter; he doesn't even spare Archie Moore or Sugar Ray, painting nightmare visions of them as permanently brain damaged, staring into outer space. Sonny Liston's death from a drug overdose is a source of voyeuristic pleasure for Mark, making sure we know that no one wept for him. He writes, more or less, like they deserve what they got.

As if all this weren't enough, Kram even uses deliberate distortion. He claims that the "phantom punch", which again and again has been proven to have connected with Liston's head never happened. "Only those interested in maintaining Ali's legend will ever invest in the phantom punch". For a boxing journalist, Kram sure has missed a lot.

In the end, both disintegrate. Frazier and Ali are irreedemable messes to Kram, products of the "disgusting sport" he's made his living off of. And guess what, Joe's still obsessed with Ali and how he beat him up twice! In Kram's mind, this pettiness is worthy of a depiction by Van Gogh. I am sorry, but there is something wrong with Mark Kram.

This should be next to William Styron's "Darkness Visible" as a testimony of what mental illness can do to a man. I wouldn't recommend it, though, as book about the Greatest of All Time or his worthiest opponent.

[Cori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...

Bleh.

Frenemies, Audible's original about rivals that changed the course of history, turned me on to this book. Wanting to know more about a rivalry I know admittedly little about, I was hoping to read something fairly cut and dried about their feud. But...I came away with a few subjective observations.

It feels like I'm reading a flowery op-ed. The author crafts awkward sentence structures and odd metaphors. Additionally, while I understand the power of directly quoting someone, Ali made so many near-nonsensical statements that were subsequently quoted word-for-word in this book it got hard to hang after a while. While I know Mark Kram had some direct interaction with one, if not both of, the men in this book, I got skeptical fairly quickly after having gone dozens of pages with no references.

I know less than most, likely, about Muhammed Ali/Cassius Clay, but the more I learn about him, the less I like him on a personal level. The man had absolutely no moral backbone or ethical fiber. He strikes me, based on most things I've read about him, as a big head filled with a teeny brain. Seriously. Nonsensical half the time.

On the other hand, whether or not I disliked him, it seems apparent this author hates him. Do not go into this expecting an objective telling of Ali's life, a detailed account of the fight in Manilla, or a deep look at Frazier. Instead, expect a spin on a classic sport feud to rival that of Mean Girls, complete with the author's clear distaste for at least one of the girls coloring the entire saga.

Could be a case of wrong book/wrong time...But I somehow managed to get through this.

And lastly, is Mark Kram a pen name? Or is his name truly a palindrome? This is actually the important question here.

I'd rate this a PG-13 for swearing, violence, and adult themes such as alcohol and racism.

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the authors goal with this book was to show Ali had a darkside, was an intellectually shallow person, was led around by the nose by the Black Muslims, that he was a lousy Father and Husband, or that in spite of Ali belonging to a brainwashing black nationalist cult, the truth is Joe Fraizer, who Ali labeled as an "Uncle Tom" was "blacker" than Ali could have ever hoped to have been, then the guy that wrote Ghosts of Manila succeeded. He also makes a good point that Ali, while playing the role of oppressed rebel, was the darling of and had the full support of the liberal media establishment. People also forget that Muhammad Ali turned his back on his one time friend Malcolm X even though Malcolm supported him as a friend when the Nation of Islam tried to distance themselves from him because they thought Ali was going to be destroyed in the ring by Sonny Liston.

I would say there is a lot of truth to what makes into this book. Ali had a mean streak that went beyond the boxing ring and the liberal press portrays him with some sort of bizarre holy reverence. The guy had his faults but I also think he did way more good than bad. I'm originally from Louisville and I personally know old down on their luck former fighters who Ali did very nice (and costly) things for, I also remember hearing the guy who owned a Schwinn bicycle shop talking about how Ali would often come into his shop with a small busload of ghetto kids and buy every one of them new bikes. The stories that are out there of him helping people out are innumerable.

[Michael Schoeffel · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's certainly no hero worshiping here, and that alone makes "Ghosts" a valuable book. Kram paints a somewhat grim portrait of Ali the Man, and in doing so presents an alternate view of a figure that is internationally admired. That view, in essence, is that Ali, while a phenomenal fighter, was an intellectually shallow man-child without an original thought in his head; one of the greatest athletes of all time, yes, but of little consequence politically and socially.

