Winner If Not Champ

He had lost every previous round, but unlike his fights in the ring, this time only the final round counted. Thus, after a four-year legal scrap, Muhammad Ali last week won a unanimous decision on points. The Supreme Court reversed his 1967 conviction for refusing induction on the grounds that the Government had wrongly attacked the basis of his beliefs.

Ali had been refused conscientious-objector status by his draft board. When he went to his draft appeal board, the Justice Department advised it that he was not sincere and that his beliefs, based on the teachings of the Nation of Islam (more familiarly known as the Black Muslims), were "political and racial" in nature, rather than religious as required by law. The appeal board upheld Ali's 1-A classification.

Before the Supreme Court, the Government belatedly conceded that Ali was sincere and religiously motivated after all; but because Muslims admit that they would fight in a jihad, or holy war, the Government argued that Ali was not opposed to all wars and therefore was not entitled to c.o. status. The court refused to consider the holy-war argument, thereby failing to set a precedent for other Black Muslims. Instead, it ruled that the appeal board's decision had been hopelessly contaminated by the Government's earlier, admittedly erroneous attack on Ali's sincerity and religion. And since Ali, 29, has passed the draft's age limit of 26, no new effort will be made to reclassify him.

The former heavyweight champion's final victory in the Supreme Court was a sharp reminder of the unseemly haste with which boxing officials stripped him of his title after his initial conviction.

And though the World Boxing Association and other boxing authorities began moving last week to restore him to the ranks of the officially recognized, none offered even a hint of apology. Asked if he would sue to recover some of the money he might have made during his 31 years as a boxing outcast, Ali quietly said no. "They only did what they thought was right at the time," he explained. "I did what I thought was right. That was all. I can't condemn them."

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