Cassius Clay in London, 30 May 1963 Observer picture archive

Observer archive: Cassius Clay in London, 30 May 1963
Observer picture archive
Muhammad Ali


Photographer Gerry Cranham and writer Hugh McIlvanney joined the young heavyweight boxer preparing for his fight against Henry Cooper.


Greg Whitmore
@G_Whizzz

Sat 1 Jun 2019 17.30 BST




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Comments30 Original caption: “Protection for the pretty.” Photograph: Gerry Cranham for the Observer/©Offside


The large smooth hands flicked deliberately through a sheaf of pound notes, counting them with a rhythmic snapping of fingers.

“This is why I talk man. This and this and this.”

It was, of course, the most predictable and understandable explanation of his behaviour that Cassius Clay could have offered. And it is undoubtedly a big part of the truth, for he would certainly not be so persistently and arrogantly abusive if he were not being well paid for it. That, however, is nothing like the whole answer.

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Even if it all started as a cool commercial operation, a quite different compulsion is now at work. The record-breaking gates he brought to heavyweight boxing – a shot in the arm when its own scandals were threatening to give it a suicidal shot in the head – might be reason enough for all his talk. But an afternoon with him convinces that there are better, more interesting reasons.

Boxer’s body

My first contact was with his less familiar image, that of the sweating professional fighter, with bandages on his hands and a protective box under his shorts. It was in the gymnasium of a Territorial Army drill hall opposite White City underground station and he was working out in front of some casually dressed soldiers, the usual photographers and a few other people, of whom the most conspicuous were two attractive coloured girls and a friendly looking African wearing national robes and an impressive hat with a gold tassel.

Jack Solomons, who is promoting Clay’s fight with Henry Cooper on June 18, said the African was Minister Johnson of the Nigerian Government. Solomons said the man was Minister for Sport and added a string of other responsibilities that suggested he was very much a West African Hailsham.
FacebookTwitterPinterest Clay works on the speed-ball. Photograph: Gerry Cranham for the Observer/© Offside

As Clay finished sparring and went on to some shadow boxing and work with the speed-ball, the coloured girls muttered ecstatically and looked as if they might swoon away. Clay, too, was obviously pretty happy with what he saw of himself in frequent glances at a full-length mirror propped against the wall.
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At 21, his physique, like that of most good heavyweights, is devoid of the dramatic definition and flashy ripples of the body-builders. The muscles are mostly sunk deep under the brown skin, as Louis’s were, and show strikingly only in slabs curving from the neck along the shoulders. It is a body designed to do a job, and if it might not have excited Michelangelo it does suit Angelo Dundee, who is Clay’s trainer.

Come all

Physically his head is big, with small, well-shaped ears and a round rather fleshy face. His teeth are superb, which is, of course, fortunate as they are seldom hidden.

When he was ready to go back to the dressing-room he began his ritual, and that is what it is, in an almost medieval sense. Walking through the












FacebookTwitterPinterest Clay holds up five fingers, predicting Henry Cooper will go down in five rounds. Photograph: Gerry Cranham for the Observer/© Offside

And the talker talks. Cassius Clay talks because he was born to do it and those who may believe they thought up the gimmick for him are kidding themselves, for he had it already.

Perhaps it is this natural zest for it all that makes his nonsense delightfully entertaining when you encounter it first hand. That and a record that shows he has kept a fair balance between the talking and the other thing he does best. He is after all, as Henry Cooper will find out on June 18, not just a fighting talker but a talking fighter.

Ministers, Queens and that Mr. Clay by Hugh McIlvanney was published on page 15 of the Observer on 2 June 1963. On 18 June 1963, Clay defeated Henry Cooper after the fight was stopped by the referee in the fifth round.

This article is faithfully reprinted as per the original copy and, as such, it includes language we would not use today.

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