At core, this book is Kram's attempt to take an honest look at Ali's dark side, a dark side so often ignored by the mainstream media, which seems intent on painting him as a God-like figure of the 20th century. For that alone, it's worth the read. I respect Kram's willingness to think and see for himself, to look past the propaganda, to write things about Ali most boxing journalists would never dare put to paper, for fear of tarnishing his Legend.

That being said, Kram comes off as cynical and a bit arrogant. He writes as though he has a omniscient view of Ali the Man, like he's the Only One with a clear and true perspective on the former champ. That, of course, is impossible. He also, perhaps, spends a bit too much time reflecting on the negative aspects of Ali's personality (ie his willingness to be molded and puppeted by black nationalists, his infidelity, his failings as a father, etc) while downplaying his more generous tendencies.

Negative slant not withstanding, there are many memorable/insightful passages in this book that cut to the core of Ali and the sport of boxing in general. Kram's style is fluid and infectious, and if you're into boxing, and/or Ali, at all, this book is worth your time.

Rest in peace, Muhammad Ali

[Tasos Manouras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best sports book I have ever read.

A lot of journalists decide to milk their award winning piece to an overextended book. Although this is the case for Kram's book, this guy is a true pro.

Amazing background information, providing all aspects of the story, chilling information on various fights that had my skin crawl and demystifying scared beasts of the world of boxing.

As the author writes most of the book is based on his own dialogues and relationships with the people associated and it shows in every page.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read this long after the first time. Still just as good.

[Annabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book. And I'm no boxing fan.* Except when it involved Sylvester Stallone. I grew up watching perennial underdog Rocky Balboa in the first four Rocky movies, which had musclemen with muscles in all the right places, tension, dramatic music. And visceral punches delivered in slow motion! Whereas the contenders in the local matches shown on TV were so minuscule and devoid of animus, they looked like bantam chickens hopping around. The only real boxing match to capture my attention was 1997's cinematic Tyson-Holyfield fight, where Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield's right ear. If I have to watch a real boxing match, let it be between heavyweights. Which is to say, I am mostly ignorant about the sport's rules of play. But I do know Muhammad Ali, I've heard of him since I was seven, and how he was "the greatest." Right up there with Elvis and Superman. Over the years, Ali's star would gradually lose its luster, especially when I read the tabloids du jour (National Enquirer, Star) during visits to the States. But it was Edo who delivered the coup de gras, which was the deal breaker for me: Cassius Clay was a draft dodger; those parries are discussed in detail here. Eventually, a new generation of fans was soon caught up in Ali 2.0, a much-mellowed, humbled(!), beatified Ali, whose candid, courageous admission to battling Parkinson's made him a fitting poster boy for the debilitating disease. That that was no candid admission--pried, more like it, is just one of the little revelations compiled in this book. This was, after all, the same Ali who once declared "If I go down, it's gonna be in a big jet goin' to visit some head of state. If ever I end up lookin' sick, ain't nobody gonna see me in public."

While this may be a book about boxing, it in no way alienates the non-boxing fan. Anyone who cares to hear a good story, especially one that has greatly impacted sports history and Western pop culture, will be drawn in. Drawn from first-person narratives as well as anecdotal chitchat, the book reveals fragments of the lives of boxing legends whose names I was only vaguely familiar with: Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Jack Dempsey, Sugar Ray Leonard Robinson. But the main story is focused on Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, their families, handlers, managers, and coterie of friends and/or hangers-on. Mark Kram has done a great job with his reportage-cum-storytelling (subscribers to Sports Illustrated must have extremely wide vocabularies--I learned over a dozen new words here, such as adumbrate, mythopoeic, rodomontade, excrescence). And if I detect a bias against Ali, it is not uncalled for. Case in point would be his scrutiny of Ali's inexplicable alliance with Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, whose belief and preaching of an omniscient, omnipotent, massive Mothership Ali truly seemed to believe in. Even more bizarre was Ali's financial arrangement with the man: 50% of profits from the till. Add to that Ali's consistent braggadocio, racial slurs, and palpable misogyny, and Joe Frazier, himself no champion of feminism, comes out looking every inch the better man, and very much the underdog. The storytelling climaxes in Manila, which Kram describes so vividly, and--take it from this Philippine resident--correctly. And as a teenager who delighted in the 1986 ouster of the Marcoses, one of the highlights of the book was his sketch on the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. From the get-go, Kram was able to get a handle on what our preening, Napoleonic president was all about. Hard to see how he could not though, after Marcos invited him to observe his athletic regimen, proudly stating that he was known as "the most athletic head of state in the world." So observe he did, as Marcos jogged, swam laps, and played pelota, "moving like a jumping coffee bean." While playing golf, and with a move I thought worthy of a Kim Jong Un, Marcos calmly asked an aide for his .45, and gunned down a bird that had "began to annoy him by dropping down uncannily for four or so holes, say thirty yards in front of his shot." Kram: Quite a wingspan. Marcos: Not anymore. As his grasp on power turned tenuous, another story involves a desperate Marcos's solicited, save-the-day strategy from chess champion Eugene Torre, who supposedly said "Easy. Sacrifice the queen." Firsthand anecdotal stories like these are priceless gems to a reader like me. Five stars.

