During that time, he was lucky enough to be at ringside for some epic battles - none more so than the first meeting between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on 8 March 1971.

The BBC bought the broadcast rights for the bout because it was such an important fight.

I went out and did a big preview with a man called Bob Duncan, the boxing producer, and we put together about an hour of material.

It was a massive occasion and easily the biggest fight ever at the time.

What made it the most extraordinary fight was that these two men were the two top heavyweights of the time.

You have to remember thery were both unbeaten - Ali in 31 fights and Frazier in 26.

It was such an important fight that they got given the biggest purses ever paid to boxers at the time.

Ali being Ali, there was always a massive crowd of people either following him around or just appearing out of nowhere Harry Carpenter

Apart from that were all the extraordinary circumstances behind the fight - Ali had only just come back from his self-imposed exile from the ring which had lasted three and a half years.

He'd only come back five months before this Frazier fight and had had two bouts.

The public interest in New York was just astonishing. Ali checked into a very modest hotel called the New Yorker because he wanted to keep things simple.

But Ali being Ali, there was always a massive crowd of people either following him around or just appearing out of nowhere.

What made their devotion even stranger was that the weather in New York was appalling - the place was snowbound.

Some people think that Ali didn't focus on the fight in the way he should have but I disagree.

I don't think he ever neglected his training - every day he put in his two or three hours of training and still found time to speak to the masses.

There were lots of luminaries in attendance - Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand to name but just two, but people will find it hard to believe that when I was arriving at the arena, I bumped into Brian Clough Harry Carpenter

The thing about Ali, of course, was that whilst you could admire him so often, you could also dislike him for things like the way he taunted opponents.

I went to Deer Lake, his own personal training camp, and he put on this show where he referred to Frazier as 'The Gorilla' and then he actually pulled a lifesize gorilla skin and hit it in the ring.

And he had names for all his opponents - Sonny Liston was 'The Bear' and Floyd Patterson was 'The Rabbit'.

As for the evening itself - well Madison Square Garden holds 20,000 people and you couldn't get a seat for love nor money.

There were lots of luminaries in attendance - Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand to name but just two, but people will find it hard to believe that when I was arriving at the arena, I bumped into Brian Clough.

I don't know whether he was a big fight fan or not, but he was there to see it.

I must confess that while I thought it was an incredible night, I don't subscribe to the view that the fight itself was quite as amazing as people thought.

It just took such a long time to come alive because they were two such evenly matched fighters.

In fact it was very even right up till the final round, when Frazier landed that incredible left hook which put Ali down for the first time since the Henry Cooper fight.

It was without doubt the most extraordinary 24 hours of my life Harry Carpenter

Not only did Ali go down, but he arose with a massive swelling by his jaw - it was as if someone had put a grapefruit in his mouth.

What is important to remember was that Frazier did a lot of damage because of his style.

He had this fast-paced aggression and he was very reminiscent of the former champion Rocky Marciano.

Joe always came out punching two handed and was hitting his peak for this fight, whereas Ali had had a lot of time out and maybe he was not as sharp.

What I remember vividly was that after the fight finished, I had to introduce it from London the following night.

Therefore, I had to get the tape from America and bring it back to London.

There were no planes to catch so the BBC persuaded TWA to allow me to come back on a freight plane out of Kennedy Airport in the small hours of the morning.

After arriving at London, I was whisked from Heathrow to Lime Grove and had to prepare a script quickly as we went on air that evening.

It was without doubt the most extraordinary 24 hours of my life.