Sport: Mountain to Molehill

BE THERE WHEN THE MOUNTAIN COMES TO MUHAMMAD declared the billboards in Houston. The come-on was as flabby as the contenders. Muhammad Ali, the walking billboard, was so uninterested in his twelve-round bout with bulky (256 Ibs.) Buster Mathis that he trained seriously only for nine days. Ali divested himself of a bit of doggerel ("I'll do to Buster what the Indians did to Custer"), but his heart was clearly not in it. Buster, whose last fight was a humbling loss to Jerry Quarry in 1969, was out to prove that "I'm no dog." As expected, when the Mountain finally came...

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