Sport: Fight One More Round

Ali and Frazier, a breed apart, end up at the same sad place

Sometimes two fighters come together in a clinch, and no one can break them. They are connected forever, hyphenated. Dempsey-Tunney. Graziano-Zale. They end up with one name. They end up, pretty much, with each other. Back in gyms and rings last week, refusing to go away—that is, stay away—Ali-Frazier is having a hard time ending up.

It astounds Joe Frazier that anyone has to ask why he fights. "This is what I do. I am a fighter," he says. "It's my...

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