TOKYO (S&S) — "The prophet of boxing has spoken," Muhammad Ali loudly proclaimed late Thursday. "Follow me to the mountaintop!"

And some 10,500 spectators, by a Thursday night count of tickets so far sold, will ascend the steep asphalt pathway to the Budokan (Hall of Martial Arts) Saturday to watch an arrogantly confident Ali "rumble" — try to fulfill his prediction that he will flatten Mac Foster in the fifth round of a scheduled 15 rounder to begin at noon or shortly afterward.

Millions around the world will watch the fight, at closed circuit showings (beamed by satellite) in the U.S. and Canada or on delayed telecasts. Channel 12 will show the fight locally from noon until 1:30 p.m. — or for as long as it lasts.

Ali declared that Foster must fall in the fifth — he simply can't spare anymore of his valuable time.

He plunged into numerology as he told how he had computed the KO round — he gets up at five in the morning, does five miles of roadwork in Meiji Park, eats five poached eggs and drinks five glasses of orange juice.

"Round five is my bold prediction," Ali told newsmen and spectators at Tanabe Gym as he finished what may be his last workout before the fight. "My daughter is five years old, I've been married five years and I met my wife on June fifth. Everything points to it. I will knock out Mac Foster in round five." He opened his hand and held it up for emphasis. "Five! All who believe follow me!"

Ali said he got the idea from the TV kiddy show, "Sesame Street," which evolves around a numeral that is flashed on as the program begins. But there was no child's play at the gym as Ali sparred three rounds with classy middleweight Dave Adkins and two with heavyweight Alonzo Johnson.

Against Adkins, Ali sparred with a loose and open guard, effortlessly slipping straight lefts before Adkins grazed him with a right cross and clipped him with a hook. Ali suddenly cornered him and stood to receive and avoid almost all of Adkins' fire, rocking him with neat, thumping counters.

Johnson, a capable heavyweight who lost a 10-round decision to Ali in the days he fought with another name, ceaselessly pressed his employer and threw everything he had. Ali could not have seen more boxing gloves if everyone in the gym had thrown one at him. Yet scarcely a blow landed while Ali thrust home at will.

"No heavyweight can throw punches like that," Ali told attentive ringsiders as the session ended and an arm-weary Johnson left the ring. "I'll let Mac Foster throw all the punches he wants. The first two or three rounds all the way to the 15th are always mine. That's why Joe Frazier looks the way he does!"

But diminutive trainer Angelo Dundee and his older and larger brother, Chris, spoke respectfully of Foster and his record of 30 knockout wins.

"He's a dangerous fighter," Chris said reflectively. "Foster looked like the best heavyweight prospect around before Jerry Quarry (who stopped Foster in six rounds) and that was a hell of a fight — very tight and close before the finish. It doesn't figure to happen (Ali losing) but you never know. With a big man and a good puncher in there, anything can happen."

But Ali was already talking of his prediction in the past tense. Laying naked on his dressing room table for a post-workout rubdown, he shrugged off Foster's promises to split his mouth and then his chin with an "urusai" (shut up) punch.

"He's gonna need all his punches," Ali said. "Tell him to get it working before the fifth round because that's all he's got."

"Here comes Mac Foster!" a voice shouted through the door. Ali stirred on the table. Angelo Dundee braced expectantly, fearing that Foster had paid an uninvited visit as a psychological ploy. The door opened and Alonzo Johnson stumbled in, limping and moaning, barely held erect by Adkins, who looked at him with a mournful expression of sympathy. There was a deflated sigh and a ripple of laughter around the dressing room. Ali settled back and resumed his concentration on a numeral.

"He must go in five," Ali said, a little more softly. "The fifth and boom, it's over. They'll all say, 'he said it, he did it.' Then we must have a rain at six o' clock."

"To wake Foster up?" suggested a Pacific Stars and Stripes reporter.

"To help him sleep better," Ali said.

"Stassi said he wanted five seconds in his corner," Dundee said of Foster's manager, George Stassi. "Little did he know he was signing his doom."

Ali confirmed that he may call off his visit to mainland China but denied the reason given by his lawyer — that he had to train for his May 1 fight with George Chuvalo and stay in taut shape for a possible Ali-Frazier rematch. Ali said that as a Black Muslim, he is under "suspension" when he travels and must get the written permission of Elijah Muhammad, the founder and prophet of his faith, before he does anything. He said he hopes to get it by Monday, the day he originally planned to leave.

Ali dismissed Foster and talked of Frazier.

"We gonna be ready for Joe Frazier this time. Be in better shape. Next time will be no contest. Next time, I'll dance. (In the first bout) I was playin', walking around and standin' in corners to defy critics who said if you get caught in corners, it's all over."

Ali's flamboyance was over for the day. He had taken off his public face and was quiet and thoughtful, showing none of the irritable snappishness other boxers have as ring time nears.

"That's his philosophy of life," Dundee said. "He never worries. I never saw anything like it."

Ali explained that.

"More people die from worry than from whatever they had to fear," Ali said. "If a plane is heading for a mountain and you're on it, you worry. It hits the mountain and boom, you don't feel anything. The worry was the worse part. When I was little and I did something bad, my mother said 'I told you not to get off that porch. I told you not to break that lamp. Your father's gonna whup you when he gets home.' I worried about it all day and that was worse than the whuppin'. A man's married and gets a girl pregnant and he worries for nine months. Nine whole months. If he told his wife, look, honey, I did it, I got weak, leave me if you want to, then it's over. That quick. Worry wastes a man — tears him up. I never worry."

Ali was buoyantly gracious to everyone — newspapermen, giggling high school girls, noisome hangers-on. One American asked Ali for an autograph for his pregnant wife and he signed two — one inscribed "to the one on the way."