The iconic Madison Square Garden and the Fighting Irish

The Irish have been filling New York venues for over 100 years, with notables like Jimmy McLarnin – still considered a top-five welterweight of all time – and the Bould Mike McTigue, as well as Irish Americans Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney boxing regularly at Madison Square Garden.

While the bright lights of Las Vegas attract most of the big boxing nights on the calendar, the iconic New York venue will always be known as the Mecca of Boxing.

And it was at the midtown Manhattan arena where the Fight of the Century took place back in 1971, as the unbeaten Muhammad Ali fought champion Joe Frazier for the world heavyweight title.

It was only Ali's third fight back following his enforced exile from the sport as a result of refusing to submit to the draft for the Vietnam War, while Frazier, also unbeaten at that stage of his career, had procured the heavyweight title in the intervening years.

The fight grabbed the attention of the world, with both boxers guaranteed a fee of $2.5 million, and it was a who’s who in terms of the US celebrity circuit in New York City that night – famously Frank Sinatra picked up a photography assignment for Life magazine in order to get a bird’s eye view of the highly anticipated encounter.

Tickets were sold for the fight to be screened at theatres across America and London, grossing over $45 million in sales, while an estimated 300 million watched the fight worldwide – 20,455 lucky souls crammed into the New York venue to watch the fight live.

Frazier would take the first of what turned out to be a trilogy of heavyweight encounters with Ali securing the second, also on a unanimous decision, again at the famous New York venue.

The third fight would go the way of Ali in gruelling conditions in what was