LWEISTON – OK, so forget about seeing the city’s Colisee on the pages of Sports Illustrated.

The Colisee – once known as the Central Maine Civic Center – is the place where boxing legend Muhammad Ali KO’d Sonny Liston.

That rematch happened 40 years ago. Photographer Neil Leifer captured the action in a picture hailed in some quarters as the best boxing photo ever made.

Sports Illustrated is running several of Leifer’s fight pictures in a photo-story scheduled to be on newsstands Nov. 28.

The magazine opted out of using any of the pictures Leifer took at the Colisee earlier this year as he attempted to re-create the famous sports scene.

All the same, HBO will show some of the Lewiston arena and the iconic shot of Ali standing triumphantly over Liston when it airs “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29. Gumbel is a Bates College graduate. The show will be rebroadcast several times during December.

Assistant City Administrator Phil Nadeau confirmed both the decision by Sports Illustrated to not publish any of the Colisee photos as well as Leifer’s appearance on Gumbel’s HBO program, which will offer viewers a glimpse of the Colisee.

Leifer’s visit to Lewiston was originally part of the Sports Illustrated project and the draw that attracted HBO to interview him in Lewiston while he worked to re-create the spot where Ali defeated Liston.

Nadeau said Leifer told him the Lewiston pictures would be part of a new book to be published in 2006. There have been some preliminary discussions about a visit to Lewiston next year as part of a book-signing event. Nadeau said he hopes to pursue that possibility with Leifer at a future date.

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