Amid last week’s legal skirmishes that have substituted for the National Football League – with talk of dollars and cents replacing draft picks and depth charts – a sporting event of historic significance came and went.

Spoken of primarily in talk-radio circles, it seemed, was the 40th anniversary of the first Ali-Frazier fight. It almost seems archaic that a heavyweight clash between Boxing Hall of Famers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier could capture the attention of the entire American public. And it was only a precursor to what would come, as second and third bouts between the two would become truly worldwide events.

For those willing to take the sport-as-society leap, Ali-Frazier was indeed an event for the ages. Not just a great dual between two masters at their craft, the confrontation mirrored much of what was going on in society in the very early 1970s.

Ali was brash, full of braggadocio and, above all, a hero to younger America. His anti-war stance, with the death toll rising and conflict raging in Southeast Asia, brought cult status to the ring. Frazier’s glowering demeanor and punishing hook was strictly old-school, the perfect representation for much of the country that shunned Ali’s theatrics.

Ali was the dove, Frazier the hawk, and the country lined up accordingly. Both made the covers of magazines – news magazines, not sports.

Fast-forward to March 2010 and professional boxing is barely a blip on the sporting radar. Interest in the heavyweight division died with the freakishness of Mike Tyson. Casual fans of the sport were treated to a diet of significant bouts that only faded throughout the ‘90s.

Tyson held all three heavyweight belts simultaneously. Can anyone name today’s heavyweight champs? Didn’t think so.

Continuing with the sport-as-society, boxing has replaced by mixed martial arts, which has boomed in popularity.

With no disrespect to the athletes, old-timers can lament the demise of the so-called Sweet Science, which has been replaced by a sport where fighters are caged, allowed to kick and, amazingly, repeatedly hit a man when he’s already down.

The Ali Shuffle and rope-a-dope have given way to organized street fights.

How this transformation reflects on an increasingly-violent American society often seems painfully clear…as painful as Frazier’s punishing left hook that sent Ali sprawling 40 years ago.