Prizefighting: How About That Whozis?

Even in such undistinguished company as George Chuvalo, Brian London and Henry Cooper, Karl Mildenberger hardly seemed a name to be reckoned with. Cassius Clay, for instance, couldn’t even remember it. “Who is your next challenger?” somebody asked the heavyweight champion, and Clay replied: “I don’t know, but he’s the champion of Germany.”

Actually, Mildenberger, 28, was the champion of all Europe. He had lost only two out of his 54 professional fights, and he was something of an oddity besides: a lefthander. Experts still sneered at Karl’s credentials. For one thing, he had rarely chosen to fight away from Germany and the tender solicitude of German referees—like the one who forgot how to count when Mildenberger was flattened in the first round by unknown Dave Bailey last September. (Mildenberger eventually won the fight on points.)

When Clay agreed to fight Mildenberger last week in Frankfurt, the first thing he insisted on was an impartial non-German referee. That point won, the fight figured to be a cinch. Bookies made Cassius a l-to-10 favorite, and even the promoters—with a fat TV contract in the bag—made little effort to build up the German as a challenger. “Do you think our Karl has a chance?” a Frankfurt cab driver asked one of the promoters. Sighed his passenger: “To live.”

Clay took Mildenberger lightly too. He had, Cassius admitted, made a few adjustments in his boxing style to counteract Mildenberger’s lefthanded attack (he had twice lost to lefthanders as an amateur). “The way I figure it,” said Clay, “it will take me about three rounds to figure out Mildenberger’s southpaw style, and two or three more to finish him.” As it turned out, it took Clay twelve rounds to finish the stubborn German.

Three times, Clay knocked Mildenberger down. Three times, Mildenberger got up. Clay opened cuts under both of Karl’s eyes; with the blood dripping down his chest, the German fought on, stinging Cassius with solid lefts to the head. Try as he might, the champion could not put Mildenberger away; the referee stopped the fight in the twelfth and declared Cassius the winner by a technical knockout. Heaving a big sigh of relief, richer by $200,000, Champion Clay began preparing for yet another title defense, this time against Houston’s Cleveland Williams—whom Sonny Liston once described as “the toughest man I ever fought.”