Prizefighting: Laying It On

Philadelphia's Joe Frazier, 24, will never float like a butterfly or sting like a bee. He does not even practice poetastry or Islam. Though he is no Muhammad Ali, Joltin' Joe is still the second-best heavyweight in the world, and there is excitement in his artless approach to his trade. Utterly lacking in fistic science, Frazier is a slugger in the savage style of Rocky Marciano. "I punch and get punched," says Joe. "He lays it on me, and I lay it on him. That's what fightin' is all about."

It is also about money. Frazier, a onetime slaughterhouse laborer who once earned $125 a week, picked up $120,000 in a mere six minutes last week, when he defended his five-state (New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine) version of the heavyweight title against Mexico's Manuel Ramos, 24, at Madison Square Garden. A 4-to-l underdog in the betting, the Mexican shocked everybody—especially Frazier—by unloading a first-round right that buckled Joe's knees and sent him reeling backward into the ropes. Frazier shook his head to clear the cobwebs ("It's the hardest I ever was hit"), then struck back with a vengeance.

Slamming Ramos almost nonstop with both fists, Joe decked the Mexican twice, closed his right eye, and raised egg-size lumps on his forehead. Barely saved by the bell at the end of the second round, Ramos wearily waved his arm in a gesture of surrender, and the referee stopped the fight. For undefeated Joe Frazier, it was Victory No. 21 and Knockout No. 19.