NO FEET OF CLAY ON THE COLOURFUL OLD CHAMPION

Press, 29 April 1978, Page 12

NO FEET OF CLAY ON THE COLOURFUL OLD CHAMPION

The defeat of the heavyweight champion. Muhammad Ali, by the littleknown Leon Spinks may have ended an era in boxing history dominated by the garrulous, hard-punch-ing, lightning-fast man who called himself the greatest. Ali, born 36 years ago in Louisville, Kentucky, as Cassius Clay, swept to the most cherished title in boxing when he beat the hulking, menacing Sonny Liston in 1964.

More than a decade later, after being stripped of his crown for refusing to serve in the Vietnam war, Ali climaxed an astonishing comeback by demolishing the man who had become champion in his place, George Foreman.

Then, amid reams of talk — boastful, sometimes poetic, always head-line-grabbing — he defended the champior ip 10 times before meeting his downfall in a split decision in Las Vegas. Ali's recovery of his title in October 1974, with his knockout of Foreman, marked an achievement matched by no heavyweight champion before him and unlikely to be repeated by any of his successors.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” was the Ali maxim that summed up his style in and out of the ring. His cockiness and rebelliousness, endearing to some, exasperating to others, made him unique among holders of the heavy-weight title. After losing his crown over the Vietnam controversy in 1967, Ali was out of action for two and a half years.

His comeback started in late 1970 and was only temporarily thrown off course when the then

champion, Joe Frazier, beat him in March 1971. Ali had his revenge on Frazier in a gruelling, savage contest in Manila on October 1, 1975. Frazier — battered, cut and bruised — was forced to retire at the end of the fourteenth round of a bout that left the winner so weary he had to be helped to his corner.

Ali, never lost for words, called the fight the next thing to death. But he had proved his ring genius as well as his strength and courage. Born on January 17, 1942, the then Cassius Clay entered the boxing world after his prized boyhood possession, a bicycle, was stolen. “If I find the kid who stole my bike, I'll whup him,” he said.

A policeman suggested the boy should learn to box first. Ali fought for six years as an amateur under police tutelage until the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where he won a gold medal as a light heavy-weight. Backed by a group of businessmen, the “Louisville Lip” scored an impressive string of professional victories and built up a reputation as the fastest and fleetest heavyweight in the history of boxing. He scored one of the biggest boxing upsets ever in February, 1964, when he faced the late Sonny Liston in Miami Beach. Florida, to win the world title. Fifteen months later, Ali scored a sensational first round repeat victory over Liston in Lewiston, Maine.

Ali’s brashness and verbal pyrotechnics helped build up his legend even in his losing battle against Frazier He kept baiting him with dropped fists

and shouted: “I’m going to kill you, nigger.” Over the years, it became clear that Ali needed to brag and boast to condition himself psychologically for a fight. He thrives on publicity, feeds off the press. His boasting helped him to believe in his invicibility. Outside the ring he consistently stayed in the news — with his style of life, the conversion to the militant Black Muslim faith which prompted his change of name, his contempt. for much of the white establishment, and above all, his refusal to serve in the United States army.

His 1974 victory over Foreman in Zaire was almost as big an upset as his defeat of Liston.

Ali knocked out Foreman in the eighth round of a SIOM bout as pandemonium broke out under an African full moon. He did it in his usual eyepopping, histrionic style, surprising a world-wide television audience and arousing frenzied cheers from 60,000 fans. Many experts had said Ali was past his peak at 32. They predicted Foreman, at 25 coming to his peak and seemingly set for a long reign as champion, would overwhelm him with powerhouse punching. The only other heavyweight ever to win back the crown was Floyd Patterson, a brave but glasschinned fighter who was later humiliatingly defeated by Liston.

The win over Foreman was the climax of Ali’s career.

In 1967, it had seemed Ali and the myth he had built would fade from the scene when he was stripped of his crown and banned from the ring. Four years later, he suffered his first defeat at the hands of Frazier. Then, early in 1973, he was beaten and had his jaw broken by a relatively unknown California heavyweight, Ken Norton. But, from all those ashes, Ali fought his way back with his wit and his fists:

His defeat on points by Norton over 12 rounds in San Diego in March, 1973, stunned the boxing world and many experts believed the humiliation and the broken jaw would finally close a remarkable career. But six months later, Ali scored his revenge by outpointing Norton — again over 12 rounds — in Las Vegas. In the long history of heavy-weight boxing, there was never a faster man with hands and feet inside the ring than Ali. Nor was there ever a champion who tossed all modesty aside in such brazen style. Boxing critics do not doubt that between 1964 and 1967, when he held the title, Ali was the finest piece of human fighting machinery in the world.

In spite of his lightning speed and supreme confidence, Ali, even in his prime, lacked the kind ofknockout punches of such former champions as Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano. Frazier had knocked out 23 of his 26 ring foes before going the distance and defeating Ali.