Promoted as “The Fight of the Century”, boxing’s 1971 heavyweight championship pitted Joe Frazier against Muhammad Ali in a match that seemed to mythically symbolise America’s deep rooted divisions. Back in the ring after having his champion title stripped for refusing the military draft, Ali had become the most controversial athlete of his time, equally beloved and reviled for his outspoken advocacy for civil rights and his opposition to the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, Frazier – the undefeated defending champion – was billed as pugilism’s most brutal practitioner, a sellout whose hawkish stance and silence on racial oppression had made him a darling of white America. Award-winning, trailblazing director William Greaves (Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One) and his multicamera team were there to cover it all, round by punishing round, from the unprecedented media frenzy to the intense split in American public opinion to the big day at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Though The Fight has appeared in many versions and under several different titles, this new restoration presents Greaves’s preferred cut of the film, a masterclass in documentary’s power to witness the epic convulsions of US history.