*Not so Edo, who is convinced he can sub as a judge should the need arise, so confident is he of his discerning skills as a boxing judge (a confidence built up by synonymous decisions in a handful of historical matches he has "judged" on TV).

[G.J. Minett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superbly written account of the compelling, albeit almost lethal rivalry between two great heavyweight boxers whose intense dislike of each other inspired one of the great trilogies, culminating in a savage contest that unquestionably stripped both men of far too much.

As a unashamed Ali fan, I approached the book with a certain amount of trepidation. I'd heard that the author's sympathy for Joe Frazier is too obvious, that it leads him to dwell with a little too much relish on certain aspects of Ali's personality that I've always been prepared to overlook, and I have to say that it was difficult at times to look upon this as a genuinely even-handed testimony of events. The author would however be quite justified in claiming that all he is doing is redressing the balance because most books about Ali turn out to be thinly disguised hagiographies and Frazier has never really been given the credit he deserves.

In any case, any reservations I might have had were swept away by the quality of the writing. Mark Kram is an absolute wordsmith with a gift for extended metaphors that most novelists would die for. A couple of sentences from the opening paragraph provide the perfect illustration of this, when he describes Ali in old age as follows:

"Where once his eyes publicly spilled with tumbling clowns, they were now a dance hall at daybreak. Where once the words streamed in a fusillade of octaves, they were now sluggish and groping."

He had me right there.

[Josh Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard to get to the true Ali when wading through the piles of what the author, Mark Kram, would call hero worship. I don’t know that this is it either, as Kram very quickly establishes his distaste for Ali, but I do think it’s a counterpoint worth reading. Very little is actually dedicated to the fight in Manila, maybe 20 pages, with the rest of the book focused on these two complicated men, and their just as complicated families and entourages both before, and after, this legendary fight.

[J.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Kram breaks out the chainsaw and cuts almost everyone down to size. A masterclass in how to pop the balloon of idolatry. Also for a book about boxing, there were way to many instances where I had to go to the dictionary and look up a word. To say it's well written is an understatement.

[Tung · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the most-heralded sports nonfiction books around, Kram’s book details the feud between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier leading up to (and after) their third fight, the “Thrilla in Manila”, one of the greatest bouts of all time. Kram does an incredible job of portraying the psyches and personalities of both fighters, and the root and exacerbation of the feud between them. Overall, however, I don’t feel the book completely lived up to the hype I had gotten prior to choosing the book. For one thing, unless you are already a boxing fan (I am), and are already familiar with the feud between the boxers, their boxing histories, and their personal histories, this book loses much of its depth. The book makes numerous references to their lives and bouts as if the reader were already knowledgeable; it’s hard for me to imagine someone easily following the narrative without that prior knowledge. Secondly, one of the compelling themes of the book is its demythologizing of Ali’s career and reputation. Rather than the beloved world figure Ali has become, the book describes a morally corrupt, sadistic, and easily controlled (by the Nation of Islam) man. You won’t look at Ali the same way again. I’m not disputing the accuracy of Kram’s accounts; I am disputing his claimed objectivity. Kram makes the point that he actually liked both Ali and Frazier, but that is clearly not the case. From page one, he is all over Ali; and throughout he throws barbs at future sportswriters’ hero worship of Ali. Kram does make interesting points about Ali’s early career and the villainy behind what he said about and did to Joe Frazier, but it feels like the points are made in a manner more spiteful and angry than documentary. By the end, it feels far more like a character assassination attempt rather than objective nonfiction. Lastly, Kram routinely criticizes people he doesn’t like, and makes general statements about the evilness of their character in an “Everyone knew that person was a tool” type of statement, without any proof or specific anecdotes to back up his claims. He rips into Howard Cosell and Bryant Gumbel, for instance, without citing any real reason, or going into any detail. These quick hits on semi-relevant characters adds to the feel of this book not being an objective account. In summary, a good book and a riveting read, but I’m not sure I’d call this pure sports nonfiction. Recommended nonetheless, but moreso for those with a background or interest in boxing, Joe Frazier, or Muhammad Ali.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really outstanding book about Ali-Frazier. More than just a recap of the fights, it gives a history of both men, a history of their animosity, and tracks the forces that drove the feud. The Nation of Islam did a lot of the pushing for Ali, and it was interesting to read Kram's (who has first hand accounts of much of what's in the book) take on the man. For someone who's basically been deified at this point, a lot of the glow comes off Ali here. And I'm a lot more interested in Joe Frazier than I've ever been. He's not always cast in the best light either, but he seems a great deal more sincere--a working-man's fighter drawn into the web of Ali, who often spoke without caring about who he hurt (or the lasting effects of those words), even if that man had been a friend at one point.

