Original editor and publisher of The Ring magazine, he was known as the conscience of the sport. Scarce TLS, one page, 8.5 x 11, The Ring letterhead, March 3, 1970. Outstanding content, as Flesicher candidly expresses his disappointment in young Cassius Clay's decision to stand as a conscientious objector. In full: “Thanks for your letter of praise. I'm sorry for Cassius, since if he had taken my advice and accepted the call to the Army, he never would have been asked to go to the battle front. He would have travelled to camps around the world. But now that he has defiantly announced his retirement, called a huge press conference to do so, we must remove him from our ratings, regardless of what he might do in the future. We did all we could to keep his name in the headlines of boxing, but he listened to the wrong people and now must take the consequences. Too bad, he was a good man for boxing." Intersecting folds (vertical fold passing through the signature), otherwise fine condition.
Ali was poised to make a comeback in 1970 after a troubling number of years. Famously declaring himself a conscientious objector and proclaiming that “I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong” in 1966, he followed up that stance in 1967 by refusing induction into the US armed forces. The move nearly cost the champ his career, as it had already cost him his title and his boxing license. With those events in mind (and Ali’s legal appeals still in the courts), Fleischer here reiterates his stance that with no license, his magazine would not rank the champ—interestingly referring to him by his birth name rather than his converted name—“regardless of what he might do in the future.” The future truly did lie ahead for Ali. Returning to the ring in October 1970 for a win against Jerry Quarry and eventually regaining his New York boxing license, the stage was set for such iconic battles as the Fight of the Century and the Rumble in the Jungle. Fleischer was being accurate when he wrote of the Greatest, “he was a good man for boxing.” Pre-certified Steve Grad/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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