“An image has to stop you - otherwise you will walk right by it,” said Leifer. The book comes inside a slipcase that is modeled after the fight poster, using the same colors and design concept. Using abridged copy from Mailer’s 1975 The Fight as its departure point, the Taschen volume follows Ali’s path through Zaire, crafting a comeback that blew people away. Bingham, Ali’s best friend, who died in 2016. Limited to just 1,974 copies, the book features photographs by Leifer and Howard L. With more than 200 magazine covers and 17 books to his name, Leifer’s most recent book, The Fight (Taschen) is a triumph of book publishing.
#FIGHT MY WAY POSTER PROFESSIONAL#
Leifer, a boy wonder who began his professional career in 1958 at the age of 16, produced arguably the most famous photograph of Ali on earth: the image of him standing above Sonny Liston after throwing “the phantom punch” that sent the challenger to the mat during the first round of the 1965 world heavyweight title fight.Ī photographer, like a boxer, has to be fully prepared for the fight, to be in peak condition and determined to make history. The French version of the fight poster included the words Un cadeau du President Mobutu au peuple Zaïrois et un honneur pour l’homme noir: “A gift from President Mobutu to the people of Zaire and an honor for the black man.” The poster had gone through slight modifications after Foreman cut his right eye during training, pushing back the date of the match, and it ran in both English and French. Set against a blazing yellow background, black and white photographs of Foreman and Ali floated above the continent of Africa, silhouetted in verdant green, perfectly matching the colors of the flag of Zaire. It was probably a good business move for Mobutu.” Dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was noted for his cruelty and for being a master of terror on a grand scale, died in exile in 1997. If you wanted the world to know who you were, get the most popular black man on earth to promote it. “If you want to put your country on the map - what a way to do it. “No one had heard the word ‘Zaire,’ ” recalled sports photographer Neil Leifer. But with The Rumble in the Jungle, Africa was a central character. Whether held in Las Vegas, Chicago or Miami, the location was simply a matter of logistical information.
On most fight posters, the location was not a visual part of the story. Undefeated, Foreman had more than 35 knockouts under his belt, and at 25, seemed an unstoppable force, but Ali, seven years his senior, never lost heart. Frazier won by unanimous decision, handing Ali his first loss.īy 1974, George Foreman held the title. It was the first time that two undefeated heavyweights had battled in a title fight.
#FIGHT MY WAY POSTER LICENSE#
Ali fought the law - and won, taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court, where he was vindicated in June 1971.īoxing license back, Ali took on then-world champion Joe Frazier in The Fight of the Century in March 1971. armed forces during the Vietnam War, Ali had been on a mission to reclaim all that had been stolen from him. Ever since the boxing commission stripped the champ of his title and suspended his boxing license for refusing to serve in the U.S. I’ve been knocked down, but never out.”Īli was about to prove, once again, why he was the greatest of all time. It must be dark when you get knocked out.
Although his entourage was somber, Ali appeared relaxed as he addressed himself in a mellifluous tone: “I been up and I been down. EST.įrom backstage, journalist Norman Mailer described the scene. This was so the match originally titled From Slave Ship to Championship would air live on closed-circuit television in U.S. The 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire, is now the Stade Tata Raphaël in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and The Rumble in the Jungle, as it was known, was scheduled to begin at 4 a.m. In the darkest night part of morning they came 60,000 strong - to watch undefeated world heavyweight champion George Foreman take on challenger Muhammad Ali.