CLAY NEXT FOR FRAZIER OR FOSTER Fortune awaiting winner of title fight

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32458, 19 November 1970, Page 28

CLAY NEXT FOR FRAZIER OR FOSTER Fortune awaiting winner of title fight

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright;

DETROIT. Two world boxing champions will meet today in a world heavyweight title fight that should lead one of them towards the richest purse in ring history—a battle with Cassius Clay early in 1971.

Joe Frazier, the 26-year-old heavyweight champion, and Bob Foster, the 31-year-old light-heavyweight titleholder, fight not only each other in Detroit’s Coho Arena, but also the “ghost” of Clay, which has overshadowed both men and drained enthusiasm and excitement from the bout.

Frazier, a brutal slugger with a frame that seems impervious to punishment, is so heavily favoured, at 5-1, that scarcely anyone regards his fight with Foster as anything but a necessary preliminary to a battle with Clay. An upset, making Foster the first man to add the heavy-weight crown to his light-heavyweight title, would destroy promoters’ dreams of a $lO million gate for a Clay-Frazier meeting. However, even if Foster wins, it should still open the way for a multi-million dollar production in the New Year featuring Clay against him. Angry champion Clay will fight Oscar Bonavena, the durable Argentinian who twice sent Frazier to the canvas at their first meeting in 1966, in three weeks time. It is virtually certain he will be matched with the winner of today’s contest if he beats, as everyone expects, the South American. Frazier could barely control his anger at talk of Clay during his final preparations this week and refused to talk with reporters on the eve of the fight with Foster. He was expected to have a 101 b to 141 b advantage over Foster, who, tall and slender, has had to build up his fighting weight with the help of special food additives and was

hoping to tip the scales at I3st 71b, the heaviest of his nine years as a professional. Frazier, who shot up to 16st 61b after breaking his leg during a night-club singing act at Las Vegas last Spring, was expected to scale around 14st 71b. Foster, however, will have a s|in advantage in reach and at 6ft 3)in, more than 4in in height. But he will need both to blunt Frazier’s boring, pounding style, and

his only hope is being able to catch the champion with his powerful left nook and right uppercut. A former meat cutter after he came north to Philadelphia from his father’s farm in South Carolina, Frazier has made a specialty of carving up his opponents with a bludgeoning, non-stop attack that has been likened to the style of the late Rocky Marciano. Unbeaten in his 25 professional fights, Frazier has knocked out all but three of his opponents. He was never able to deliver a knock-out to Bonavena in his two fights with the Argentinian, but won both decisions.

Powerful puncher Both are capable of delivering a knock-out and Foster is probably the most powerful puncher Frazier has yet met. The challenger, who has been light heavy-weight champion for two years and a half, has shown ability x in winning 35 of his 45 contests with knock-outs. But weight and power are with Frazier, and pre-fight predictions had the champion stopping Foster in five rounds.