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# Neil Leifer: Photographing Muhammad Ali at his most vulnerable times

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## Video: Neil Leifer: Photographing Muhammad Ali at his most vulnerable times

[Watch (HLS stream): Neil Leifer: Photographing Muhammad Ali at his most vulnerable times](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gV5C4xFX.m3u8) (3:21)

![Neil Leifer: Photographing Muhammad Ali at his most vulnerable times](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gV5C4xFX/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2016-06-06. Former SI staff photographer Neil Leifer shares a story about taking photos of Muhammad Ali after a fight against Ken Norton._


---

Jul 27, 2023 8:13 PM UTC

---

## More From This Series

[All Videos](https://time.com/video/)

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### Neil Leifer: Muhammad Ali's reaction to the famous phantom punch photo

[Neil Leifer shares surprising text message he received from Muhammad Ali's widow](/video/5OVPTFi4/)

### Neil Leifer shares surprising text message he received from Muhammad Ali's widow

[Neil Leifer: The story behind photographing Muhammad Ali at the Vietnam Memorial](/video/GjsJRfnp/)

### Neil Leifer: The story behind photographing Muhammad Ali at the Vietnam Memorial

---


## Transcript

Neil, you had access to Ali in some of his more vulnerable moments. For those of us who only saw him the braggadocio, the brashness in front of the camera, what was he like in maybe some of his more vulnerable moments? Well, the best. [ LAUGH ] The funniest experience I ever had with him, when Ali fought Ken Norton the first time, his jaw, he had his jaw broken. So his jaw was wired, which is the way you treat a broken jaw, and he. Well actually I was about to say he couldn't talk. That isn't quite true. Most people wouldn't talk. He went on exactly the same only it was like a ventriloquist, you know, his teeth were closed.

But he didn't shut up. And well, anyway, Sport's Illustrated decided they wanted to do a cover on him. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Healing I guess, and I was sent to, he was living in Cherry Hill, New Jersey then, and I went down to the house. He was married to Belinda, and they had three kids, they had the twins, might have been four, three girls and Muhammad Jr. I spent the whole day with him and it was a lunch for some people that they had, but I was trying to think of different pictures to shoot. I shot him the cover of the magazine. Of course he couldn't eat, normally, he was eating tapioca pudding. And there was some Putting [ UNKNOWN ] and he couldn't care less, I said.

I showed him a Polaroid I think at one point and I said maybe you won't, no no it's fine, in his ventriloquist voice. And then I don't remember how Muhammad junior appeared, I don't remember whether he was in the room at the time, but my kids were little too then and I could smell That Mohammed Jr. needed a diaper change

>> Oh boy .

>> And I was about to photograph, they had this round bed with a sort of pink, reddish bed cover and I said to Mohammed, Just curious, have you ever diapered the baby? Now all I could think of was that in his Amazing self promotion parade. [ LAUGH ] He said that's a great picture. [ LAUGH ] I of course knew it would be a great picture, I never expected him to say yes. He said, yeah I do it all the time or something like that. And bingo, they lay the baby down on the bed, take off the old diaper. And, of course, in those days they were diaper pins. And Muhammad starts trying to put the new diaper on.

And I'm photographing it, and I'm getting terrific pictures. I'm not about to stop him. But Very obvious to me that he had never touched a diaper, let alone changed one. [ LAUGH ] And he started trying to put the pin in and he was stabbing the little boy whose That's the point when a photographer has to make a very tough decision. I mean this is a great pictures. [ LAUGH ] I finally said I think I have it and immediately he said Belinda, why don't you finish up. [ LAUGH ] Yeah right, his poor child's getting stuck with [ UNKNOWN ]. You know I also did a Family picture which you showed a minute or so ago of his mother and father and brother, which I think is the only one I've seen like it.

I don't know. And, he was very good with his family, he was very good with his kids. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

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