It had been billed as the "Sunshine Showdown." But the heavyweight title bout between Champion Joe Frazier, 29, and Challenger George Foreman, 24, in Jamaica last week was more like a midnight mugging. In front of 36,000 fans at a stadium in Kingston, Foreman managed one of the swiftest and most savage upsets in heavyweight history.
Although oddsmakers had installed Frazier as a 3-1 favorite, there were more than the usual number of prefight imponderables. The line on Foreman was that he was untested. True, he had won 37 straight fights, 34 by knockouts,...