[Yofish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a Sports Illustrated writer, centered around the three Ali-Frazier fights. Basically history, but from this writer's point of view. He did not have kind opinions of many (Cosell, Bryant Gumbel, the black Muslims come off pretty bad), but liked both the boxers---and boxing in general. A lot of rumor (Ali getting a blow job from Gladys Knight in the locker room after the first fight?) and opinion. But reads very well. May have inspired me to try to watch the fights somehow.

4.5 really

[Christian Dibblee · Rating 4 out of 5]

If sportswriters today wrote with the vocabulary, syntax, and imagination that Mark Kram does in this book, we'd have way more sports fans. Say whatever you want about Kram's portrayal of the two subjects (it's clear he doesn't like Muhammad Ali and feels sorry for Frazier), but the writing style in here is intoxicatingly impressive. Can't say how I feel about Ali or Frazier without having lived in that time, but Kram's writing made this book quite good for me.

[Paul Bauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A needed correction to the mythology that has grown around Ali. The truth is much more interesting than the hagiography.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Kram's Sports Illustrated article about the Thrilla in Manila is the most astonishingly good piece of sports journalism that I have ever read, and I reread it every few years to once again appreciate its remarkable quality. This book revisits that event and its aftermath in detail, along with the history leading up to it, but the book doesn't quite live up to the level of the original article.

Kram's writing is often exquisite but he occasionally engages in showy demonstrations of his own extensive vocabulary. He has a deep appreciation for and understanding of the art/science of boxing, and he provides helpful anecdotes regarding a number of famous fighters who were either predecessors or contemporaries of Frazier and Ali. There are no sacred cows here for Kram, and he skewers nearly everybody in the book to a certain extent (especially Elijah Muhammad and his son Herbert and the self-promoting Howard Cosell) while still conveying his admiration for the skills and heart displayed by the two main characters. He reserves a special disdain for the myth that arose of Ali as a hero for his time, pointing out that many of his famous words and actions either originated with someone else or were quite possibly apocryphal. He makes clear his opinion that Ali's racial taunting of Frazier was more than just promotion but was plainly and gratuitously cruel. There's no way to know for sure (although Ali's longtime mistress relates what Ali thought of Joe), but it's obvious that Frazier took it personally, with ultimately devastating effects on both men. They brought out the best of each other in the ring but the worst outside of it. I recommend this book but would urge anyone to seek out the original article on the SI website (https://www.si.com/boxing/2014/08/11/... )

On a personal note - as a boy when Frazier and Ali engaged in their epic trilogy of fights, I was firmly a Smokin' Joe fan, partly due to my parents both having grown up in South Carolina also (although in vastly different circumstances from his), and partly no doubt due to Ali's status as a "draft dodger" while my career military father had served two tours of duty in Vietnam. I vividly recall a group of boys at my elementary school (at West Point, site of the United States Military Academy, of all places) chanting "Ali! Ali! Ali!" on the day of the first fight, and I relished asking them the next day if they knew who had won. The rematch didn't register much, since neither fighter was the heavyweight champ at the time, and that bout is accordingly given short shrift in this book. So much was riding on the outcome of the rubber match, and I wept for Joe at the unjust (to my 11-year-old mind) conclusion of that brutal, exhausting affair. This book brings back memories of that time, and I found myself hoping that somehow the outcome of the Thrilla would be changed in the telling, but alas it was not to be.

