The Day I Almost Fought Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali 1942–2016. Photo by Gordon Lewis.

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Guest post by Gordon Lewis

The year was 1980. I was invited by a pro photographer friend of mine to attend a photo shoot he was doing of Muhammad Ali. The resulting photo would be used for an "Ali" pinball machine game.

If you’ve ever seen Muhammad Ali on TV or YouTube videos then you know who I met that day: a tall and handsome black man who was also charming, playful, boastful, charismatic, and yet in a paradoxical way, down-to-earth. Ever the consummate entertainer, he told jokes, teased whoever he liked, and performed magic tricks.

I would have been happy just to hang out and laugh at his antics, but during one of the breaks to reset the lights, my photographer "friend" mentioned to the champ that I had a black belt in martial arts. Ali insisted I spar with him and would not take no for an answer.

"Show me what you got."

"I really don’t think that’s a good idea."

"Why? You 'fraid you gonna hurt me?"

"That never crossed my mind."

"Come on boy, lemme see what you can do."

He then proceed to flick a few jabs at me. I was 5'7" and 150 pounds. He was 6 3" and weighed at least 240 pounds. The absurdity of it all made me giddy. I was known for my hand speed at the dojo where I worked out, yet no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t block a single one of his punches. Fortunately, his control was superb, because if any one of those punches had connected, I’d be eating meals through a straw to this day.

The photo you see here was one I snuck when it was time for him to get back to business.

We’ll never see his like again.

Gordon

©2016 by Gordon Lewis, all rights reserved

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Featured Comments from:

julien: "Sports photographer Neil Leifer was on a podcast discussing photographing Ali. This might be of interest to TOP readers."

Gabe: "In 1984 my father suffered a forced retirement due to a stroke and we brought him to live in Los Angeles.  He was a well-known research biochemist at Columbia, now in his early seventies, and hated his sudden infirmity.

"A peculiarity of the stroke was that his 'translator' broke and when he thought he was speaking English he was actually speaking our native Hungarian. Our sons Alex and Justin were 11 and 7 at the time, and they enjoyed hanging out and getting to know a grandpa who used to live 3,000 miles away—and he delighted in their company. They helped him shop, and seems like they understood his Hungarian-English. As a consequence his shopping cart usually contained many a Twinkie.

"My wife was working in a private school at the time, and two of the students were Ali's daughters Laila and Hana. One Sunday, at a school outing for parents and children we were having a lovely time…we had brought my father and he was sitting in a beach chair, reading a bit, enjoying the park, playing with our kids and Alex’s best buddy Chris. To everyone’s pleasure, Muhammad Ali stepped out of a car, walked over to the school group carrying a small brown briefcase, smiled at everyone, and sat down with his daughters. By this time (I believe) he wasn't able to speak, but his wonderful face and radiant smile were infectious, and just absolutely permeated the place. His briefcase contained some magic tricks, and of course, like the Pied Piper, all the kids gathered around. He did a one-leg levitation, picked up two kids clinging to his forearms and a few other tricks. In a little while, Ali was patiently posing with every kid (and many an adult) and seemed to delight in entertaining. I took a picture of Alex and Chris holding their little fists next to Ali’s—him mugging for the camera, trying to look aggressive.

"A little while later, he noticed my father just sitting there, reading, who hadn’t seen him yet. Ali quietly went around the grassy area, and with a shhhh finger to his lips, snuck up behind my father, and gently tugged Dad’s right earlobe. Of course my father, grinning, spun his head around to the right, by which time Ali was long gone to his left—and in a second was pulling the left ear. Soon Dad realized the game and tried to trick his teaser by doing the opposite, so Ali popped up in front of him and bending over slightly smiled in his face—as my father, a great fan, realized who was playing with him. Beaming, he tried to say greetings in English, and Ali just knelt down and quietly hugged him. They hugged for a minute or two, laughing.  Ali somehow recognized that they shared a communication problem, and brought great pleasure to everyone in the group that day especially my father. For a long time after, if we mentioned Ali, a wonderful smile of recognition came to his face, even as strokes continued to ravage him in later years. Ali was the sweetest, gentlest, warmest, most accommodating gentleman that you could ever hope for him to be.

