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PUTTING HEAVY JIGSAW

PUZZLE · PIECES TOGETHER

PROBLEM FOR PROMOTERS

By NAT LOUBET

OT so long ago, Joe Frazier,
onetime $75 a week slaughter-
N house worker in Philadelphia,
refused to fight Muhammad Ali (Cassius
Clay) a second time for $3,200,000- in
Jack Kent Cooke's Forum at Inglewood,
Calif.
Now Frazier and Yank Durham, his
trainer-manager are trying desperately to
get a return fight with George Foreman,
who stopped Joe in two rounds at
Kingston, Jamaica, on January 22.
A Foreman-Frazier fight is one of the
very few major attractions open for
competition among the leading pro-
moters, all of whom are based in the
United States.
Efforts are being made in England to
pull Joe Bugmer and Danny McAlinden
into the Big Fight ranks but the
impression exists in well informed circles
that neither qualifies.
Putting together the pieces of the
jigsaw puzzle, which were scattered to the
winds by the Foreman victory over
Frazier and the Ken Norton defeat of Ali,
is a task which has eligible promoters
stymied. Heavyweight champion George Foreman gets warm welcome from students at E. 0. Smith
Junior High in Houston, the school he attended as a youth.
Despite the fact that Ali was a
$3,200,000 victim of the Frazier debacle,
he stood out as the wise man of the
limited coterie of top-flight heavies until
he took Norton too lightly. round, at Kingston, Jamaica. do with boxing or the Garden.
Let us review the heavyweight February 9, 1973 - Jerry Quarry beat Out of the jumble of heavyweight
situation as it stands, going all the way Ron Lyle in a 12-round fight, at New events we have the spectacular emergence
back to Frazier's solidification of his · York. of Foreman as the most surprising winner
heavyweight title by stopping Jimmy February 14, 1973 - Muhammad Ali of the heavyweight championship in the
Ellis. Here is the story by the calendar: outpointed Joe Bugner in a 12-round history of boxing.
February 16, 1970 Joe Frazier fight, at Las Vegas. Foreman was in no hurry to be
knocked out Jimmy Ellis in five rounds, March 31, 1973 - Ken Norton out- "lured" into fighting Frazier, a topheavy
at New York. pointed Muhammad Ali in 12-rounds at favorite: Now Foreman is in no haste to
October 26, 1970 Muhammad Ali San Diego. defend the world championship against
stopped Jerry Quarry in three rounds, at Note, please, that four of these Big any heavyweight who deserves a headline.
Atlanta, Ga. Fights were fought in New York. Where is There was a lot of loose talk about
December 7, 1970 Muhammad Ali the Big Town now in major boxing? It Foreman fighting Muhammad Ali, with
stopped Oscar Bonavena in the 15th lies in the dumps, praying that Governor George collecting $5,000,000.
round, at New York. Nelson Rockefeller will wake up and ask Dick Sadler, manager-trainer of Fore-
March 8, 1971 - Joe Frazier beat the state tax people to be much more man, says that he received no such offer
Muhammad Ali in a 15-round fight in lenient to major boxers operating in and that he does not know of any
which Clay was decked in the last heat, at Madison Square Garden. Right now the promoter who would offer that sum for a
New York. Governor is too taken up with the title defense. That, of course, is academic
January 22, 1973 - George Foreman political fight concerning New York's now.
knocked out Joe Frazier in the second mayoralty to consider anything having to Ali stood ready to fight Frazier for
8 THE RING-50 YEARS