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nonfiction work that blends the history of the two most famous heavyweight boxing Campions of the 1970s. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The two men met in three brutal matches in the ring. The third match was held in the Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It was billed as the Trilla’ in Manila and left each man scarred afterwards. In essence, this book explains how those three boxing matches brutalized the fighters and left them scared physically and emotionally for the rest of their lives. Those lasting scars are the “Ghosts” that haunted these two fighters forever after. While Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, the author makes his case that too many head shots from Joe Frazier significantly added to Ali’s rapidly declining health after his boxing career ended. As for Frazier, he was weakened by these brutal fights, spending weeks in the hospital recovering from the first fight, which, ironically, he won. His manager, Yank Durham wanted him to retire from boxing at that point. However, Yank died prior to the second Ali – Frazier match. So, the fight went forward with Eddie Futch becoming Joe’s trainer and manager. Eddie Futch did advise against taking the match, but Joe Frazier’s hatred of Ali caused him to seek and accept the match. According to the author, these two men really did hate each other. Joe hated Ali because of the verbal insults Ali slinged at Joe. Ali would say Joe was dumb, ignorant, ugly, and an Uncle Tom who cow towed to the white race in America. While the insults started as theatrics to drum up interest in the fights, Ali came to hate Joe because Joe was an extremely difficult foe for Ali to defeat in the ring. Ali did win two of the three matches, but all three matches were close affairs and physically very brutal. They were three of the most thrilling and exciting fights I had ever seen. I saw all three fights via closed circuit TV, the technology that was available as pay-per-view in the 1970s. Much background about each man’s career both prior to and after those three matches and their retirements from the sport is in this book. The author was a sportswriter in the 1970s and he covered these fighters and knew them and the fight game intimately. If you were a fan of boxing during that era, you find a great deal of new knowledge about Ali, Frazier along with the fight game in general in this book.

[Ashwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of information portrayed in this book that took quite some time for me to process. I even had to pause at certain points in the book for a minute or two to just let it sink in. The writer shows admiration for Ali as an elite boxer at the highest level. At the same time, there is disgust for how Ali handled situations in his personal life. Of course that disgust extends towards the way Ali treated Frazier and how Ali went about dismissing his draft for Vietnam. Kram points out that much of what this book is based on contains experience of his personal dealings with both Frazier and Ali as a sports writer. In that way, Kram is not apologetic about treating this story in a highly subjectve matter. Still, you get the feeling that the man knows exactly what he's talking about.

I have to say that the book started promising and later started to dissapoint. Everything leading up to the Fight of the Century in 1971 seems laced with exaggerated use of symbols and excessive use of overly descriptive language to impress both the reader and the writer himself. It became a little much for me. English is not my native language, but I don't think that this is the problem. 'Overkill' is the word that comes to mind when thinking of Mark Kram's enormously descriptive wording of certain events. Luckily for me, the arc of the story and it's wording took a turn for the best in the latter stages of the book. At some points the writing style of Mark Kram that I am critical of actually aided in packing one hell of a punch in a few parts of the story.

In many ways I am glad I read Ghosts of Manila. However, I would be lying if I said it wasn't a struggle. Ultimately, the purpose of this book is to show the reader what led up to the Thrilla in Manila and the toll it took on both fighters and everyone involved in the makings of the fight. That is what I wanted to get out of reading this book and I sure as hell got it.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is it about boxing that seems to inspire the greatest sportswriters? Is it the mortal danger a fighter faces each times he steps nto the ring? Is it the scoundrels, cheats, and hustlers who latch onto every contender like so many mosquitos? Or is it the sad end that awaits the boxer, addled and decrepit in his final years?

Boxing is beauty, brutality, and tragedy, and it is hard to imagine anyone portraying them more vividly than the late Mark Kram in "Ghosts of Manilla." Kram writes in the cadence of poetry, the style of noir fiction, to describe the awful price boxing extracted from its two greatest rivals, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Given how beloved Ali was during the final two decades of his life, Kram's revisionist take on Ali's celebrated opposition to the Vietnam War is bracing but persuasive. Kram gives Frazier his due, and allows him to step out of the shadow of Ali -- who would haunt the embittered Frazier the rest of his days. As Kram notes, neither man ever really left that ring in Manilla.

[Michael Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story can be told many different ways. Typically, we remember people the way we want to remember them. Often times we remember the good times. And other times, we remember only the bad. The truth is always more complicated.

It gets more complicated, borderline delusional, when it comes to our heroes. As I’ve grown older I have had to learn to remember & appreciate the good while not ignoring the bad. The truth is always more complicated.

