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nerved him. He really busted him up.
NAT got a false lead on a supposedly new Mathis
However, it is conceivable that all of us
through his four-round knockout of George
Chuvalo, the gory Canadian.
Chuvalo never has been a great fighter.
No, not even in his 15-round stand against
Cassius Clay in Toronto in March, 1966.
Chuvalo has a lot of that commodity
called guts. But he has no finesse, he has
SpllflRIL Chuvalo, whom Mathis quite emphatically
no delicacy, no commanding punch.
However, I am not passing judgment on

punched out of consideratio~ for lod~ent
in the higher social community of the nng.
In beating Chuvalo, Mathis appeared to
(JHL!!! have made a fresh start toward money,
fame and recognition. Well, he did not
accomplish his goal. Now he believes he
needs a long vacation, and a lot of thought
as to what the profession of boxing holds
for him.
How good is Quarry? I would like to see
him fight Joe Frazier. I would like to see
how Jerry takes a punch from a puncher
who reputedly can punch.
FLEISCHER rest in the balance.
Quarry's chances for the championship
In the meantime, the title still belongs to
Cassius Clay. I am told that the Black Mus-
lims have tossed him out. I have not been
able to get official verification of this from
Chicago, the seat of Black Muslim empire.
If Cassius is not a Muslim, he cannot be
I N this erratic and baffling business-srort Guard, though, let me hasten, I am not not sufficiently familiar with Mohammedan
a Mohammedan Imam. Or can he? I am
a follower of any fistic sect. I know what
of boxing, you can, and do, occasion-
I am looking at, I know what I expect to
ally go wrong. You go wrong despite
all the precautions you may fashion out of see, I know what demands I must make of theology and priestly practices.
your long and eventful experience. the competitors, and the referee and judges. What I do know is that Federal Judge
What I am getting at is the case of Jerry I looked at Quarry, wondered if it was Joe Ingraham supported a charge of felony
Quarry, and the fact that after I had seen the same Jerry who had beaten Floyd Pat- against Clay because he doubted the au-
him lose the elimination tournament final to terson twice, and felt that in producing a thenticity of Cassius's insistence that he was
a lay preacher in Islam, and not eligible
Jimmy Ellis, I gave up on him. Quarry-Ellis final, the elimination tourna- for draft. Judge Ingraham appeared to
After a long layoff, during which inside ment had failed. doubt if Clay called himself a preacher be-
scuttlebut said, "This boy is in a body cast, However, the Quarry of the Ellis fight fore he got his Selective Service call.
and will fight no more," I saw Quarry, a 12 was not the Quarry who took 10 of the
to 5 second choice, take Buster Mathis dozen rounds with the greatly superior in In any event, the Supreme Court has
apart the way a top-flight automobile me- size and weight Buster Mathis. thrown the case back to the Federal courts,
chanic will unscramble the components of Quarry was at the crossroads. He knew with the command that they weigh the im-
a delicately made Ferrari. Not that Buster that he had to fight to the limit of his abili- portance of such evidence as may have been
is delicately made. gained by the United States through "clan-
ties and to the utmost of his determination. destine" methods by the FBI, which is men-
Quarry lost to Ellis because he failed to He knew that he had to win, and after that tioned in the transcripts of Clay's two trials.
fight. He had a couple of important focal second-round knockdown, he knew he
points of advantage. But he lagged b~hin_d could win. The Federal courts will examine the evi-
and let Jimmy, with Angelo Dundee m his So, here and now, I doff my hat to Jerry dence. Then they will report back to the
corner, dominate the fight, which was not Quarry, and admit I went wrong on him. Supreme Court. Will there be a new trial?
a classic in any sense of that term. Will the case return eventually to the Su-
In admitting that I had gone wrong, I preme Court? Are we in for more delays?
"Has this kid from California really got
the moxie?" I asked those who were with am not shaping up a charge of culpability We don't know. But we do know that
against myself. From the kind of showing
me in my viewing of the Ellis affair. due process of the law still belongs to Cas-
Jerry made against Ellis, only one conclu- sius Clay.
I was assured that courage Jerry did not sion could have been arrived at, and I hit
lack. Directional determination he did not that conclusion. The Mathis fight changed How much longer boxing will be able to
lack. Prime execution he did lack. it. stay with Clay is a question which now
must be answered only by The Ring
The Old Guard will tell you that once a Did the Mathis bout place the stamp of Magazine.
fighter has fashioned a basic style for him- fistic genius on Quarry? Not quite. The WBA long ago sheared Cassius, and
self he is not very likely to deviate from it. Jerry changed his style. He left hooked lately the British Boxing Board of Control
I went along with the rest of the Old Buster to death, he outfought him, he out- calmly walked out on him.

JULY, 1969 5