"Fast-forward 17 years, and older son Alex is in the midst of his wedding reception at a beautiful hotel in Beverly Hills. A familiar figure walked by outside the hall—Ali evidently was there with some other boxing greats to watch a prizefight. The boys ran out, and surrounded him, and I took the same picture—Ali, Alex and Chris—fists raised, smiling, the same sweet, gentle, accommodating man 17 years later.

"As a kid I never liked boxing—still don’t. I, like many, idolized Ali the man—for his political bravery, for opposing a horrendous war, for having the courage to face losing everything for his faith and his beliefs.

"A singular man of courage and integrity—and a gentle, loving soul."

Comments

[Ned Bunnell]

Wonderful photo and story, Gordon. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

What a wonderful remembrance, Gordon! Thanks very much for sharing.it.here.

"We'll never see his likes again". Indeed we won't.

[Pat Gerlach]

So much has been written and spoken these past few days about his charm and playfulness but your story makes it real for me. Thank you Gordon.

[Michael]

Thanks a lot for this, Gordon. Wow, I feel like I should get your autograph! You were one lucky guy that day, and I don't mean you still having your teeth. I was never a boxing fan, but I was an Ali fan. When all the videos were dusted off or re-published after Ali died I was reminded of all the times I had loved watching him perform, as much out of the ring as in it.

[Michael Perini]

Gordon,
Just Wonderful, Thank You

[KeithB]

I heard this story from Harvey Fierstein on KNX 1070 in Los Angeles:
Muhammad Ali went to up to a person in a rest home and had this conversation:
"Do you know who I am?"
"Yes, you are the greatest"
"Yes, I know that, but do you know my name?"
"Yes, you are Joe Louis."

[Tim McGowan]

Gordon , you never cease to amaze. Thanks for sharing.

[robert quiet photographer]

I like this story, and of course the photo!
robert

[Richard]

I tried to listen to that podcast, but the production, the adverts and the intrusive music were just too much. Pity. Is this a US thing? (I'm from the UK)

[David Lee]

Gabe, I am going to share what you wrote. It very moving. And I hate Ali the boxer.

[Patrick Dodds]

Great story, and a beautiful comment from Gabe. Thanks both.

[Richard]

Ali was an icon of my youth. The key fact for me being that he remained an icon, even when my youth was a dim memory. There have been other icons, heroes if you like, for me, and many of them have passed away. And many recently. I'm wondering who the icons will be for later generations, my children included? Could be my own perspective, but I don't see any emerging, especially in popular culture and music. Some sporting heroes sure - maybe the gladiator thing is what makes it stick?

Ali was more than just an icon of course, more than a symbol

[adamct]

Gabe,

That's one of the best Ali stories I've ever heard. Thank you for sharing!

Best regards,
Adam

[Sarge]

Finally... A post about Muhammad Ali! Probably, the most photographed human being of all time. Before the internet and social media, he was already the most recognizable man on the planet. In the rest of the world, he was not at all a polarizing figure. It was pure adulation and not only for his boxing skills. (One exception though: during the ring introductions at the Thrilla in Manila, he was momentarily booed by the fight crowd because of the way he tormented Joe Frazier throughout the pre-fight publicity campaign.)

Thank you, Gordon Lewis.

[Darlene]

Beautiful story Gabe!

[Animesh Ray]

What an incredible story and what luck!

[Roger Bradbury]

I've read Gabe's story three times now. What a great man Muhammed Ali was! He was man I always dreamed of meeting, but now is gone. I knew that there wasn't much hope of it, but (sigh) there's no chance now.

Our trick as children (I have two brothers) was to tap each other on the left shoulder as we passed the right one, and vice versa. We all got used to this trick, which means that even sometimes today, if somebody taps me on one shoulder, to see who it is I'll look over the other one. : ]

[hjraden]

Dear Gordon, when I was in primary school in the 70's, whenever there was an Ali fight shown live on tv, the whole school would gather in the school assembly yard to watch the fight. The headmaster and teachers would also watch together with us kids. Back then in Malaysia there would be almost no vehicles on the roads on an Ali fight day and government offices would also suffer a slowdown in business during the match. Such was his persona ... (he came here one time to fight Joe Bugner but at the time he wasn't in his prime anymore). Thank you for putting up this article Gordon. Muhammad Ali will sorely be missed.