Muhammad Ali in Fighter's Heaven

From early 1973 through to the summer of 1974, Victor Bockris visited Muhammed Ali, while Ali was preparing for his epic battle in Zaire to regain his title from George Foreman. His account portrays the poet, preacher and performer side of Ali, rather than focusing on his boxing career.

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The man who has no imagination Stands on earth He has no wings He cannot fly' MUHAMMAD ALI Just off highway 61 in northern Pennsylvania, up the dirt drive of a wooden hill lay a place called Fighters Heaven. This was once the training camp of the 'greatest of all time'. From early '73 through the summer of '74 Victor Bockris visited Muhammad Ali, while Ali was preparing for his epic battle in Zaire to regain the world heavyweight crown from the fearsome George Foreman. Bockris, who was later to write about people like William Burroughs, Andy Warhol and Lou Reed was less interested in his subjects boxing career and ambitions than in his extraordinary gifts as a poet, preacher and performer. As Muhammad Ali said himself of this book, 'These are some of the things I dont reveal to the public too much'. 'Ali is the one athlete of these times who will stir imaginations a century from now - and this record of a period in his camp will make that eminently understandable. A fascinating document. 'George Plimpton.