Muhammad Ali traveled to Tokyo, Japan on April 1, 1972 to fight Mac Foster in his first bout of the new year. Ali weighed in at 226 lbs., and went the full 15 round distance with Foster. A month later, he was in Vancouver, Canada for a rematch with George Chuvalo. Ali was almost 9 lbs. lighter, and boxed well in his 12 round decision win over Chuvalo. The ex-champ’s plan was to stay active, improve his conditioning, and hope for an eventual rematch with Joe Frazier.
On June 27, Jerry Quarry was his next opponent at the Convention Center in Las Vegas. It was a rematch of their October 26, 1970 bout in Atlanta, but the results were the same. Quarry lasted until the seventh round this time, but was hurt often. After Ali landed a series of unanswered blows in the seventh and final round, the referee called a halt to the beating. Ali had three victories in less than three months, and was proving he was serious about returning to the top.
On July 17, Ali went to Dublin, Ireland to fight a local boxer named Alvin Lewis. Ali dropped him once in the fifth, and stopped him in the eleventh, making it his fourth win in four months. He flew back to the U.S. for another rematch, this time with Floyd Patterson at the Garden in New York.
The bout took place on September 20, and would be the final fight of Patterson’s career. While he didn’t suffer from a bad back like in their first fight in 1965, Ali was far superior in his skills, forcing the referee to call in the seventh due to cuts and swelling around Floyd’s eyes.
It was back to Nevada in November for Ali, this time to accept the challenge of light-heavyweight champ Bob Foster. The Sahara Tahoe in Stateline was the venue, and Foster was no match for the bigger Ali. Foster landed his best shots on Ali, and he didn’t budge. The bigger Ali knocked Bob down four times in the 5th, twice in the 7th, and down for the count in the 8th. Muhammad outweighed Foster by 41 pounds, and the size difference was just too much for the smaller man to deal with.
It would be Ali’s last bout of 1972, which was a very successful one for him indeed. He fought 6 times, scored 4 knockouts, and had performed as well as he could have been expected to do. Unfortunately for him, Joe Frazier had agreed to defend his title against 1968 Olympic Gold Medalist George Foreman in January. leaving Ali out of the mix. What the 1973 would bring, only time would tell.
FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM AT kensoldtimeboxingchat
LISTEN TO MY PODCAST ON SPOTIFY AT kensoldtimeboxingchat
