Sport: And Then There Was One

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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 was too little, too late. The decision for Frazier was unanimous.

"I've got to 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, you lose," he said. "More important things to worry about in life. I'm probably a better man for it. Now all I want to do is to go home to my wife and children, cut the grass, eat fattening foods and see what materializes." Then, as an afterthought, he muttered: "Next time I'll really get him."

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.' "