Florida was the venue for Ali’s
next fight, against buster Mathis, a genial character and
a genuine heavyweight – he “resembled nothing
more than a dancing elephant”, according to one observer.
This somewhat unequal contest required some selling –
at one point Ali even suggested the promoters fake his kidnapping
to generate interest, while he attempted to raise Mathis’s
ire with his usual round of poems and jokes, only to find
Mathis laughing happily along with everyone else.
Ali barely bothered to train for the fight, and came in at
his heaviest weight to date, 227lbs. He was intent on not
hurting Mathis even when he knocked him down once in the eleventh
round and then tree times in the last with punches that were
barely more than gentle jabs.
Ali received some criticism from the press for not finishing
buster off, but responded by saying that he would not hurt
a man badly just for the benefit of the assembled writers.
“I gotta sleep at night,” he said.
Watch video of Muhammad Ali vs Buster Mathis fight:
