![\"Muhammad](\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/Ali__Quarry__fight_______1970.jpg?quality=75&strip=all\")
<\/p>\nAll these years later, it is the setting that surprises most of all. Back in 1939, the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium had hosted one of the most glamorous events in the city\u2019s history, a ball to celebrate the release of \u201cGone With the Wind,\u201d the seminal Civil War-era film set mostly within its city limits.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But on Oct. 26, 1970, a different kind of happening was scheduled.<\/p>\n
There were 5,100 tickets sold for the night\u2019s main event: a 15-round boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Jerry Quarry. This wasn\u2019t merely a sporting event, however. The last time Ali had entered a ring was March 22, 1967, when he knocked out Zora Folley in seven rounds at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
Much of the world \u2014 even the sporting press \u2014 continued to identify him as \u201cCassius Clay\u201d before that fight against Folley. It was his eighth title defense as heavyweight champion, and everyone inside the Garden that night \u2014 even Ali \u2014 knew it might be his last. For months, Ali had declared that he would refuse induction into the Army, citing his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may be the last chance to see Muhammad Ali in living color,\u201d the 24-year-old Ali declared in the third person days before the fight. \u201cSo if you have always been wanting to see me, you better come to the Garden.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Muhammad](\"https:\/\/www.ringtv.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-517262756-770x545.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
And indeed, on April 28, 1967 in Houston, Ali was three times summoned to take the soldier\u2019s oath and agree to become a private. All three times, he refused. He was stripped of his title. He was banned from the sport. Across the next three and half years he earned a meager living giving lectures on the college circuit and fighting a jail sentence, a dispute that would ultimately be resolved, in his favor, by the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
By the spring of 1970, Ali was older, he was thicker, he had lost what seemed certain to be his prime boxing years. The city of Atlanta was the first to grant him a license. And so it was that Ali-Quarry went on the calendar, scheduled for the Municipal Auditorium, which nine years later was sold to Georgia State University and today serves as its alumni center (now known as Dahlberg Hall).<\/p>\n
Everywhere else, of course, this was the dominant sporting storyline. Ali was still a pariah in many circles, condemned as a draft dodger. Even before that he\u2019d been a polarizing figure thanks to his chatty confidence and his conversion to Islam. Still, in an America in which boxing was king, his return to the ring was all-consuming.<\/p>\n
There might have been a limited number of seats to witness the bout live, but in New York, there were 17,811 folks who damn near filled the Garden to capacity, paying $7.50, $10 and $15 to watch a four-sided screen showing the closed-circuit broadcast. The Garden cleared a cool $201,000 profit that night. In a world before cable TV and pay-per-view, the closed circuit drew 14,000 to the L.A. Forum, 12,000 to Chicago Stadium, 10,000 in Miami.<\/p>\n
In Echo Lake, Pa., in training for an upcoming bout, the reigning champion, Joe Frazier, decided to go to bed at 9 o\u2019clock, skipping the fight, as his manager explained. \u201cbecause everyone knew Clay would dominate the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali did dominate, beating Quarry in three rounds, looking like he\u2019d never been away. There was much sound and fury surrounding him, still, for his beliefs and his actions. But in the ring, Ali looked remarkably sharp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew from the first jab,\u201d his trainer, Angelo Dundee said, \u201cthat I got the same fighter again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone else knew from Ali\u2019s first statement afterward that every other aspect of his makeup was back, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect Frazier to be even easier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That came in March 1971, and there was no shortage of hype for what remains one of the five most ballyhooed fights in the sport\u2019s history, and one of its fiercest. Ali mailed-in one more bout before then, in December, a lackluster win against Oscar Bonavena. Frazier was there on the other side. And what happened from there \u2026 well, it\u2019s history of the finest kind.<\/p>\n
The path to that history began 50 years ago this week, in the most unlikely place of all. History happens that way sometimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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