DOPING REPORT "RIDICULOUS”

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32563, 24 March 1971, Page 36

DOPING REPORT "RIDICULOUS”

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW JERSEY. Cassius Clay yesterday labelled as “silly” and “ridiculous” a report by a British doctor that the former heavy-weight champion may have been doped during his title fight with Joe Frazier, Associated Press reported.

Dr Joseph Blonstein, president of the medical commission of the World Amateur Boxing Association, said he saw the fight on closed circuit television. “To me. Clay’s actions were mysterious. His eyes looked glazed,” he said. Clay laughed when he was told of the doctor’s report. "It sounds silly to me,” he said. “How could he see so good on television when the judges were so blind at the ringside and said I didn't win. “If my eyes were glazed everybody else would have noticed that right away. “Maybe the doctor had tears in his eyes because he

had bet money on me and that was the glaze he saw.” Any charge of his being doped was “ridiculous.” “I only drank crystal clear spring water and my own cooks fixed the food,” Clay said. Dr Blonstein, who also is chairman and senior medical officei of the British Amateur Boxing Association, wrote about his suspicions in a medical journal, “The General Practitioner.” “I am not saying Clay doped himself. He could have been doped without knowing anything about it In all the major fights I have seen Clay in I have never seen him move so slowly,” the doctor said.