Clay Topples Folley In Seven Dull Rounds

In one of the dullest heavyweight championship fights in history, Cassius Clay toyed around with slow and aging Zora Folley for seven rounds last night, then knocked him out with a right to the jaw.

Clay danced around, his gloves flailing the air with no attempt to go after the challenger for the first three rounds. In the fourth he knocked Folley down with a quick right-left combination.

The 34-year-old father of eight from Chandler, Ariz., took nine as he squatted on the mat, then got up and jumped at Clay with a series of rights.

But Folley was outclassed from the beginning. The only question was, When was Clay going to decide to put him down? "If I met him ten years ago," the champion said after the fight. "I know I would be in trouble." Clay would have been 15 then.

The champ called it "a beautiful fight. Folley is a decent man. He landed a few low blows but he apologized." Clay then assured Mrs. Folley that her husband was all right and said hello to the Folley children.

Clay's father was also in the ring after the fight, sporting a shiny white tie. "He's the greatest fighter of all time," Mr. Clay said. "And I'm not just saying that because I'm his father."

The champion thanked his father and proceeded to send his best to "all my friends in Houston, my new home -- the Soul Brothers, Skip and Lee, and the Wild Man.' He also wished Dick Gregory luck in his campaign for mayor of Chicago.

"Folley knows everything about the manly art of self-defense," television announcer Don Dunphy said during the fight. But it didn't make any difference. He couldn't even find Clay. The challenger landed one good right in the first round and a few blows to the champ's head at the start of the seventh. But that was all.

Clay threw literally nothing in the first two rounds. In the third he connected with a right to Folley's jaw, and in the fifth he fired a long series of left jabs in the challenger's face. That was his finest round. The sixth was again monotonous and the seventh dull until the four-punch explosion and knockout at 1:48.

It was the champion's seventh title defense in 13 months, and Clay claimed he was as busy as Joe Louis at his prime. To show if he was as good as Louis, the TV station ran some old films after the fight of the Brown Bomber destroying big fat Tony Galento.

With blood streaming from Galento's mouth, the referee stopped the fight after four rounds. Last nights referee should have been as merciful to the audience.