Prizefighting: The Impossible Dream

Bookmakers dismissed the fight as a mismatch and refused to take bets. Still, Heavyweight Champion Cassius Clay, 25, insisted he was really worried by Challenger Zora Folley, a 34-year-old pug who had already been beaten by Sonny Listen, Henry Cooper and Ernie Terrell—all of whom Clay had kayoed. "I'm scared," said Cassius. "Anything can happen."

Nothing did. In Manhattan's Madison Square Garden last week, Clay hit Folley with two perfect right crosses to the chin. The first dumped Folley for a count of nine in the fourth round; the second put him down for keeps in the seventh—ending what the Garden's...

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