Come early, says Ali, Frazier may sit before you do

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33962, 1 October 1975, Page 32

Come early, says Ali, Frazier may sit before you do

s (New Zealand Press Association—Copyright) MANILA. Muhammad Ali fired off his final taunts and Smokin’ Joe Frazier let the smoke burn inside himself yesterday in the closing hours before their 15-round “rubber” battle for the world heavy-weight boxing championship.

“The showdown has come,” bellowed an emotionally charged Ali, the self-proclaimed instrument of Allah, turning the occasion into a vaudeville act.

“Come early. Joe Frazier may sit down before you do. This fight will be the complete annihilation of Joe Frazier. It may end before the first round.”

Frazier only gritted his teeth and punched the bag a little harder. From the ring, where he held his final wo k-out, he told some 5000 Filipinos: “Tomorrow, you will have a new champion.” The defending champion, Ali, was in full voice and high spirits while the onetime title-holder and challenger, Frazier, maintained an impressive calm and refused any brash predictions of an early knock-out. “The fight will go on to 15 rounds.” he said hoarsely. “I will be there. I ain't going nowhere.” The bout is scheduled for 10.45 a.m., local time, today, in the 25,567-seat stadium. If every seat is taken, as promoters predict, ranging from SUS33O for ringside to SUS 4 in the gallery, the gate would be more than SUS I.Bm, an indoor record. Additionally, closed-circuit television is being beamed to 68 countries, including the Soviet Union, and with 380 locations in the United States alone revenues of SUS22m to SUS3Om are possible. “Seven hundred million people may watch this fight,” said Mr Don King, the flamboyant, imaginative one-time Ohio racketeer and convict who has emerged as boxing’s modern matchmaker.

“No fight in the past has been witnessed by so many people paying such a price.” A 1 i is guaranteed SUS4.Sm, against 43 per cent of the gross, Frazier SUS2m, against 22 per cent.

If the extravaganza meets Mr King’s expectations, Ali can take home as much as SUS9m and Frazier SUSSm. Ali is the 2-1 favourite, based on his eighth round knock-out of big George Foreman in regaining the title in Zaire on October 30, last year, and subsequent victories in the past year over Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Frazier, the Philadelphia slaughterhouse butcher who won the title in 1970 and lost it to Foreman in Kingston, Jamaica, on January 22, 1972, when Foreman crushed him in two rounds, has had only two fights since, losing a 12-round nontitle decision to Ali on January 28, 1974. He stopped Jerry Quarry in five and Jimmy Ellis in nine. One of the mysteries of the fight is how much speed and power the challenger

has lost since his two bruising battles with Ali — the first won in a 15-round decision, and the second lost in 12.

“I have been waiting for this fight for eight months,” Frazier said. “I have sacrificed and worked to get at this man again. I have it all together. I don’t think I have ever been better.” Coming forward Frazier weighed in at 214J1b and Ali at 224j1b, both heavier than expected. Ali, supremely confident, boxed only one day during the past week, saying: “Why should I box? I know where Frazier will be. His head always will be in front of my fist.” Informed of the champion’s comment, Frazier responded: “I know where he is going to be, too. I got the best handlers in the world.”

Ali, jat 33 two years older than his opponent and a superb 6ft 3in athlete with dancing feet and quick hands, has indicated he will come out fighting instead of back-pedalling, with the intention of scoring an early knock-out. Frazier’s chief trainer, Eddie Futch, considers this nothing more than idle talk. “Ali’s track record shows that instead of coming out swinging, he usually is trying to protect himself,” Futch said. “If he gets too froggy, he just may get tagged.” . A comparatively short man — sft ll|in, with stubby legs and huge thighs — Frazier does not depend heavily on boxing skills. He is a bore-in fighter, a buzzsaw who will take five shots to land one. Finest ever His left hook is the most devastating weapon in a limited arsenal which has given him 32 wins in 34 fights with 27 knock-outs. Ali calls Frazier “a gorilla. He is so ugly that when he was a baby and cried, tears started down his face, then turned back and ran to the back of his head,” he says. Ali, who has won 48 out of 50 fights, who with 34 knock-outs, is rated by many experts as possibly the finest all-around fighter of all time — lightningquick, smart, confident to the point of arrogance. He beat Foreman by playing the ropes, driving the giant boxer to sheer exhaustion and then putting him away in the eighth.

The Ali-Frazier fight starts at 2.45 p.m. N.Z. time today and will be shown live on TVI in a telecast starting at 2.30 p.m.