Clay Taken To 12th Round

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 14

Clay Taken To 12th Round

<N IP 4. Reuter—Copyright) FRANKFURT. Cassius Clay retained the world heavy-weight title against Karl Mildenberger in Frankfurt on Saturday night, but took almost 12 rounds to dispose of the German.

The British referee, Mr E. Waltham, stopped the fight in the twelfth round after Mildenberger ..had been down in the ’ fifth, eighth and tenth rounds.

His left eye was puffed and bloody and he looked on the way out when the end came. It was not one of Clay’s most impressive victories. For long periods he threw few punches, being content to dance around ducking and slipping the German’s blows. Mildenberger scored with some good lefts—his best

punch—but Clay never appeared to be hurt. When the champion decided to carry the fight to Mildenberger he seemed able to hit him, in spite of the challenger’s southpaw stance, which it was thought might give him some trouble. Mildenberger, bravely aggressive, appeared to be going well when Clay allowed him to carry the fight to him. But he was dropped momentarily at the end of the fifth round, took a compulsory count of eight in the eighth and was down again, though quickly up, at the end of the tenth. When Mr Waltham called an end to the fight after I min 15sec of the twelfth round, Mildenberger at least had the satisfaction of having gone longer with the champion than most people would have thought possible.