Prizefighting: Show for the Case

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It was a scene reminiscent of prizefighting's happier days, of Dempsey and the Million-Dollar Gate, when the Sweet Science was still sweet and Fight Night had the glamour and excitement of a Broadway opening. At Manhattan's new $43 million Madison Square Garden, tuxedoed gents and long-gowned ladies crowded into the $100 ringside seats, and a total of 18,096 fans paid $658,503, the biggest indoor gate in history, to see the kind of fight card that is all too rare: a doubleheader that matched 1) Italy's slick-boxing Nino Benvenuti, 29, against Slugger Emile Griffith, 30, for the world middleweight title, and 2) Philadelphia's Joe Frazier, 24, unbeaten in 19 pro fights, against Michigan's Buster Mathis, 23, winner of 23 in a row, for the heavyweight championship of New York, Maine, Massachusetts and Illinois.

Pastel and pillarless, the new Garden itself was part of the attraction. When it first opened, New York newspapers sniped at its imperfections: a few (approximately 1,500 out of 20,500) seats with bad sight lines for hockey and track, water leaking from the ceiling, a nonfunctioning electric Scoreboard and clock. Even so, its problems were nothing compared with those at the new Philadelphia Spectrum, where the roof blew off, or the Inglewood Forum, which boasts southern California's most awesome traffic jam in its parking lot. By fight night, most of the Garden's problems had been solved: sight lines were being cleared, the Scoreboard clock was working—and boxing, at least, had a brilliant new showcase.

It also had a show for the case. The Benvenuti-Griffith confrontation was their third in less than a year. In the first, the unheralded Italian challenger astonished experts by easily outpointing Griffith for the title; in the second, last August, Emile won back the crown with his swarming attack. Now, once again, science and strategy proved superior to strength. Nino's flicking jab kept Emile out of hooking range; a short right followed by a lightning left cross dropped Griffith for a count of six in the ninth round; and the judges' vote was unanimous for Benvenuti, who left the ring wreathed with a smile and wrapped in an Italian flag.

Connoisseur & Speculator. If that fight was a connoisseur's delight, Frazier's drubbing of Mathis was a speculator's dream. Back in 1965, a group of plungers risked $250 a share to form Cloverlay Inc., whose sole asset was Joe Frazier's punching power. Cloverlay agreed to pay Frazier's manager and training expenses, guarantee Joe $100 a week. Joe has repaid his stockholders handsomely. Some fight fans could protest that Frazier was not in the same class with deposed Champion Cassius Clay—and they might be right—yet he clearly proved last week that he is a legitimate pretender to the dethroned champion's crown. Conceding 39 lbs., 3½ in. of height and 2½ in. of reach to the massive Mathis, who had beaten him twice as an amateur, the ex-slaughterhouse laborer battered Buster with hooks to the head and belted him right through the ropes with a tremendous left in the eleventh round. Mathis staggered to his feet at the count of six, but the referee stopped the fight.