June 3rd, 2016 — Muhammad Ali died today aged 74. In 1972, during the time he was officially banned from boxing after refusing to be drafted into the army during the Viet Nam war, he put on exhibition fights around the US and Canada including far out of the way Edmonton. It was different era. There was only a small entourage around him and because the press were by then friendly, for an hour or so the day before the fight me and a reporter hung out with Ali in his hotel room with Angelo Dundee, the referee, and a few others connected with the fight. Pictures from the fight can be seen in the “Boxing, the forgotten sport” collection by clicking on the picture above. The pictures of him in his hotel room unfortunately were lost long ago in the files of the Edmonton Journal.