FRANKFORT (Kentucky): Heavyweight boxing champion Mohammad Ali’s appeal that he be deferred from the draft was denied by a unanimous vote Monday [Feb 20]. But his attorney said the fight was “far from over”.

“It goes the route — and I think it will go the route — the whole thing should take 18 months at a minimum,” Ali’s attorney, Haydon Covington, said in New York. “He can’t be drafted until we are through.”

In Houston, Ali said he was mystified by it all. “I don’t know too much about what’s going on,” said Ali.

He had appealed to a Texas board to be deferred from the draft on the grounds that he is a Muslim minister.

The Texas Board turned down that request by a 4-0 vote and the decision was announced Monday by Colonel Taylor Davidson, Director of Kentucky Selective Service. Ali originally registered with the Selective Service in Kentucky, and that state still has jurisdiction.

Covington said the next step would be a request to Lt. Gen. Lewis Hershey, National Director of the Selective Service, for an appeal to the National Appeal Board in Washington.

“I expect that request to be honoured,” Covi­ngton said. “If we get a favourable ruling there, it’s all over. If not, then we’ll go to the courts.

“It will all be based on the fact that the champ’s vocation, his main job, is as a minister of the Islamic faith. Sure, he fights, but his main job is as a minister.”

Ali arrived in Houston on Monday to begin searching for a home.

He said he would begin public workouts on Tuesday for his March 22 heavyweight title bout in New York with Zora Folley, using the downtown walkup Gymnasium where he trained for last November’s astrodome defeat of Cleveland Williams.

Ali said he would also be working out at Houston’s Muslim mosque on the City’s near east side, and preaching there in Friday and Sunday services. — Agencies

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2017