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Muhammad Ali vs Mac Foster Broadside Poster
In the first major prize fight to be held
in Asia, former champion Muhammad Ali seemed far off his
game with lightly regarded Mac Foster. Ali weighed in at
226 pounds, the heaviest he had scaled in the ring. For
fifteen laborous rounds the bout dragged on. Ali winning
easily but dissapointingly. Most in the press doubted he
would ever regain the form needed to regain the heavyweight
title.
Vintage Original On-Site Broadside Poster
Size: 12 X 16 inches - Condition: Fine.
Signed by Muhammad Ali (Modern Signature)
(Horizontal crease from original fold line)
£2,495.00
Foster stepped on the scales first and scaled 211¾
pounds. Ali followed and weighed in at 226 — and of
course could not resist using the scales as a stage.
"Round five!" he trumpeted repeatedly. "Five!"
He spread his fingers into Foster's face, curled his lip
in a sneer and thrust a few playful pokes at his massive
opponent. Foster shrugged and turned away, his face registering
something between amusement and disgust. The two stepped
behind a partition to dress and went at it again.
'You are in trouble," Ali told him. "Real trouble."
Foster replied by saying he had once knocked out Sonny
Liston (whom Ali stopped for the title in 1964) in a sparring
match. "You don't believe me, just ask him!"
"Ask him?" Ali spluttered, for once at a loss
for words. Liston died Dec. 30, 1970.
"I'll go down and ask him," Angelo Dundee, Ali's
trainer, said. Ali jumped to his feet and thrust a jab over
Dundee's shoulder.
"Let me show him my jab, the speed of my jab."
Ralph Gambina, Foster's bespectacled, pixyish trainer,
grabbed the white sash of Foster's black robe and held it
up as a barrier, inferring it could stop anything the former
heavyweight champion threw.
"You found someone to put neon signs on the bottom
of your soles?" Gambina asked. "You could make
some money tomorrow."
Dundee tried to calm his fighter but Ali, apparently believing
that it's never too late to make noise and sell tickets,
raged on.
"Round five! Five!"
"You ever hear of what I did to Pepi Ros?" Foster
asked. Ali knew full well; Foster knocked out the former
Italian champion in Zurich last Dec. 26, with Ali flattening
Jurgen Blin on the same card in seven rounds.
"Who's he? Nobody. That's all you ever fought, nobody."
Ali made it plain he thought Foster was being disrespectful
in the presence of his better.
"Runnin' around here dressin' and talkin' like Doc
Holliday. You wait til tomorrow ...
"Hey, bubba," Foster retorted. "You ever
hear of Doc Holliday? He was bad. I'm gonna show you how
the west was won."
"We're talkin' and jivin' now," Ali said. "But
tomorrow it's gonna be real." He thrust his get out-of-town
ultimatum at Foster, who laughed it off and asked Ali if
he has made a down payment on a house. Ali has said he will
not return home if he loses.
"Round five!" Ali repeated as he left. "Five!"
