Quezon City, Philippines — IN the center ring where Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier pummeled each other through 14 rounds of the "Thrilla in Manila" more than three decades ago, another world-championship blood fest was in full swing.
The deftest moves and deepest cuts drew shouts of "Fight back!" and "Peck! Peck!" from spectators hanging on every move, illuminated larger than life on the electronic scoreboard's color video display. Most had fists full of cash wagered on the outcome.
One after another, the fights raged deep into the night. Several were over in seconds. None lasted longer than 10 minutes. Most losers ended up dead on the ring's hard-packed dirt floor. Many winners were barely breathing as their handlers carried them off in the white glare of ceiling lights. To popular tunes such as the Beatles' "Let It Be," cleanup crews swept the ring and sprinkled it with a watering can for the next bout.
Welcome to the World Slasher Cup II, where the really lethal roosters are separated from the mere chickens.
Billed as the world's biggest cockfighting event, the derby's $55,500 purse and prestigious title drew numerous foreign entries last month, from Japan, Germany and several U.S. states, including Alabama, California, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
For three nights, hundreds of game fowl competing on eight-cock teams with names such as God of War, Air Assault, Deep Impact and Your Future clashed in a series of bouts at the Araneta Coliseum. In flapping blurs of feathers, grit and blood, they pecked and gashed with 3-inch razors strapped to their legs.
It is big-ticket entertainment, a high-stakes slaughter that animal rights activists call barbaric. But in the raucous crowd of several thousand, cockers wondered what's wrong with fighting chickens when humans beating each other senseless in boxing rings are worthy of million-dollar purses and Olympic medals.
Millionaire developer Jorge Araneta, the coliseum's owner and a stately dean of Philippine cockfighting, was ringside at the "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975 and had a team of cocks in this year's World Slasher Cup. To him, Ali and Frazier inflicted the cruelest cuts, not the fighting chickens, which only did what comes naturally.
"This is a better proxy than human beings beating each other's brains out," Araneta said, after one of his birds dispatched its opponent in a few minutes. "I pleaded with Ali to give it up after that fight."
