Sport: Next Stop, Manila

The preliminaries are finally over. Ever since he upset George Foreman in Zaïre last October to regain the world heavyweight championship, Muhammad Ali has been beefing up his bank account at the expense of harmless opponents. First he played with Chuck Wepner in Cleveland for $1.5 million, then humiliated Ron Lyle in Las Vegas for $1 million. Last week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he pocketed $2.5 million with an easy 15-round decision over European Heavyweight Champ Joe Bugner. In fact, his toughest opponents in Kuala Lumpur were the sopping 118° under the ring...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!