It was that simple but in so many other ways it wasn’t.

Earlier this year American writer Dave Mondy published fascinating research into arguably the most iconic image in sports history and revealed it would have never been taken if not for a series of extremely fortunate events.

Perhaps the most comical contributing factor to Leifer’s historic snap was he was only in position to take it because a senior photographer had shunted him to that side of the ring. Mondy revealed Sports Illustrated’s Herb Scharfman pulled rank on Leifer — who at the time was just 22 — to claim a spot by the judges’ table that he felt gave him more room to manoeuvre during the fight.

But when Liston fell it left him staring at Ali’s back — you can see him positioned between the champ’s legs in Leifer’s photograph.

“It didn’t matter how good Herbie was that day,” Leifer told Mondy. “He was in the wrong seat.”

As for the junior photographer? He was positioned perfectly.

“If I were directing a movie and I could tell Ali where to knock him down and Sonny where to fall, they’re exactly where I would put them,” said Leifer, who went on to become a filmmaker.

Leifer also benefited from what in those days was a risky decision to shoot in colour. There was another photographer, the AP’s John Rooney, sitting to Leifer’s left who also took a pretty good photograph that night.

At first glance it looks a lot like Leifer’s (one key difference is Scharfman is positioned to the left of Ali, not between his legs) but when it comes to colour and clarity there’s no comparison.

Interestingly, Leifer’s image wasn’t immediately held in the same esteem that it is today. He actually captured three sensational shots that night and it was another that featured on the first page of a four-page spread of the fight in Sports Illustrated.

“I will never have a night like that ever,” Leifer said. “I mean I’ve never had another one like that. The fight went two minutes and eight seconds and I got three great pictures.”

His snap of Ali standing over Liston was on page four.

Why his ringside angle was the one printed on posters for years to come was because it became the ideal illustration of Ali in his prime.

“This photo shows Ali at the height of his powers,” Leifer told Mondy. “People wanted to remember him at his best.”

But by no means can we put the photograph down to dumb luck. Leifer enjoyed one of the most celebrated careers in sports photography because he had a stroke of genius.

As a boy growing up in New York he would gain free admission to Giants football games by pushing the wheelchairs of handicapped patrons into the stadium and then position himself on the field with the photographers. On his 16th birthday he took several shots of the game winning touchdown in the 1958 NFL championship game and sold them to Sports Illustrated — where he received a job and became a boy wonder.

Leifer would go on to photograph nine summer Olympics, four soccer World Cups, the first 12 Super Bowls and every major heavyweight title fight since 1959. He photographed Ali on 60 different occasions, including all of his biggest fights and 30 one-on-one studio sessions.

But there’s one image that will be remembered forever.

 

Muhammad Ali and photographer Neil Leifer, who took the famous picture from the Ali-Liston fight.

Source…………………..www.news.com.au and /twitter.com/AstonishingPix

Natarajan