Muhammad Ali

A program for Muhammad Ali's legendary rematch against Sonny Liston, signed as "Muhammad Ali" shortly before the bout, only a year after he took the name.

• Program is signed by Ali in blue ink to verso of first leaf, over his image. 
• Additionally signed by three other heavyweight champs present at Ali's training camp: Joe Louis, Jim Braddock, and Jersey Joe Walcott.
• Published by Inter-Continental Inc., 1965.
• 8 leaves.
• Illustrated in black and white.
• Black-and-white pictorial wrappers with red and blue elements, saddle-stapled.

"The punch jarred him. It was a good punch, but I didn't think I hit him so hard he couldn't have gotten up [...] [P]eople said maybe the first fight was fixed. So the second time, I wanted to whup him bad. I didn't want him making excuses or quitting. I wanted him to get up, so I could show everyone how great I was." — Muhammad Ali (quoted in Hauser)

Ali's swift and crushing defeat of Sonny Liston in the first round of their second title fight in May of 1965 remains not only one of the most iconic moments of Ali's storied career and of boxing history — but also in all of sports. An almost 2-1 underdog, Ali's knockout after less than two minutes was famously captured in photographer Neil Leifer's legendary image of Ali towering over the fallen Liston. It remains one of the greatest sports photographs ever taken.

The fight's status today, however, is belied in many ways by the humble circumstances of its original context. Postponed due to Ali's hernia surgery, it was then rescheduled in the small industrial Maine town of Lewiston — partially because it was the one of the few arenas procurable on short notice, but also because major venues were reluctant to be associated with Ali, who was increasingly seen as a draft dodger. The fight was sparsely attended: by most accounts only about 2500 of the roughly 4500 seats in the Lewiston high school hockey rink were filled that night. Thus surviving examples of this program are scarce.

Prior to the bout, Ali had holed up at the Schine Inn in Chicopee, MA to train, talk to the media, and receive well-wishers. On May 20, 1965, five days before the fight, he hosted three fellow champions: the "Brown Bomber" Joe Louis, Jim Braddock, and Jersey Joe Walcott (who would also be the referee for the match), where all four of these signatures were gathered (the original owner noting as much above the signatures of Louis, Braddock, and Walcott).

The program also reflects the confusion, controversy, and outright resistance surrounding Ali's recent name change. (At the start of the fight itself, the boxer was booed by the Lewiston crown when the ring announcer introduced him as "Muhammad Ali.") Ali is referred to throughout the program as both Cassius Clay and Muhammad Ali (and sometimes both at once). Ali had taken the name only the previous years after an address by Elijah Muhammad conferred him with the honorific (meaning "most high one worthy of praise").

This signature, therefore, represents one of the verifiably earliest "Muhammad Ali" autographs — and on the program (and at the training camp) for one of his most famous matches. A rare document, linking Ali not only to the great Black boxers who immediately preceded him, but capturing him at the very cusp of his popular transformation from heavyweight champion to civil rights leader, anti-war activist, and ultimately legendary humanitarian. A totemic object from the career of one of the 20th century's most famous, important, and influential figures.