Word: clay
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Strangely enough, it was all it wasn't supposed to be: a fight. Slow, awkward, outreached by three inches, Chuvalo was totally practical. "I am a rough fighter, bordering on the dirty," he admitted. "I have to overpower Clay, wear him down, run him into the ground." In the first round, he rifled a left at Clay's kneecap and followed with a hook to the groin. He then grabbed hold of the champion's neck with one glove, whaled away at Clay's kidneys with the other...
Fans at ringside screamed "Foul!, Foul!", but Referee Jack Silvers just shrugged. "Chuvalo is a body puncher," he explained later, "and stopping him from hitting low is like cutting off his arm." In the third round, the Canadian pinned Clay against the ropes, belted him a dozen times with right and left hooks-all below the belt. The judges applauded that display by awarding Chuvalo the round...
Stunted Redwood. It was the only round he won. Landing five punches for every one he took, Clay bounced jab after jab off Chuvalo's unguarded forehead; his slashing right raised big pink lumps on the Canadian's pudgy face. In the eleventh round, Cassius staggered Chuvalo with a flurry of combinations; in the 13th, he landed at least 30 solid punches-left jabs, left hooks, straight rights, right uppercuts. By the end of the 15th round, Chuvalo's eyes were slits; he was cut on the scalp and right eyebrow, and blood was trickling from...
What did it prove? Nothing, aside from the fact that Clay can take it as well as dish it out. Some critics sneered that he was a powder-puff puncher; others insisted that Cassius deliberately had "carried" Chuvalo, could have knocked him out any time he wanted. Clay replied by exhibiting a pair of swollen hands that looked almost as bad as Chuvalo's face: "George's head," he moaned, "is the hardest thing I've ever punched...
After taxes, that would hardly cover the upkeep on Muslim Leader Elijah Muhammad's 18-room Chicago mansion. Clay's handlers were looking for still another nobody for Cassius to fight before he reports for the draft, perhaps in June. Henry Cooper seems to fill the bill best: the latest in a long line of swooning British heavyweights, he can be cut by a slice of bread, and he is now 31. Besides, Clay knocked him out three years...