Muhammad Ali Suite at the New Yorker Hotel

I have stumbled upon the history of the New Yorker Hotel entirely by chance recently, and I have since had a chance to visit the suite named after The Greatest, Muhammad Ali, at the hotel.

As it so happens he stayed there after his big loss to Joe Frazier at a fight at Madison Square Garden as this plaque mentions on March 9th, 1971, and says “I’m not gonna cry!”

Here is what his suite is like from the inside today –

Here are some photographs of the Muhammad Ali Suite, and the pictures within it –

And they have this outside the room, though Joe Frazier is spelt Joe Fraisier in it –

Fight of the Century Exhibit at Madison Square Garden

As luck would have it, I was at Madison Square Garden for a Lizzo concert after visiting the New Yorker, and I chanced upon a whole display of the Fight of the Century between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, though this one has the date as March 8th, 1971, which is a day off from the date mentioned by the New Yorker. I would normally have walked past this without giving it much thought, but I had Muhammad Ali on my mind after visiting his suite the New Yorker. Although I am not a boxing fan, I finally understood why this fight was called the Fight of the Century with Joe Frazier winning against an unbeaten Muhammad Ali, and I was happy to read that Ali went on to win the next two boxing matches against Joe Frazier to come out ahead in the end after all.

It really amazing to be able to tie both these pieces of history together, and that I was sitting in a section at MSG that actually had me cross this particular display to bring me full circle with this experience.

#gottalovenewyork