Hark the Herald Angels Sing

If you’re like us, October 1st is one of the year's most important holidays, a time to gather your friends and loved ones around you and… watch the Thrilla in Manila about 20 times. That’s right, No Masians, another year has come and gone and Thrilla in Manila Day is finally here, a day when we cast aside our quotidian concerns and give thanks for perhaps the greatest heavyweight title fight ever, and maybe the greatest and most superhuman display of pure guts in the history of sport.

It went down on this date 31 years ago – October 1st, 1975 (it was still September 30th in Manila - note the poster). This shit was Achilles vs. Hector, Godzilla vs. TRex, Freddy vs. Jason. This was “the closest thing to death” Ali had ever known. This was Joe Frazier coming into the ring rejuvenated and ferocious and catching Ali with one of those big left hooks to the body in the first round and Ali saying, “Ole Joe Frazier, I heard you was all washed up,” and Frazier snorting back, “you heard wrong pretty boy.”

But I don’t need to tell you what this was. It defies words anyway. We’ve all seen it a million times, and look, it’s rainy and miserable out there and it’s a bye week for the Giants. So let's go watch it again. Seasons greetings.