Today is the 40th anniversary of this epic call from Howard Cosell as George Forman knocked down and then knocked out Joe Frazier. It’s one of the greatest sports call of all time.

It’s amazing watching this now. In today’s world there’s no way the ref lets Frazier keep fight after that second knockdown.

Out of all of the sports that you can bet on, it would be fair to say that boxing grabs much less attention than others. This could be for a number of reasons – with the biggest probably being that fights between the elite are simply few and far between. Nevertheless, everyone knows that there is a huge amount of money involved in the sport and thus, it’s possible for you to make large sums if you can get your boxing betting offers strategy correct.

We’ll now take a look at some key tips that could help improve your profits from boxing drastically.

Tip #1 Analyze recent form

This is probably the most obvious tip when it comes to boxing betting. Whether you are betting on tennis, football, horse racing or rugby – you need to analyze the form. As boxers partake in few fights every year, you probably only have to look back two or three duals to get a good understanding of the position they’re in. Don’t just look at their win-loss record either – look how they won or lost, and who it was against. You must delve into the details to give you the best possible chance of extracting the most information ahead of the fight.

Tip #2 Look at the boxing style of both men

Some boxers are brutes, others rely on speed and technique. You should have a firm understanding about the styles of both boxers in the fight and then use the form analysis you have just conducted to see how they have fared against similar opponents. If you can see that a boxer such as Nikolay Valuev always struggles against fast opponents, such as David Haye, then make sure you look for some value bets involving a victory for the smaller fighter.

Tip #3 Take the venue into account

It could be argued that the venue in boxing is more significant than in any other sport. If you see that one of the boxers is fighting in their hometown, they have been gifted with a fantastic advantage. Not only will they have their home crowd right behind them, but there is a suggestion that they may receive favourable decisions by the hometown judges. Of course, the bookmakers are fully aware of this situation and this means that you may struggle to extract value whenever you back the “home” choice.

Tip #4 Review what the fight means for both men

This is really something open to your interpretation and again highlights why you must have a good understanding of boxing and its politics if you are serious about making a decent profit. Due to the staggering amounts of money that are involved in sports betting, some fighters will merely arrange encounters just to coin in as much money from PPV views as possible. Some of these may be aiming for one last payday and you may have to analyse a lot of information to see if any of the participants falls into such a category. Look at his age, his recent comments and conclude whether you think he really is interested in succeeding in this fight – or if he is merely looking to turn up and collect his bumper pay cheque.

The lesson here is simple – don’t dance like a buffoon before entering into the boxing ring! Now, this is taken from two different fights, so keep that in mind, but we suspect his dancing moves are pretty typical for all his fights.

The great Joe Frazier has passed away at the age of 67 after a battle with cancer. We had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Frazier two years ago. He told us about his epic battles with Muhammad Ali and George Forman and also playfully hinted that he would have beaten Mike Tyson.

Frazier was a class act and he couldn’t have been nicer when we interviewed him. Yet he had to endure years of outrageous taunts from Ali and the bitterness stayed with him for years. But recently that changed according to ESPN:

Frazier, who in his later years would have financial trouble and end up running a gym in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, took the jabs personally. He felt Ali made fun of him by calling him names and said things that were not true just to get under his skin. Those feelings were only magnified as Ali went from being an icon in the ring to one of the most beloved people in the world.

After a trembling Ali it the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was asked by a reporter what he thought about it.

“They should have thrown him in,” Frazier responded.

He mellowed, though, in recent years, preferring to remember the good from his fights with Ali rather than the bad. Just before the 40th anniversary of his win over Ali earlier this year — a day Frazier celebrated with parties in New York — he said he no longer felt any bitterness toward Ali.

“I forgive him,” Frazier said. “He’s in a bad way.”

Frazier is one of the true boxing legends from its Golden Age and he will be missed.