Sonny Liston as ‘Bad Santa’ on the cover of Esquire magazine in 1963. Photograph: Carl Fischer/Esquire Flip Schulke (1930 - 2008) had the good fortune and good instincts necessary to be a great photojournalist.He also knew how to get a great shot of whatever iconic figure or event he was covering. He seemed to be every place that made important news in mid-century America. The Revolution in Cuba, the March on Washington, The last days of President Kennedy and the Texas Book Depository on that fateful November day, The Space program, and Martin Luther King are just some of the pivotal moments covered by his insightful reportage. Muhammad Ali as St Sebastian for the cover of Esquire magazine in April 1968. Photograph: Carl Fischer/Esquire The next day, Schulke met Clay at the Sir John Hotel in Overtown, Fla., and watched as he suddenly jumped into a swimming pool. Clay soon began to throw some punches and, after drawing Schulke’s attention, told him that the water pressure against his fists acted as a weight. Intrigued by this unorthodox exercise, Schulke called Sports Illustrated and asked if they would pay him to shoot Clay training in the pool over the next few days. His editor swiftly turned down the proposal and vowed to never again give Schulke a boxing assignment. When Ali realised it was a Christian symbol he wasn’t sure whether to go through with it,” Fischer explains. “So he put in a call to Herbert Muhammad [his manager] in Chicago because he wanted some comfort to know that it was OK. He felt a little guilty but that call made him feel better. The thing is, people always want their picture on the cover; Ali was the same.”

However, the editor also gave Schulke permission to pitch the idea to Life, saying, "Go ahead and ask Life if you want to. If they're dumb enough to, let them do it." However, for years no one questioned the claim about training underwater. It was simply accepted as part of the lore of Muhammad Ali. Until finally, around 1997, the photographer who did the photoshoot, Flip Schulke, revealed that Ali had invented the story. One of the pictures (below) from that shoot, showing Clay fully underwater with his fists raised, is one of the most famous pictures of Ali ever taken. But it didn't run in Life because the editors there thought it looked too posed.

The Story of the PhotoshootIn 1961, Sports Illustrated had assigned Schulke to take pictures of Clay. So Schulke traveled to Overtown, Florida where Clay was training. Muhammad Ali towering over Sonny Liston in their second fight in 1965 after Liston had dropped to the canvas following the so-called ‘phantom punch’. The fight lasted just two minutes and eight seconds. Photograph: Neil Leifer/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images 30 years too late As Flip Schulke described his last shoot over lunch one day in 1961, the nineteen-year-old boxer across the table devoured every word. Schulke, a Miami-based freelancer for Sports Illustrated, vividly explained how he had photographed water-skiers from below and published the pictures in Life magazine. At that moment, an idea formed in the young fighter’s head. Years before he would float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, Cassius Clay decided to lie like a rug. Four years later, Leifer would receive an accolade from the Observer for another of his images, an aerial shot of Ali celebrating victory over Cleveland Williams in 1966. It was voted the best sports photograph ever taken, beating the Ali-Liston shot into second spot.

Muhammad Ali after flooring Cleveland Williams in Houston in 1966. The heavyweight title fight ended in a third round TKO. Photograph: Neil Leifer/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images In one of Leifer’s less vaunted photographs, Ali can be seen arcing sideways at the hips to inspect himself in a shoulder-high mirror, captivated by his own image. You might wonder, then, to what extent Ali must treasure the photographs that have been taken of him. In Muhammad Ali Boxing Underwater, fists clenched and eyes open, the boxer symbolizes the enduring image of the fighter, the relentless soldier of human history. Flip Schulke, who had left his post as a former University of Miami professor to capture the ongoing social changes and Civil Rights progress of the 60s, unintentionally caught one of the most legendary sports pictures of all time, partly by being duped. At the time of the underwater picture, the boxer could not swim. Of course, he had never trained his boxing technique underwater. The idea had sprung from the fighter’s incisive insight into the media, further proving his immutable American legacy. In Muhammad Ali Boxing Underwater, the boxer becomes endless, the essence of an indomitable spirit. MacBook Pro 13.3" Retina, MacBook Air 13" Retina, MacBook Air 13.3"(2020, M1): 2560x1600 Dual monitor: I was waiting behind the goal, hoping something might happen’: Lionel Messi carrying the World Cup last year. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Not to be bragging or anything like that," says 19-year-old Cassius Marcellus Clay, "but they say I'm the fastest heavyweight in the ring today. That comes from punching under water." Taking a cue from the immortal Ty Cobb, who weighted his shoes in training so that he would feel feather-footed when the season started, Clay goes into a swimming pool and, as these underwater pictures show, does a stunt of submarine shadowboxing. "You try to box hard," he explains, "Then when you punch the same way out of water you got speed." Can I design desktop wallpapers? Yes, you can! You do not need to be a graphic designer for you to do this. All you need to do is to know how to save images as wallpapers, and there you go! You will have a wallpaper that suits your needs and preferences. EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article was originally published in the New York Amsterdam News on August 18, 2005 Fittingly, Ali is flippant when the subject is discussed. “Ali has never had a conversation with me where he’s dwelled on any particular picture,” says Leifer. “I have sat with him in an exhibition where he was guest of honour. He would put his arm around me and tell me how the Ali v Liston picture is the greatest picture ever taken of him, and five minutes later he’d have his arm around Howard Bingham pointing to some picture and saying ‘Howard, that’s the best picture that’s ever been taken of me’.” Clay demonstrated by jumping into the pool at the hotel where he was staying (The Sir John Hotel) and started to throw punches in the water.

The Magnum photographer Abbas, who spent time with Ali prior to ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ – of which it is the 40th anniversary – describes it best: “He was like a film-director and we were working for him.” Bill When he first met Clay, Schulke tried to impress the young boxer by sharing examples of his work. For instance, Schulke revealed that he specialized in underwater photography and had recently had photos published in Life showing water-skiers from below the surface of the water. When Sports Illustrated assigned me a story about a young boxer, Cassius Clay, I had never heard of him. I showed him my underwater pictures of water-skiing to impress him that I had done a story for Life. I went to the motel where he was staying, and there he was in the swimming pool going through his workout. He was doing a hook and a jab, and I could see the bubbles. I said to him, 'That's fantastic because I see your fists going through the water, like my water-skiing pictures.'Indeed, Gomel’s account seems most irreconcilable with the crude and voluble persona which Ali displayed so frequently in the run up to his fights. Towards Liston and Joe Frazier, Ali had always been merciless – he’d even left a bear-trap on Liston’s front lawn to stoke their rivalry before their first fight. Seeing these photos, Clay immediately told Schulke that it so happened that he trained underwater in a swimming pool because, "An old trainer up in Louisville told me that if I practice in the pool, the water resistance acts just like a weight."