Ali-Frazier IV: just a circus sideshow



You will find as they grow up that as a rule children are a bitter disappointment. Their sole objective in life being to do precisely what their parents do not wish them to do and have anxiously tried to prevent... Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier rarely agreed about anything but when their daughters decided to renew family hostilities you can imagine them sighing in unison: "Yeah, that old Queen Victoria knew a thing or two about raising kids."

In public, of course, the two men made all the right noises of support although Ali was not at ringside - he pled a previous engagement - when Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde climbed through the ropes in a tent in the car park of the Turning Stone Casino, Verona, New York, on June 8 2001. But 8,000 "fight fans" did show up, including Smokin' Joe, Sugar Ray Leonard, Emile Griffith and Ken Norton to watch a Los Angeles nail parlour owner (in the Ali corner) swap "blows" with a lawyer and mother of three (representing the Fraziers).

Before the first bell, the two ladies had talked a good fight - invariably a shrewd box-office scheme - Jacqui, in particular, making sure to make mention of all the old Ali-coined insults her dad had never forgiven. Hence the reason Smokin' Joe was moved to say: "If I pass him in the desert and he's thirsting - I drive right by..." By contrast, once the final ticket had been sold and he had peeled off the gloves for the last time, Ali tried to make light of any so-called "feud". "I think the problem with Joe is that he was always a little bit slow in making out whether or not I was being serious or if I was simply putting him on. He was never entirely sure whether he was in on the joke or the joke was on him."

Gentle words never put bums on seats, however, and so the skirmish of the offspring was cynically billed as Ali-Frazier IV as if this exercise in money-making (both "fighters" received US$1million (Dh3.67m) from those foolish enough to press the pay-for-view button on the remote) had anything remotely in common with the three previous epic encounters, finally settled in 1977 by the climactic Thriller in Manila.

"Sit down, son, it's all over," the kindly Eddie Futch told Frazier that night when he returned to his corner at the end of a brutal 14th round. "But no-one will ever forget what you did here today." It had been The Greatest's greatest night. "Man, I hit Ali with punches that'd bring down the walls of a city. Lawdy, Lawdy, he's a great champion," said the loser. "Frazier hit me with body punches that made me want to quit. That fight was the closest thing to death," said the victor.

Fittingly, "Ali-Frazier IV" was held under canvas for, in terms of sporting conflict, Laila and Jacqui were never going to provide anything more than a circus sideshow. Oh, yes, they slapped each other around a bit and did not quite resort to pulling one another's pigtails but truly this was school playground stuff. "It has been a good night for women's boxing," wittered Laila after the Lipstick Letdown. "Even if we did bust each other's heads a few times." Her husband and promoter John McClain was even more satisfied with the outcome having persuaded over 8,000 lost souls to part with up to $200 to witness the "event" in person, not to mention the many millions who followed the "action" on cable TV.

Ah, well, for Laila Ali it was her third successive victory, the previous two having been achieved against April Flowers, a cocktail waitress who survived 31 seconds, and Marion Jones, who stepped into the ring when her son's girlfriend came to her senses and quit boxing before leaving her dressing-room. rphilip@thenational.ae

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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