For Muhammad Ali, A Real Heavyweight Book, Too
By LINDA ROBERTSON
Miami Herald
Posted on Thu, Dec. 04, 2003

MIAMI - You wouldn't call it just a book any more than you would call Muhammad Ali just a boxer. A larger-than-life
subject requires a larger-than-life biography. And so, introducing, in this corner, weighing 75 pounds, filling 800
pages and costing $3,000, the heavyweight of tomes, GOAT (Greatest of All Time).

The brainchild of German publisher Benedikt Taschen, GOAT will make its U.S. debut at Art Basel on Saturday night when
the champ himself and members of his famous entourage will be in attendance at a private gathering inside the Miami
Beach Convention Center. Taschen is planning to re-create a semblance of the scene when Cassius Clay took the title
from Sonny Liston on Feb. 25, 1964, complete with a boxing ring and a master of ceremonies - in this case, actor Will
Smith, who portrayed Ali in a feature film.

Guests can get a look at the 20-inch-by-20-inch collector's item and order it - if they can afford it. Only 10,000
copies, all signed by Ali and American artist Jeff Koons, are being printed. The first 1,000, which include a sculpture
by Koons and four photographs by Howard Bingham, cost $7,500. Each. The remaining 9,000 cost $3,000.

The book is bound by the official bindery for the Vatican in pink leather, the color of Ali's first Cadillac. Each copy
comes in a silk-covered box illustrated with Neil Leifer's classic photo, ``Ali vs. Williams,'' from Ali's 1966 third-
round knockout of Cleveland Williams.

The idea behind the project was to create the ultimate tribute to Ali, even after countless words, pictures, broadcasts
and films have been produced on the man whose name and image resonate throughout the world.

``He is the most recognizable living icon on the planet,'' said Ali's manager, Bernie Yuman. ``In 250 years, this book
will be the reference to who he was and what he meant to our civilization. It will be passed down through generations.
Obviously you're not going to carry it around, but you can ask people over to your home and they can turn the pages and
be in awe.''

What does Ali think of it?

``When we first showed him the finished product, and he closed the back cover, he said, `Man, I never knew I was so
great,' '' Yuman said.

Taschen, who publishes high-end books on art, architecture, photography, film and entertainment, has been an Ali fan
since he was a young boy in Germany. When Ali's fights were broadcast live on TV, his father would wake him up at 3
a.m. and they'd watch them together.

``He was always so elegant and eloquent, and for a black man in the 1960s to stand up for his beliefs was so
inspirational that people still get a tear in their eye when they read about it,'' Taschen said. ``He was a dream to
photograph and write about. I saw we had a historic chance to do something on the man while he was still alive. We had
all the ingredients. We only had to create something new - a monument in print.''

For Taschen, who started in the business by publishing comic books out of his Cologne bookstore, GOAT is the most
ambitious project since a $1,500 coffee table book on Helmut Newton in 1999 called SUMO that included a coffee table
designed by Philippe Starck.

Since Taschen and Ali struck a deal four years ago, Taschen employed a team of 30 people in half a dozen countries to
dig out everything they could find on Ali, published as well as unpublished material from private archives, ``and we
probably got 80 percent of it,'' he said.

Ali has been slowed by Parkinson's disease, but his memory is still so vivid that he was instrumental in identifying
people in the photos that span his 61 years. The book chronicles Ali from his childhood in Louisville through an 18-
year career that included a 56-5 record and three heavyweight championships to his quieter life today on a farm in
Berrien Springs, Mich., where he lives with wife Lonnie.

Taschen was struck by how many links Ali had to South Florida and its boxing fixtures - trainer Angelo Dundee and his
promoter brother Chris, ``fight doctor'' Ferdie Pacheco, historian Hank Kaplan. The book includes photos of Ali at the
Fifth Street Gym with the Beatles posing as knockout victims and shadow-boxing in the swimming pool of the Sir John
Hotel. There's a George Plimpton account of Ali inviting Malcolm X to Miami Beach before the Liston fight.

``When he trained at my gym, he stayed in an apartment in Overtown,'' recalled Dundee, 82. ``He'd run over the causeway
and the police called me a couple times because they'd stopped him, and they'd say, `Is this kid your fighter? Can you
vouch for him?' ''

Dundee's favorite photo in the book shows Ali with a piece of tape over his mouth, looking in a mirror.

``That was for the weigh-in before the Doug Jones fight,'' Dundee said. ``I said, `Why don't we try something new:
Don't talk.' He yanked the tape off on the scale and said, `Ang, I can't do it.' ''

Bingham, said Taschen looked over many of the 1.5 million photos, negatives and contact sheets he has from his travels
with Ali. His favorites in the book include one of Ali with Nelson Mandela and one of the handsome young Ali in a new
convertible, surrounded by adoring kids.

``Ali belongs in an exquisite thing like this,'' Bingham said. ``He was master of his art.''

SOURCE: The Miami Herald / The Macon Telegraph, GA
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/sports/7408611.htm

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