Neil Leifer’s Favorite Shot, Ever - Muhammad Ali: The Greatest Pictures - Photo Gallery - LIFE
“I think this is the best picture I ever made,” Leifer says, simply and without hesitation, of a photo taken with a remote trigger from 80 feet above the ring during an Ali-Cleveland Williams fight at the Astrodome in November, 1966. “It’s the only picture of mine that I have in my home. I could go on for a long time about the technical aspects of the shot, how I studied the Astrodome, planned the photo for weeks before the fight, pictured the shot in my head, rigged up the remote trigger that I used to get the shot from above while I was physically down at ringside shooting the fight — but what makes this so special, to me, is that it’s as close as I’ve ever gotten to a perfect shot. Ali, Williams, the referee, the reporters, the symmetry, the drama — it’s the one photograph I’ve taken where, looking back, I’d change nothing.” NOTE: Neil Leifer is visible here, wearing a light blue shirt and seated near the top along the left-hand side of the ring, with his camera resting in front of him.
