8 Chapter 7 Thrilla in Manila

Chapter 7 Thrilla in Manila By the mid-1970s, Muhammad Ali was perhaps the most famous person in the world. More than anything, fans wanted to see a third fight between Ali and Joe Frazier. On October 1, 1975, the two veteran fighters met in the capital of the Philippines. The event was called the Thrilla in Manila. Ali and Frazier knew each other very well. They battled toe-to-toe for round after round. Each man gave and received awful shots to the head and body. Neither gave in until finally, Frazier had had enough. He could not come out to fight the fifteenth round. Ali won and remained champion. But he had taken a terrible pounding.

到20世纪70年代中期，穆罕默德·阿里可能是世界上最有名的人。 最重要的是，球迷们希望看到阿里和乔·弗雷泽之间的第三场比赛。 1975年10月1日，这两位老兵在菲律宾首都会面。 这个活动在马尼拉被称为“刺激”。 阿里和弗雷泽彼此非常了解。 他们针锋相对地打了一轮又一轮。 每个人的头部和身体都受到了猛烈的射击。 两人都没有让步，直到弗雷泽终于忍无可忍。 他不能出来打第十五回合。 阿里赢了，并保持了冠军的地位。 但他受到了沉重的打击。

In the dressing room afterward, he said, "It was the closest thing to dying."

在赛后的更衣室里，他说，“这是最接近死亡的事情。”

Some people hoped that Ali would stop fighting after the Manila bout. He had taken a lot of punishment for many years. But Ali kept boxing. He won six more fights, but he was getting hit more and more. He was not as quick as he had once been and could not avoid all the punches. Doctors and others worried that he would be permanently injured. In February 1978, Ali lost his title again. In one of the biggest boxing upsets ever, twenty-four-year-old Leon Spinks beat Ali in Las Vegas. But the old champion had one more comeback in him. Later that same year, Ali, then almost thirty

一些人希望阿里在马尼拉比赛结束后停止比赛。 多年来他受到了很多惩罚。 但阿里坚持拳击。他又赢了六场比赛，但他受到的打击越来越多。 他不像以前那么敏捷了，无法避开所有的拳头。 医生和其他人都担心他会永久受伤。 1978年2月，阿里再次失去拳王头衔。 在有史以来最大的拳击比赛中，24岁的利昂·斯平克斯在拉斯维加斯击败了阿里。 但这位老冠军还有一次反击的机会。 同年晚些时候，阿里快三十岁了

seven years old, won the title back from Spinks. He became the first person ever to win the heavyweight title three times. By this time, Ali had divorced Khalilah and married Veronica Porsche, whom he had met in 1975. He had two more children with Veronica, daughters Hana and Laila. (Ali also has two other

七岁，从斯宾克斯手中夺回冠军。 他成为有史以来第一个三次赢得重量级冠军的人。 此时，阿里已经与卡莉拉离婚，并与1975年认识的维罗妮卡·保时捷结婚。 他和维罗妮卡又生了两个孩子，女儿哈娜和莱拉。 (阿里还有另外两个

daughters, Miya and Khaliah, with women who were not his wives.) With his expanding family, Ali finally began to see that it was time to stop fighting. He retired in 1979, but he came back to fight a pair of embarrassing losses. He was beaten easily by fighters he would have defeated in his prime. He was fighting just to make money, not to earn a title. During this time, he continued to move away from the separatist views of the old Nation of Islam. He came to follow simply Islam itself. In 1981, he retired from boxing for good.

两个女儿米雅和哈丽雅，并不是他妻子的女子。)随着家庭的扩大，阿里终于意识到是时候停止战斗了。 他于1979年退役，但他回来对抗了两场尴尬的失利。 他很容易被他在壮年时就能击败的对手打败。 他打架只是为了赚钱，不是为了赢得头衔。 在此期间，他继续远离旧伊斯兰民族的分离主义观点。 他只是单纯地追随伊斯兰教本身。 1981年，他永远退出拳击界。

In 1984, Ali faced a new and more difficult battle, far from the ring. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which affects the central nervous system. His brain was not making the right connections to some of his muscles anymore, and this affected his ability to move properly. He trembled and had trouble speaking and walking.

1984年，阿里在远离拳击台的地方面临着一场更加艰难的新战斗。 他被诊断出患有帕金森病，这种疾病会影响中枢神经系统。 他的大脑不再与他的一些肌肉建立正确的连接，这影响了他正常移动的能力。 他浑身发抖，说话和走路都有困难。