University of Virginia Library

Speaking Out

Fight Afterthoughts

With Ernest Dempsey

BEFORE "THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY", a boxing
atmosphere, largely stimulated by the Virginia Rugby Club's
closed circuit telecast at University Hall, so encompassed the
Grounds that boxing legend Billy Williams must have shed a tear.
Predictions filled the air. "Ali in the 9th!" "No, it's going to be
Frazier." "Did you hear what Cosell said this morning?"

DON ELBAUM, the fight promoter and owner of many
boxers who battled both Frazier and Ali, literally "called" the
fight in his prediction. Elbaum has never thought of Ali as one of
the great champions and said before the fight:

"NOW THERE'S A FRAZIER who's going to keep Ali so busy
he won't be able to dictate the fight. Ali will have to run or hold
- or fight. Whatever he does, Frazier will get him eventually.
When I talk about Ali's fighting heart," he concluded, "I think
without question he'll do the best he can for five rounds, while
he's fresh and strong, to knock Frazier out. But once that energy
starts to ebb and the combination of Frazier's non-stop tactics
takes its toll, Ali may want to quit inwardly.'

ELBAUM IN HIS PREDICTION, speaks of Ali's fighting
heart, which hopefully will not stop beating for it has brought an
unforgettable dimension to boxing. He added color to the sport
when it needed it most. Seven years ago, when young Cassius
Clay defeated Sonny Liston for the World Heavyweight
Championship, the entire boxing world changed.

"I'M FREE TO BE WHO I WANT," said the new champ, and
so he was. The sixties demanded change. It was no longer the
time for what New York Times sports columnist Robert Lipsyte
calls "sweet natured killers" such as Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis,
and Rocky Marciano. It was also no longer the time for a shady
man such as Sonny Liston, who set boxing back years behind his
time. They were all tools of sponsors, ordered around like
puppets.

CLAY BECAME A MODERN ATHLETE. He committed
himself politically in choosing not to go into the army, where he
could have taught boxing for two years as Louis did. As Lipsyte
said in a recent article on Ali, "How could he be attacked for
blurting, 'I got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,' on the very day
senators were making more critical statements on television?"

WHEN THE NEW CHAMPION changed his name to
Muhammed Ali, many people were (and still are) revolted because
it symbolized a distasteful foreign philosophy. The change
obviously meant a great deal to the fighter, and was more
warranted than Walker Smith's change of name to Sugar Ray
Robinson, Archibald Lee Wright's to Archie Moore or Arnold
Cream's to Jersey Joe Walcott.

HOW WAS ALI IN THE RING? Before his three-year exile,
the champ was invincible. His rare style was almost impossible to
prepare for, and he was simply a superb boxer. Ali defended his
title successfully nine times battering such names as Patterson,
Chuvalo, Cooper, Mildenberger, Williams, and Terrel.

NOW, the charismatic and powerful Ali has been beaten. Joe
Frazier, a lackluster, but very strong, very professional, and very
determined puncher looked like a bulldozer Monday night as he
stunned Ali in the eleventh round and sent him to the canvas in
the fifteenth. The Ali mouth had subsisted through the exile, but
the boxing ability he once had could not be revitalized.

THERE IS TALK OF A REMATCH between Joe Frazier and
Muhammed Ali. It would most likely occur in the Los Angeles
Forum and though anti-climactic, the second confrontation
would guarantee another rich purse and a surer display of boxing
skills.

IF BOTH FIGHTERS DO DECIDE TO RETIRE, one cannot
help but remember the impact left on the boxing industry by
Muhammed Ali. As the former champion said before his 3½ year
absence from the ring:

"WHEN I'M GONE, boxing will be nothing again. The fans
with the cigars and the hats turned down will be there, but no
more housewives and little men and foreign presidents. I was the
onliest boxer in history people asked questions like a senator."