Exactly 44 years ago on October 1, 1975, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier battled in a heavyweight title match that became the most famous of all boxing matches in the history of the sport.

“Thrilla in Manila” was the third and the most brutal fight of the fabled trilogy which pitted the media darling Ali and his bitter rival, “Smoking Joe” at the Araneta Coliseum.

“To this day, the third fight between Muhammad Ali and Frazier, dubbed the Thrilla in Manila, is recognized as the greatest fight in boxing history. The third fight capped the most famous trilogy in the sport,” said veteran boxing analyst, Ed Tolentino.

Pundits remember the fight as one of the most savage in history at a time when the heavyweight division was considered the crown jewel in boxing.

“Just how grueling was the fight? Ali said the fight was the closest thing to experiencing death. He was on the verge of quitting but Frazier just beat him to it. The Araneta Coliseum was oven hot and Ali even lost some 5 pounds during the fight due to dehydration,” Tolentino said.

Lito Tacujan, former sports editor of The Philippine Star told Agence France-Presse: “It was really debilitating. Really humid.”

In testament to the violence inside the ring, First Lady Imelda Marcos’ clothes were spattered with blood, according to one account, and journalists were unable to take notes because their table shook so much from the blows.

“It was literally very bloody,” Marcos was quoted as telling a confidante, Sol Vanzi. “Their punches were so powerful that blood splattered far and wide, staining spectators’ clothes, including mine.”

Tacujan told Agence France-Presse: “We couldn’t write any notes because the table was shaking from the exchanges inside of the ring.

“It was that brutal. They were at each other from Round 1.”

While the combatants were foreigners, the third man in the ring — Carlos Padilla — was Filipino.

Padilla, who took the refereeing job without prior big-bout experience told Rappler.com that “Thrilla” defined his legacy.

Diminutive in stature compared to the giants he officiated, Padilla imposed his will on the heavyweight champions.

“I had to split them up with both hands sometimes,” Padilla said. “With Ali, a little slap on the chest, he’ll back off ’coz he dances. Frazier’s a different story. He comes forward with so much force, so you have to stop him with both hands.”

More than the fight itself, it was the pre-fight antics between the boxers that captured the attention of their fans.

Ali verbally abused Frazier to no end, calling the latter a gorilla. "It will be a killa, and a thrilla, and a chilla when I get the gorilla in Manila,” the late great would say while piecing together a rhyme.

Frazier would be seething with anger and would keep the bitterness years after the bout, especially as Ali won the highly intense match.

“To Ali, it may have been meant to just sell the fight, but in his later years, Frazier claimed he was really hurt by such remarks,” said Tolentino.

But what really immortalized the bout was the way Ali and Frazier duked it out even when they were already past their prime.

“God blessed me that day. He’s blessed me many times, and that fight in Manila was one of them,” Ali said. “It was like I took myself as far as I could go, and God took me the rest of the way.”

Tolentino said: “Ali and Frazier were no longer at their peak when they met. Frazier had been previously beaten by George Foreman. But for the last time, both men were able to summon whatever they had left in their fuel tanks.”

Ali died in 2016, while Frazier passed in 2011.

Frazier was interviewed by ABS-CBN News’ Bev Llorente months before Frazier died, and he had fond memories of his time in Manila.

“I love the Philippines. The Filipinos are very warm,” he said at the time.

“The people I met there, they were fight fans,” Frazier added. “I’m hoping that things are going good for them, and I hope one day I can come back to say hello.”

Frazier said he remembers meeting Marcos, but he did not want to get involved in politics at the time.

“I was out there with President Marcos. I didn’t wanna get in the politics part. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I know what was right from wrong,” he said.

The origins of Ali-Frazier III were political.

In an article he wrote for PhilBoxing.com in 2016, sports journalist Ronnie Nathanielsz, assigned by Malacañang to be the official “Thrilla” liaison, said President Ferdinand Marcos wanted the “Thrilla” so he could “show the world that the country was peaceful, we have no peace and order problems, the economy is doing well and our people are content.”

Nathanielsz added that Imelda Marcos “had a major impact on the decision because she was aware how much the publicity would mean for the country in the midst of some rumblings in the western media about martial rule.”

The fight was a triumph for Marcos, who was able to claim a public relations victory. He was eventually toppled 11 years later in the “People Power” protests in February 1986.

“It helped project the Philippines internationally at a time when we were being criticized by the western press because of martial rule,” said sportscaster Ronnie Nathanielsz, who acted as Ali’s government liaison.

“It projected a positive image for the Philippines and it was one of the biggest gains of the Marcos regime at the time,” he added.

Joey Romasanta, vice-president of the Philippine Olympic Committee, said that despite the abuses of martial law, “momentarily, we were grateful to President Marcos for bringing [the fight] over.”

“The ‘Thrilla in Manila’ united them and momentarily made them forget their problems,” he said of his compatriots.

Tacujan also recalled that during the match, acclaimed boxing journalist Ed Schuyler told him: “You should be proud this fight happened here. Twenty-five years from now, they’ll be talking about this fight in Manila.”

“It’s been 40 years, and they are still talking about this fight,” said Tacujan. —With a report from Dennis Gasgonia, ABS-CBN News; Agence France-Presse

For more sports coverage, visit the ABS-CBN Sports website.