The “black Marciano’s” warning “TELL CLAY TO WATCH OUT, ” SAYS FRAZIER

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32540, 25 February 1971, Page 17

The “black Marciano’s” warning “TELL CLAY TO WATCH OUT, ” SAYS FRAZIER

(By REX BELLAMY, of "The Times", through N.Z.P.A.)

PHILADELPHIA.

The gymnasium, just the sort of place you could pass without noticing, stands in the shadow of a railway bridge on a dingy stretch of Broad Street, which carves a 10-mile groove down the length of Philadelphia from Cheltenham in the north to the United States Navy yard, the Delaware River, and Gloucester County in the south.

The small notice reads “Training headquarters for Joe Frazier, heavyweight champion.” Another suggests “One dollar admission to training” if you want to get out of the rain.

But no-one bothers about the money. A dollar cannot mean much to the entourage of a man already guaranteed two and a half million of them for his next fight—against Muhammad Ali, otherwise known as Cassius Clay, in New York on March 8.

Inside all is almost clinically clean: unadorned brick walls, a newly-panelled ceiling, and no furniture that is not essential to the function of the place. “It’s the best gym. in the East,” says Frazier’s manager, Mr Y. Durham. In addition to sparring partners and handlers, there are maybe 40 onlookers, lined up silently against the wall, as though they think it unwise to be in the target area when things start happening. Everyone is waiting. Thickset A thickset man, in a green dressing gown and a black, monk-like cowl, bounces, briskly down the bare staircase. Frazier is ready. He strips to a T-shirt and a pair of long, closefitting, green woollen pants, and climbs into the ring. For the next hour he doesn’t stop moving. Sweat streams from every rippling muscle. He is only sft lOin tall, but built like a tank. In his younger days they said he was too short, and “bottom heavy.” Now they talk about his neck, chest and thighs. A public relations man and local boxing buff, Mr K. Mugler, says: “This guy is like Marciano reincarnated in black. He just keeps coming. He wouldn’t know how to quit.” They know Frazier here. He is a local man, his home just a few miles from the gymnasium. Clay, too has been living in Philadelphia. Runyon characters Frazier shadow - boxes, then has a total of five rounds with three different partners: middleweight, lightheavyweight, and heavyweight. The men who are working with him include Willie “The Worm” Monroe and Pete “Moleman” Williams, who sound as if they came straight out of Runyon. Today Frazier is concentrating on speed. Durham, timing him to the second, tells him exactly when to land body punches. Frazier keeps coming forward, like a fidgety bull-

dozer without a reverse gear. In a confined space like a boxing ring he cannot be eluded for long. Children More shadow-boxing, then over to the speed ball. Durham makes him swing and duck his shoulders. Frazier’s children come across to say hallo. He stops and stoops to plant kisses on them. More shadow-boxing, this time in front of a full-length mirror. Finally, out flat on a table, repeatedly sitting up fast and twisting his torso as he does so. His feet are held by a handler. Other men are working around him and the melange of noises is unique—recorded blues-rock soul music, jangling ceaselessly to match Frazier’s own jump and verve (“he can’t seem to do without it,” said one observer). The slap of leather on leather from all round the gym. as Frazier and the rest go about their work; and the grunts of hard physical effort. No voices, just the sounds of fighters in their workshop. Sings with group Frazier sings with a night club group, “The Knockouts,” who have a fast show of uninhibited soul music. He is said to have a genuine talent for the business. But how did “Try a Little.

Tenderness” get into the training repertory? Maybe he has to remind himself that his fast, but light sparring partners are to be evaded rather than clobbered.

The man is all quivering, restless energy. “There’s a certain frenzy about him in training that I don’t think I’ve seen in any other fighter,” says B. Collins, of the “Boston Globe.”

Frazier’s intensity is frightening. This, you feel, is what men must have been like in the days when they had to catch and kill their dinner before eating. You remember that Frazier was cutting meat in a slaughterhouse when Durham spotted his potential as a fighter. Training routine Every day the routine is the same. In the mornings he runs five miles in Fairmount Park, supposedly the largest park within city boundaries anywhere in the world. Later, the gymnasium.

“The work don’t get no easier,” says Frazier. “I feel like I’m in top shape. But the more shape I get in, the harder I work.”

Someone tells him Clay is boxing 10 to 15 rounds a day. “He’s working unnecessary hard. What’s he trying to do —kill himself already? Before he get out there, he may fall on his face. He don’t need to train all that hard because the fight isn’t going the distance. "Better fighter” “Im pretty sure I’m a better fighter than he is. And I don’t think he’s going to be able to rough me up. I know all them tricks and I got a few tricks myself. I don’t think I’ll change my style. I just go out there and do my thing.” Inevitably, he is asked about Clay’s role in the Black Power movement. “I don’t believe in all that black stuff. I believe every man should think what he wants to think and do what he wants to do.”

“If there’s anything I can do to help black people, or help anybody, I’ll do what I can. What we want today is that everyone should be together as one. Preachin’ it don’t mean a thing. Making a lot of noise and talking about what you do, don’t mean you’re a good-hearted fellow or a good man, you got to go out an do. True brother “He talk about what a true brother is. Tell him to look at me. I’m a true brother.

I’m for real. Right? You tell him to get ready. You give Clay a message. Tell him to take it easy and don’t get nervous. I’ll be there on time.”

Incidentally, the official measurements for the first time include "mouth normal” and “mouth expanded.” Tn this department, Frazier finishes second. It will be an even-money match. The Madison Square Garden is ready for a record live gate of SUSI.2Sm and nation-wide theatre television may run from SUS4m to twice that sum. At least one man is offering up to SUS3OOO for a ticket.

The "New York Times” says: "The fight mob and the smart money are picking Frazier, but Ali has such an appealing personality that his salesmanship has won him heavy support elsewhere.”

Frazier says he could retire after this bout. “I got enough money to get out if I want to. But I just love money. It’s so comfortable. It makes things so sweet for me. The only way to get it is to work hard—and I’m working hard. So tell Clay to watch out.”