Word: fraziers
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After months of drumbeating, chest thumping and lip flapping, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier finally came to blows last week. And after 15 punishing rounds, the much ballyhooed "Fight of the Century" established two unmistakable truths. The first was that Frazier, in pounding out a decision over Ali, had proved himself to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. The second was that Joe had been absolutely right when he predicted it would be "one hell of a fight...
Hook for Hook. The action in the ring was thoroughly in keeping with the action outside. Very little went according to plan-certainly not Ali's plan, which called for a sixth-round knockout of Frazier. At the opening bell, Joe, the most fearsome body puncher around, went immediately-and wildly-for Ali's head. Ali, the celebrated stick-and-run dancer, very often stood flatfooted and, in what proved to be his ultimate undoing, tried trading hook for jolting hook. In the early going, Ali's long, rapid-fire jabs and lightning combinations kept the ever...
Slowly finding his rhythm, Frazier seemed to grow stronger as Ali began to weaken. In the eleventh round, the roundhouse lefts that had earlier been missing Ali by as much as a full foot began to find their mark. Rocked by two hammering hooks, the staggering Ali barely managed to hang on until the bell. Coming back, Ali won the 14th, but 21 seconds into the final round, Frazier caught him with a head-snapping left hook that dropped him flat on his back. Dazed, Ali was up at the count of three, but his game attempt to rally...
...give Clay credit," said Frazier afterward, while handlers applied ice packs to the swollen knobs on his face. "He takes some punches. Oh, my God, that shot I hit him with in the last round ... I went back home, back to the country for that one." For what had to be the first time in his career, the Louisville Lip was not available for the postfight rehash. He was hustled to the hospital for X rays of his cheek, which was puffed out like a balloon. His jaw, it turned out, was not broken -nor was his spirit. "You lose...
Next time? In keeping with the old boxing adage that one good fight-especially one with the richest gate ever -deserves another, the promoters last week were already stumping for the seemingly inevitable Frazier v. Ali rematch. Garden Matchmaker Teddy Brenner can see it now. "The next one," he says gleefully, "will be called 'Ali's Revenge...