In this book, Kram tells the complicated and intersecting life stories of Cassius Clay and Joe Frazier. Hero worship aside, they both inspired and showed greatness in the prize ring. What I appreciate about Kram is the candor of he clearly he has respect and love for both men, yet he insists on telling an honest story. America puts its idols on a pedestal one day & completely ignores that man or woman the next day. Kram both highlights the truth & greatness of both, while also not ignoring the flaws. It’s refreshing. All will be revealed one day anyway. There is a justice higher than that of man, separating truth from fiction.

[Abigail · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5
My issue with this book was more so with the writing style of the author than the actual content.
The overall content re: the feud between Ali and Frazier was interesting enough to keep me reading - this coming from a reader who knows little to nothing about boxing/ mentioned athletes says a lot.
I would probably not have been so bored (?) if the author’s writing were more organized/ relevant to the topic of Ali vs Frazier. It’s so obvious by the lack of positive remarks about Ali that Mark Kram has a very clear dislike for the athlete. This made it difficult to read this book from an objective point of view as I only ever felt sympathy for Joe Frazier and never Muhummad Ali.
Also, I picked up many spelling and grammatical errors throughout so that was also a red flag… yikes.

[Chris Double · Rating 3 out of 5]

found it tough to only give this 3 stars.

kram is a really capable writer, and one really gets a feeling of what 21st century lacks. there’s fantastic imagery with references to Hegel and (if i remember right) Faulkner. some fantastically written sections, but bookended with really clumsy constructions that completely break the flow when reading.

successfully demystifies the legacy of ali and frazier while still allowing reverence for the abilities possessed by each

it does at times feel like he doesn’t really like anyone that he’s writing about, but moments of sweetness come through. he also doesn’t seem to make any distinction between ordinary muslims and the Nation of Islam, but thats perhaps a mark of its time

[Mike Boyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introspective Book

The book was well written; and contained a lot of unknown insight into Ali, Frazier and the competitive bond between them. The three fights were covered in highlight form, but more emphasis was given to the impact the fights had on each man. My only drawback was there was not enough of Joe Frazier in the book. While Ali seem to have the top billing over Joe, Joe brought a lot of character and personality to the relationship. I felt the book was more Ali-centric. I admired both as fighters so this is a small issue. Joe does have several books published about him, so those can always be consulted to get a deeper look at Joe Frazier.

[Tom Gase · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this one as much, which was disappointing because I really looked forward to it. Thought there would be more in the book on the actual fight called The Thrilla in Manila, or Frazier/Ali III. It was the final fight of the trilogy between the two fighters and the second to last one ever for Frazier. The author is hard to get into, he seems to hate everything, most of all the two fighters and their entourages. The author also calls out a lot of other journalists. I get being objective but the tone was a little overboard for me. Instead of focusing on just Frazier/Ali III, the book talks about just about everything else, and a little too much outside of the ring for my taste.

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned a lot, but in reality, it talked about the fight in Manila for maybe 8 pages. The build up showing how Frazier and Ali didn't get along was okay, and the brief talks about fight one and two were okay, but this book focused mainly on Ali and the political side of things more then any actual boxing fight especially the one in Manila. It also came off like the author hated Ali. For my first boxing book, trying to learn about the history of boxing, I was really let down with this. I’ll be very careful going forward. Ghost Of Manila not the best and Id reccomend skipping it.

[Stu Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book sized expansion of Mark Kram's post Thrilla in Manilla article for SI. This fleshes out the Frazier-Ali rivalry, and the lives of Frazier and Ali. It really hammers Ali, drawing a portrait of him wildly different than conventional wisdom, and some people might view as unfair. It revisits the fight in Manilla, then the wreckage of that brutal fight.....one man could never forget, the other couldn't remember. If you like boxing, it's a vital book

[U. Ray Eke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read and definitely a page-turner. Only lost a star for me because it seemed a little biased against Ali and against how much of an icon he has become. Was good at making Ali more three-dimensional human being for me and the fight descriptions were very well done. Recommend highly as a great sports book.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. Both Ali and Frazier seem to be less than admirable. Though Ali comes off much, much worse. I really don't understand why he was so beloved. The author's style kind of annoyed me at times. He needs to get to the point faster. So I'd recommend the book if you're interested in Ali and Frazier and never read a book about them (like me), otherwise you should skip it.

[Shaun Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good in depth read, essential for boxing fans of any era. Filled with so many metaphors and similes and americanisms though, that i found it difficult to fugure out what he was going on about sometimes. Not written with non-americans in mind I feel. Shame.