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Times-EnterpriseNEW YORK (AP) - “Ali! Ali! Ali!The yells of the crowd rolled around the afters of Madison Square Garden and played a song for the ears of proud Muhammad Ali.Dancing, jabbing, playing a deadly tune on the profile of Joe Frazier like a ring Paderewski, the quick-fisted descendant of a Kentucky slave avenged an earlier defeat at the hands of the one-time world champion and fought his way back near the pinnacle of the sport.Unanimous winner in a 12-round slugfest that brought a crowd of 20,748 to its feet and thrilled the millions of Ali supporters throughout the world, Muhammad stood out today as the No. 1 threat to the heavyweight crown held by big George Foreman.‘‘George Foreman is a sissy fighter,” Ali said, tauntingly. “He fights like a girl. Joe Frazier is a good fighter. This was a great event.“I think we should fight again.”This is a matter that is to be decided by the men in the back room — the lawyers, the managers, the auditors.But one thing is certain. Heavyweight boxing is alive again, because Ali is back in full* i •cry.Foreman, who slugged Frazier to the canvas six times and won the heavy weight crown in asecond-round knockout a year ago in Jamaica, will meet KenNorton, who broke Ali s jaw and split two decisions with Muhammad, in a title defense at Caracas, Venezuela, March 26.Bob Arum, who is Ali's lawyer and head of the agency chat handled the world-wide television rights to Monday night’s fight, would like to match Ali and the Foreman-Norton winner in the spring.Normally, Ali, because of the heavy income tax bite, would be better off to postpone such a fight until next year. But Ali will be 33 then, going on 34, older, slower and less sharp.A “rubber meeting” between the plodding, aggressive Frazier and the nimble-footed, sniping Ali conceivably could bean alternative.« .-“I want him again — you better believe it,” Frazier, a gracious loser said after the fight. “One more time.“I think I won, but it could have gone either way. I hurt him more than he hurt me. He was wrestling and holdingon.”All, a bombastic, bragging challenger, was a chastened winner.“I’m not gonna duck Joe,” he said. “I’m not gonna be like Foreman. I thought Joe was finished. He surprised me. He was much better than in the first fight.“I think he deserves another chance. This fight can’t be topped by any other fight.”No one in the packed arena and perhaps no one in the vast'iunseen audience around the world appeared disinclined to dispute it.It was another great fight between two different types of fighter — the slugger against the master craftsman — but it had a different ending. In the first fight, March 8,1971, when the two were unbeaten champions, Frazier was the unanimous 15-round winner.In Monday night’s 12-rounder, the two judges gave Ali a wide edge; Tony Castellano 7-4-1 and . Jack Gordon 8-4, while Tony Perez scored it 6-5-1, all for Ali.A random poll of writers at ringside had it 18-4 for Ali, with one even.Ali, 32, came out dancing and flicking that long left of his like a serpent’s tongue. Frazier, 30, bearded, grunting and snorting like an angry bear, came out flailing away, disdaining any punches thrown his way.Ali, 212, took the first two rounds handily, beating a tattoo on Frazier’s angry face.“I’m gonna get you,” snarled Frazier in the third. It was a round he won, twice jarring Ali’s head back with vicious left hooks and pounding telling blows into Muhammad’s midsection.Ali continued weaving, darting, poking. They seemed to be harmless shots but they landed flush on Frazier’s glowering face and they began to take effect.Ali appeared to win the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds.WinHe was an evasive target. Frazier, 209, swung wildly, connected occasionally, missed often.In the sixth round, a lip reader could see Frazier snort, “I’m gonna get you,” Before he would get the words out, Ali shot a blood red glove flush to his snarling mouth.Frazier, obviously irked at his failure to drive home a telling or a knockout blow in the early rounds, picked up momentum in the seventh. He danced and taunted Ali, nailed Muhammad with thunderous left hooks.Frazier fought well in the seventh and eighth; maybe winning both, as Ali sho wed signs of tiring. Ali became flat-footed. He moved with less agilty. He took more punishment and administered less.In the ninth round, Frazier grinned at Ali and motioned to him, “Come on, let’s fight.”Swinging wildly, never giving ground, he brought blood to Ali’s nose. He spit some blood from his mouth himself. But Ali hung on, tying him up and pecking away at his foe like a gifted swordsman.Frazier remained the aggressor. He kept coming forward like an angry bull. He snorted. He puffed. He swung. Ali jabbed, poked, stung his man.“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”The old Ali adage of strategy was never practiced more skillfully.Then it was overimanimniis rfpoisinnAli by a
Newspaper Details
Thomasville Times Enterprise
Thomasville, Georgia, US
Tue, Jan 29, 1974
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Greene C.
OH, USA 10 Jan 2022
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