In this previously unpublished photo-essay, the legendary boxer
Muhammed Ali is captured up close and unguarded in the run-up to the
"Rumble in the Jungle"
In October 1974, Muhammad Ali attempted to regain the world heavyweight
boxing championship title that was stripped from him when he refused the
Vietnam draft seven years earlier. He faced the brutal, undefeated
George Foreman in Zaire, Africa, the fight he had dubbed "The Rumble in
The Jungle." Only weeks before, on August 11-12, photographer Peter
Angelo Simon was invited to experience the private world of one of the
most famous people on the planet as he prepared mentally and physically
for the biggest challenge of his life.
This two-day photo-essay includes many previously unpublished
photographs and captures Ali the man, unguarded, away from the glare of
the media spotlight at his Pennsylvania sanctuary. It includes a
foreword by D.A. Pennebaker, the foremost chronicler of American
counterculture in the 1960s, and an introduction by Peter Angelo Simon,
who writes: "I shot 33 rolls in the two days. Ali said nobody had ever
taken so many pictures of him. I believe these photographs reveal
aspects of Ali's fascinating character not previously seen." Few
photographers got as close to the boxer behind the legend. This
extraordinary book reveals the preparation for a seminal moment in
cultural and political history.
