This image of Muhammad Ali berating Sonny Liston in the first round of their world title fight in 1965 is among the foremost of Neil Leifer’s many pictures of Ali. Liston had gone down easily from the “phantom punch” – with many suspecting mobsters had paid him to lose early – and Ali was furious, gesticulating at Liston to get up and fight. The picture was created in an era when boxing rings were clean white canvases on which bloody duels were fought over 15 rounds, and colour film photography produced lustrous results. It’s no hyperbole to say it’s an iconic image of an iconic person in an iconic sporting moment. The picture was somehow overlooked for the front cover of Sports Illustrated, for which Leifer worked, and only decades later pulled from the archives and given its due. JW
‘There are no action replays here’ Tom Jenkins
YOU MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK IN this game, kid: that was the mantra of the celebrated photographer Eamonn McCabe, who died last year. McCabe made his name as a sports photographer, and the saying couldn’t be truer of his specialism. Talk to any top sports photographer and you’ll discover the huge amount of work and knowledge that goes into capturing a microsecond on camera. Sports photos can be memorable as action shots, portraits, art, comedy, news. They move us because they capture emotional extremes, historical events and the wonderful – occasionally tragic – chaos of live action.
I’ve been lucky enough to work with two of Britain’s greatest sports photographers, McCabe and his protege Tom Jenkins. When Jenkins realised his dream of being a professional sportsman wasn’t going to happen, he turned to photography. McCabe visited his school, and Jenkins discovered you could get the same buzz from taking photos of great events as competing in them. “It’s as close to being a sportsperson as you can get because, like them, you’ve got no second chances. Ali’s not going to knock that guy out again if you didn’t get it first time. There are no action replays here.”
McCabe and Chris Smith revolutionised sports
