Sport: Instant Champion

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,...

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