Friday, August 5, 2011

Muhammad Ali in 1975

Muhammad Ali at the Tropicana Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, May, 1975

Shortly after regaining the Heavyweight Championship in a brutal bout with George Foreman in Zaire (the Rumble in the Jungle), Muhammad Ali fought Ron Lyle on May 16, 1975 in Las Vegas.  Ali, behind on all three judges' scorecards in the 11th round, stunned Lyle with a right, then threw numerous unanswered punches... and the referee --in a somewhat controversial move-- ended the fight in Ali's favor.




During the three-weeks leading up to the Ali-Lyle bout for the Heavyweight Championship, I was in Las Vegas... struggling to break in as a freelance writer on boxing.  Both The Ring and Boxing Illustrated published pieces of mine from that fight.
Muhammad Ali and Angelo Dundee (Ali's trainer)
at one of the press conferences
leading up to the Ali-Lyle 1975 fight.

These three photographs were taken by Red Shuttleworth.


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