Three great fights at Madison Square Garden ahead of UFC 205 in New York
For the first time in its history, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will stage an event at the iconic Madison Square Garden, once considered the centre of the universe for boxing.
Three title fights headline UFC 205 on 12 November, with Conor McGregor taking on Eddie Alvarez, Tyron Woodley fighting Stephen Thompson and Joanna Jedrzejczyk defending her crown against Karolina Kowalkiewicz.
Ahead of what is going to be a huge night for mixed martial arts, Sport magazine's deputy editor Alex Reid picks three stand out fights which have wowed spectators in the 'World's Most Famous Arena.'
Joe Frazier v Muhammad Ali aka 'The Fight of the Century': 8 March, 1971
“The obvious one. As a purely sporting spectacle it was amazing because you had this unique circumstance where two boxers, who were pretty much in the prime of their career and both undefeated. Both had legitimate claims to be the heavyweight champion of the world, with one of them [Ali] being stripped of the heavyweight title and forced into exile for several years.
“There were also these huge political and social stories behind it as well. Ali was seen as the face of more liberal America and was cast as the representative of the oppressed black people, while Frazier was forced into the role of being the corporate champion, which always rubbed him up the wrong way. As he would point out he had arguably a tougher and poorer upbringing than Ali and was, as a person, equally representative of working class black America.
"The fight became bigger than boxing as well as the pair of them and symbolised the power struggle within the United States. I don’t think we’ll see anything like it again and it was a sensational fight, too. Frazier’s style just gave Ali fits and although he won their next two fights he never enjoyed facing Frazier."
Bernard Hopkins v Felix Trinidad: 29 September, 2001
"Felix Trinidad had a vociferous support amongst Puerto Ricans and when he knocked out William Joppy [at Madison Square Garden] in early 2001 people reported at the time that you could feel the stadium move.
"Later that year he lost in the same arena to Bernard Hopkins. The fight was actually going to take the weekend after 9/11, but obviously it was postponed and that fight was a huge event because it was a sensational one and a massive upset because Hopkins stopped Trinidad in the last round. Given everything that was going on in America at that time and its location, it took on a huge significance."
Naseem Hamed v Kevin Kelley: 19 December, 1997
"Naseem Hamed made his US debut at Madison Square Garden against Kevin Kelley, which was widely thought to be a coming out party for Nas who was a huge star in the UK. He had big billboards in Times Square with his picture on to remind people this guy was coming.
"But what people didn’t anticipate was what Kelley would bring to the party. He was a New Yorker, he could talk and he could punch. Nas’ focus was starting to wilt by this stage so they engaged in an absolutely sensational fight where there were six or seven knockdowns across four rounds.
"Naseem eventually prevailed and it ended up being his coming out party because it was such a sensational fight even though he was expected to win. It made him box office in America, but certainly wasn’t as smooth as everyone thought it was going to be."
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READ MORE: MADISON SQUARE GARDEN'S STORIED HISTORY AS A FIGHT VENUE