Word: alie
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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What Clay had, Frazier wanted. In the scramble for a share of Ali's vacated title, he defeated his old nemesis, Buster Mathis, to become the recognized champ in seven states. The rest of the country belonged to "World Boxing Heavyweight Champion" Jimmy Ellis. Nettled by his title of "partial champ," Joe took on Ellis last year and dropped him with two paralyzing left hooks in the fourth round; Jimmy's manager threw in the towel. Arms raised, Frazier cried as he leaped around the ring: "Free at last! Free at last...
...wasn't. Ali-e-e-e was still very much around. No matter whom Frazier was boxing, Trainer Durham kept telling him, "That's Cassius out there you're fighting." Says Joe: "From the beginning, Clay has been the man. That's all I heard when I was coming up?Clay's this and Clay's that. When I came from the Olympics, he told me, 'Come on up, work hard and I'll make you rich.' You know what? I came up, I got rich and he got poor...
...exactly. During his 43 months of exile, Ali made TV commercials, toured the college lecture circuit for $2,500 an appearance, received a $225,000 advance for a forthcoming autobiography, appeared in a short-lived Broadway musical, made the rounds of talk shows, got married for the second time, fathered three daughters and bought a $92,000 home on Philadelphia's Main Line with a color TV set in every room, 12 telephones and a swimming pool. If anything, his convictions became more firmly entrenched: "Tell everybody that Muhammad Ali ain't licked yet. I say damn the fights...
Recently, a federal court, after hearing evidence from Ali's lawyers that convicted burglars, pimps, rapists and sodomites were given licenses by boxing commissions, ruled that Ali's banishment was "arbitrary and unreasonable." Fight fans treated his return to the ring against Quarry in Atlanta like the Second Coming. Ali was awarded the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Medal after the fight, and Mrs. Coretta King said that he was not just a champion of boxing but "a champion of truth, peace and unity...
...Ali, back on the scene in force, is living his usual abnormal life. At his training camp in Miami Beach, he heads an entourage that looks like a touring vaudeville act. There is Bundini, the cornerman and personal mystic who calls him "the Blessing of the Planet"; a handler whose sole job is to comb Ali's hair; assorted grim-faced Muslim operatives; imperturbable Angelo Dundee, his trainer since 1960; Norman Mailer; Actor Burt Lancaster; Cash Clay Sr. in red velvet bellbottoms, red satin shirt and a plantation straw hat; the Major, a high roller from Philly who tools around...