Every boxing fan has a fantasy fight that they always wanted to see, from "Ali vs. Marciano" to "Louis vs. Dempsey." People thought these fights would never happen. However, in 1967, history was made when computers started showing who would against in fantasy matches.
In 1967, Murray Woroner, a Miami promoter and radio producer, had the idea of crowning an All-Time Great Heavyweight Champion in a series of fantasy fights that pitted fighters of different eras against each other. The winner would be figured out, using a National Cash Register (NCR) 315 Computer. The computer was fed information about each fighter, such as strengths, weaknesses, etc. The computer would then, play out the fight to find a winner. After finding a winner, the computer would print out details of the fight such as, what happened in each round, who won it, and of course the winner of the fight, by either KO, TKO, or decision. The fights were played out on the radio, for people to hear the fight, with Guy LeBow on commentary. This tournament went on for 16 weeks, until the match-up between Rocky Marciano and Jack Dempsey. According to the computer, Marciano won the fight by KO in 13th to become the All-Time Great Heavyweight Champion. Woroner even awarded Marcinao with a championship belt worth $10,000.
Everybody was happy with the results, except for one person, Muhammad Ali. In the tournament, Ali beat Max Schmeling in the first round of the tournament by decision, but lost to Jim Jefferies by decision in the second round of the tournament. Ali was angry that he didn't win the tournament and sued Woroner for $1 million dollars for defamation of character. However, the lawsuit was settled when Woroner made a prosination to Ali. It was that Ali would get paid $10,000 to fight the winner of the tournament, Rocky Marciano on film. Both Ali and Marciano agreed to the fight. The same rules would be used just like the tournament, with the NCR 315 Computer determining the winner.
The fight would be filmed in 1969 in a Miami studio. Marciano was long retired and had to lose 50 pounds and wear a wig to look like he was in his prime. Ali, at the time, was not fighting for three years for refusing induction into the armed forces. Both men sparred for about 75 rounds, those rounds were spliced into a complete fight, with the help of the NCR 315 Computer determing the scenarios of the fight. They filmed 4 or 5 different endings such as Ali winning by stoppage and Marcinao winning by KO. During filming of the fight, Ali was toying with Marciano by landing high punches which took Marciano's wig off. Ali did it two more times. Finally, Marciano had enough, and he landed a hard body shot to Ali, which made Ali go doubled over on the canvas. However, when filiming was over, they had a huge amount of respect for each other and became very good friends.
On January 20, 1970, the fight was shown in 1500 theaters, and grossed $5 million dollars. The computer determined that Marciano beats Ali by KO in the 13th round to become the All-Time Heavyweight Champion. The fight got a mixed reaction; some people agreed with it, some didn't. Ali even said, "The computer was made in Alabama." After being shown in theaters, the fight was never seen again and all prints of the fight were destroyed, except for one. However, during the late 70's the fight was shown on ABC's World Wide Sports show. While this was a great fight, the saddest thing about it, is the fact that Marciano died in a plane crash and never found out that he won the fight against Ali. The fight wasn't seen for over 35 years. However, in 2005, a DVD of the fight was produced with extras about the fight.
During these 35 years, the fight was never another computer fight to made public like the 1967 tournament. Boxing still, however, use computers to determine fights, privately.
In conclusion, many people have fantasy fights. Many people feel that computer can't determine fights. Anything is possible. Maybe computer can do, and maybe not, who knows? One thing is for sure though; we got to see Ali face Marciano, in a dream fight, which is what makes the computer fight legendary. Maybe in future we'll know, hopefully, if computers can in fact determine the outcome of fight, I mean with technology getting more and more advanced, it's possible.
by: Chris E.
Mr Mitts
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