AGAINST ANOTHER CLAY-LISTON BOUT

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30426, 28 April 1964, Page 15

AGAINST ANOTHER CLAY-LISTON BOUT

(N Z. Press Association—Copyright)

ROCHELLE PARK (New Jersey), April 26. The commissioner of the World Boxing Association (Mr A. J. Greene) said today that he was strongly opposed to a return bout between heavy-we ; ght champion Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston, the Associated Press reported. Mr Greene, speaking at a boxing, luncheon, said that to give Liston another chance at the title so soon “would make suckers out of millions of American boxing fol-

lowers and a mockery out of boxing administration.” “The effrontery of the principals in the Clay-Liston romance in proposing a return bout so soon after their bald and bold travesty of recent days is evidence of the need for a strong Federal hand,” he said.

“The double-dealing contracts behind the scenes, the barnacle attachment of shady characters to Liston’s camp, the eyebrow-raising distribution of his stock in his corporation. the 50,000-dollaf deal with the Clay camp which made Liston a partner in Clay’s next bout—all these angles are to be forgotten in the ‘new deal’ the same people are to give the people.” Mr Greene said Liston and Clay should both box the leading contenders.