text: Floyd Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao will be the biggest fight of all time financially and the most significant this century. Evaluating the greatest ever fights is a complex variable of several factors including not only the quality and excitement of the action but the political, social and cultural undertones, the scale of expectation and outside influences. Where Money Man v PacMan comes to rank among the most important fights in ring history will depend upon what happens that coming night in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. In this, the fifth in a series of 12 fights that shaped boxing history, I look back on one of the greatest sporting events of all time. THE NEAR-DEATH FIGHT . Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier . The Thrilla in Manila . Quezon City, Philippines . October 1, 1975 . Just as they are saying about Mayweather v Pacquiao, the perceived wisdom was that Ali-Frazier was coming five years too late for two great boxers in their 30s. Let us hope they are so spectacularly wrong again. That star-spangled night in New York when Smokin' Joe knocked down and defeated The Greatest had been followed in 1974 by a tamer, scrappier, points victory for Ali. A poster for Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier, also known as the Thrilla in Manila, in Quezon City, Philippines . Ali (right) swings for Frazier, who eventually lost in the 14th round to a technical knockout . And so to the trilogy, a year later. Both men had come through battles with George Foreman, Frazier losing and Ali famously winning The Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire. GEORGE FOREMAN V MUHAMMAD ALI . October 30, 1974, Kinshasa, Zaire . JOE FRAZIER v MUHAMMAD ALI . March 8, 1971, Madison Square Garden, New York . JACK JOHNSON v JAMES JEFFRIES . July 4, 1910, Reno, Nevada . JOE LOUIS v MAX SCHMELING . June 22, 1938, Yankee Stadium, New York . This time Don King had Manila in mind as the next heavyweight stop for his globe-trotting circus. Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, like Zaire's President Mobuto before him, saw sponsorship of the fight as a distraction from the poverty and social unrest in his country. It was Ali who became most distracted during the build-up. When invited to a photo-opportunity with Marcos and his infamously big-spending wife Imelda, he took his mistress Veronica Porsche along and introduced her as his wife. Mrs Belinda Ali watched that happen on US television and immediately flew to Manila to confront her husband, loudly, in his hotel suite. Ali returned to his customary psychological baiting of his opponents. He had insulted Frazier before their first fight and did so again chanting: 'It will be Killa and a Thrilla and a Chilla when I get The Gorilla in Manila.' Thus the title for the fight, The Thrilla in Manila, was coined. Ali pictured alongside his infamously big-spending wife Mrs Belinda Ali in September 1975 . Frazier, the quiet man, was plotting a strategy of breaking down Ali with shots to the stomach, ribs, kidneys and liver, quoting the old ring maxim: 'If you kill the body, the head will die.' Ali would target the Frazier head and won the early rounds while his legs were at their freshest. But it was impossible for him to keep dancing in the pressure-cooker heat, with the ring temperature reaching 120 degrees Fahrenheit. As Muhammad started slowing, Joe began Smokin'. They would engage in one of the most brutal spectacles in the annals of the hardest game. Ali was forced to lower his guard as they landed more than 100 blows to the head between them, each of such force that any one of them would have stopped lesser fighters. Ali supplemented those power shots with his quick jabs and combinations and thereby inflicted more of the facial swelling. Boxing greats Frazier and Ali pictured in the ring on October 1, 1975, for the Thrilla in Manila . Ali and Frazier engaged in one of the most brutal spectacles in the annals of the hardest game . Frazier's eyes began closing in the ninth. By the time he came out for the 13th he could barely see and Ali sent his gum-shield flying with the second of two massive right hooks. Exhausted though he was, Ali went for the Killa in the 14th. Although the monstrous barrage which sent Frazier reeling and staggering could not put him down, it was enough to bring a sensational end to an epic battle. Ali ordered his corner-man Herbert Muhammad to cut off his gloves, saying he could not go on. But before he could do so Frazier's trainer Eddie Futch called a halt. A relieved Ali famously said: 'This is the closest to death I have ever been.' Frazier begged to be allowed to see out the 15th and final round but Futch told him: 'It's over. No-one will ever forget what you did here today.' Frazier never forgave him. Not fully. Nor Ali for the trilogy of insults. Ali defied the rigours of Parkinson's to attend Frazier's funeral. Ali lifts his arms in the air after defeating Frazier in the 14th round, but later attended his great opponent's funeral when he died at the age of 67 .
target: Floyd Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao is now just eight days away .
  Sportsmail's Jeff Powell has been counting down the greatest fights .
  In the fifth in a series of 12 fights that shaped boxing history, we have Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier, the Thrilla in Manila .
  It was said to have come five years late, much like Mayweather v Pacquiao .
  Yet those doubting the two greats in their 30s were spectacularly wrong .