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 to Muhammad last week in the Houston Astrodome the result was a molehill of a fight.

Ali, who weighed in at 227 Ibs., his heaviest ever, peppered away during the first ten rounds with his rat-a-tat-tat left jabs and a supposedly merciful "new" punch he calls the "linger on," a light chopping right designed to daze but not drop a lesser opponent. Mathis, surprisingly agile for a big man, suggested a pachyderm on pointe, dancing, dipping and doing no damage whatsoever. In the final two rounds, Ali decked Mathis four times--twice with punches that were little more than taps.

Ignoring cries from the crowd, Ali refused to finish off his defenseless opponent. "Yes, I deliberately held up," explained Muhammad, who won a unanimous decision. "I don't believe in killing a man just to satisfy a crowd."

Ali picked up $300,000 for the light workout (Mathis' cut was $60,000), which was designed as a promotional prelude to the expected multimillion-dollar rematch with Champion Joe Frazier. Trouble is, Ali and Frazier so outclass the other contenders that in tuning up for their second "fight of the century" (Muhammad meets Germany's Jurgen Blin next month, Joe fights Texan Terry Daniels in January), they seem to be reviving the old bum-of-the-month club.

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