LEWISTON – Frank Deford has known Neil Leifer for 40 years, and he knows that the photo his Sports Illustrated colleague took of Muhammad Ali in what he calls “an epic pose” over Sonny Liston in Lewiston on May 25, 1965, will follow Leifer forever.
“Whenever he has his obituary, there will be a picture of Neil and then next to it will be that picture,” Deford said.
The award-winning sportswriter himself followed Leifer to Lewiston to do a segment for HBO’s RealSports with Bryant Gumbel on Leifer’s year-long project for Sports Illustrated. The photographer is revisiting places and events that he shot for the magazine, and Deford thought there would be no more appropriate place to talk to him than the site of his most famous photo.
Deford was in town last night to attend an informal reception at The Colisee for Leifer. The photo was, of course, the center of the discussion.
“I don’t imagine that there has ever been an original picture in Sports Illustrated that’s been that well known,” he said. “It’s the most well-known picture in boxing history and it may well be the most well-known sports photo.”
Ironically, the picture wasn’t chosen for the cover of Sports Illustrated immediately after the fight or at any time until 1999, when the magazine devoted an issue to the greatest sports photos of the 20th Century.
Deford said he’s not surprised that it has emerged as the quintessential boxing, if not sports, photo, and the defining picture of Ali’s career.
“There have been lots of boxing photos with the fist hitting the jaw and the jaw being distorted and all that, but this one is different,” he said. “It’s the classic picture of the victor and the vanquished. Plus, it’s got such a familiar face in it.”
Deford said that he hopes to “evoke the moment” from Leifer when he interviews him about the photo that will immortalize the photographer, his subject and in a way, this city, as well.
“I think the fight is remembered more for the picture than anything else, because it was such a terrible fight,” he said. “The first fight (in Miami a year earlier) is remembered for its outcome. This one is remembered for the picture.”
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