The Greatest

The Greatest brings together nearly 100 photographs of Muhammad Ali at the height of his career
by Chris Smith. The images are accompanied by Smith’s memories of his time spent with Ali from
the early days of his career until his final years before retirement.

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Smith went spent time with Ali on several occasions, building an archive of photographs of
the boxer both training and away from the gym. The book draws upon a selection of his images
accompanied by anecdotes giving insight to Ali’s early morning training sessions, the now
legendary 5th Street Gym in Miami, those who worked with Ali, the press conferences, interactions
with the public and his conversations with the boxer himself. Smith was present when Ali was
training for the ‘Fight of the Century’ in 1971 against Joe Frazier and when Ali first surrendered a
fight in 1980 to the young Larry Holmes.
After retiring, most of Smith’s work was archived until he was approached by gallerist Alon Zakaim
about exhibiting his work in a retrospective. Together they went through his vast archive and
brought to light a selection of photographs, exhibited in 2012, and form the basis of this book. The
essay by Paolo Hewitt contextualises the political and social background to Ali’s life and career.