Prizefighting: The Mouth

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What do Archibald Lee Wright, Walker Smith, Rocco Francis Marchegiano, Arnold Raymond Cream, Joseph Louis Barrow and Carmine Tilelli have in common with Cassius Marcellus Clay? They all were boxing champions who preferred to be known by their aliases* rather than by their proper names. The resemblance ends in the general vicinity of the mouth.

Once Clay confined himself to spouting poetry and proclaiming "I am the greatest." Then he won the world heavyweight championship, joined the Black Muslims, changed his name to Muhammad Ali—and his loquaciousness turned to logorrhea. He railed bitterly against the U.S. war effort in Viet Nam and set out to dodge the draft.

He insulted his opponents: Sonny Listen was "an ugly bear"; Floyd Patterson was "a chump"; George Chuvalo was "a washerwoman." Last week, Cassius Clay reached a peak—of sorts. In Manhattan to publicize his Feb. 6 title fight with Ernie Terrell, he flew completely off the handle when Terrell casually referred to him as "Clay."

"Why do you call me Clay?" he screamed. "You know my right name is Muhammad Ali. It takes an Uncle Tom Negro to call me by my slave name.

You're an Uncle Tom! I'm going to make you an example to the world!"

With that, Clay flung off his jacket and threw a left, which Terrell, luckily perhaps, deflected with an arm. Then Cassius angrily stalked away, accompanied by three Black Muslim bodyguards.

Terrell just shook his head and murmured: "He's an idiot. Just an idiot."