Clay watches fight on TV, says he is ready FRAZIER KEEPS TITLE; 12nd-ROUND K.O.

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32459, 20 November 1970, Page 24

Clay watches fight on TV, says he is ready FRAZIER KEEPS TITLE; 12nd-ROUND K.O.

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) DETROIT. The world heavyweight champion, Joe Frazier, with powerful left-hand punches, knocked out the lightheavyweight title-holder Bob Foster, after 49sec of the second round of their scheduled 15-round fight last night, United Press International reported.

The impressive victory by the

aggressive champion was his first defence of the disputed title he won nine months ago and kept open the* possibility of a big-money championship fight with the former heavyweight king, Cassius Clay, probably in New York in February.

In fact, no sooner had Frazier knocked out Foster than Clay leaped from his seat in the 1 Atlanta City Auditorium, where he was watching the fight on television, and screamed: “I want Joe Frazier, I want Joe Frazier.” Performing before a slim crowd. Clay began shadow boxing, narrating his efforts with lines like: “Is Joe Frazier this fast? Can he do anything about this?" He said he is ready to fight Frazier anywhere and would like to meet him in Atlanta. Twice down Frazier, fighting in his usual furious non-stop fashion, forced Foster backwards throughout the short bout and floored him twice in the second round. . The first knock-down came only seconds after the second round opened, a booming left catching Foster high on the cheekbone.

The light heavy-weight champion got up at the

count of eight, although he slipped again before straightening up completely. Frazier pounced on him in a rampaging effort to seal the victory quickly, crowded him against the ropes, and knocked him flat with another tremendous left. Heavier by 211 b Foster, who was outweighed by 211 b, at 13st 61b, to Frazier’s 14st 131 b, was so stunned that he was still on his back two minutes after the knock-out as his handlers. used smelling salts to clear his head. The first round was fairly closely fought. Frazier had the edge with several good head punches, but Foster also scored with one solid left that made Frazier blink.

Foster, the taller and slimmer, may have lost his only chance to win early in the first round when he twice hit Frazier with two solid right hands. Foster is regarded as one of the toughest righthanded punchers in boxing, but those two did not stop Frazier. “I felt him in the first round,” Frazier admitted, “but 1 wasn’t hurt. I knew he was going in the second after that left.”

Foster’s failure to win marked the eleventh successive time that a light heavyweight champion has met and lost to the reigning heavy-weight champion. Talk later Frazier and his manager (Mr Yancey Durham), who had avoided talking about Clay during preparations for the Foster fight, also avoided it afterwards.

"I’m not going to say anything about Clay now,” Mr Durham said. “I am going home, Frazier is going home, and after two or three weeks we will talk about it.” “I fought like I fight every day,” Frazier said. "He stumbled into a good right hand. Bob should never have come back after that first knock-down. “I saw him wavering. He had no business going on. When he tried to protect his body, I just went to his head.” Too stunned Foster said he thought he “won the first round,” but he admitted that he had been so stunned that he did not hear the count during either knock-down in the second round. “He caught me with real good punches,” Foster said. Both of the fights staged as a closed circuit television

"double-header” ended in the second round. Earlier, in the first half of the show, George Foreman, the Olympic heavyweight champion, stopped Boone Kirkman, of Seattle, in the second. It was Foreman’s twenty-fourth consecutive victory as a professional. The 21-year-old Foreman’s impressive performance undoubtedly propels him into the top echelon of the heavyweight class, right behind Frazier and Clay.