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not necessarily to Judge Ingraham, who heard the case originally. If, after all, Clay has to go to jail, The Ring will have to aban-
However, his reappearance in the matter is not ruled out. don its support of Cassius as the world champion.
Clay continues to be represented by the Civil Liberties Union's What with one thing and another, especially the unlooked for
Atlanta branch, through Charles Morgan. happenings re Clay, the heavyweight picture has become an
Morgan makes no brash predictions as to how the Supreme extraordinarily exciting one.
Court's action may affect the Clay case · beneficially. But he After playing a cat and mouse game, the Dundees, Chris
points to a similar case involving one Kolod, who ultimately and Angelo, have decided to recognize the rational angle con-
won in the Supreme Court but, unfortunately, died before he cerning Ellis, and the certainty that there must be a Frazier-
could celebrate. Ellis fight in order to achieve the greatest possible financial
"The FBI brought into the Clay case five of his conversations return.
involving three locations in which it eavesdropped," Morgan told The Ellis interest pulled a strategic rock when it dilly dallied
The Ring. and permitted the Frazier-Quarry fight to move in ahead of the
It seems that while the FBI was listening, Clay called certain Frazier-Ellis battle.
persons, and said things which, as these conversations were Suppose Quarry were to stop Frazier? Those things have to
reported to the Court, hurt him. be faced up to as possibilities. How much would Ellis expect
"We will try to find out what we can about those conver- to get out of another meeting with the man whom he so deci-
sations," Morgan continued. sively beat in the WBA-Mike Malitz final?
"The case law is not clear. Every question Clay had on appeal Sometimes the Machiavellis of the roped arena fall into the
still is a question. danger of outsmarting themselves. In fact, they sometimes do
"After his Louisville board had ruled him subject to draft, just that.
Cassius Clay went before an Appeal Board.
"The Justice Department overruled its own hearing director."
How soon may there be action in the lower Federal court?
Will the case go back to the Court of Appeals? Will it drag
along, as it has dragged up to now, to another hearing in the
Supreme Court? Is there really a chance that Cassius Clay will
go free? Who can tell? The courts are most capricious.
In the meantime there are interesting developments in other
directions.
Joe Frazier will fight Jimmy Ellis, possibly in September,
provided he gets past Jerry Quarry on June 23. Quarry is the
fellow who did so impressive a job on bombed-out Buster Mathis.
Quarry did not impress in his loss to Ellis in the final of the
elimination tournament. But the Quarry who stopped Mathis
was a different fighter, aggressive, determined, a left-hooking
and uppercutting contender.
Granted that Frazier disposes of Quarry, and Ellis comes
through unscathed, the Big Fight is quite likely to land in
New York.
Harry Markson, Madison Square Garden boxing director,
has offered Ellis $250,000 with an option of 32 percent.
To Frazier, Markson has made a tender of $210,000, with
an option of 2 7 percent.
There has been a lot of talk on the Ellis side of having the
fight in Houston in the big Astrodome. But the fact remains that
Houston has yet to prove itself as a profitable venue for a
heavyweight fight of major importance.
The Frazier-Ellis affair may be for the world championship.

(Above) Jimmy Ellis, recognized
as heavyweight king by the
World Boxing Association, fig-
ures to meet Joe Frazier in the
ring in the near future. (Left)
we see Clay and Frazier kid-
ding around during a training
session before Cassius' bout
with Zora Folley at the old
Madison Square Garden.

THE RING