Lost radio interview with Muhammad Ali from 1966  Sep 19 2012

From Blank on Blank, a great archive of lost interviews, a 1966 interview with Muhammad Ali conducted by Michael Aisner, then a high school student near Chicago.

From inside the club, Aisner and his friend watched out the front window as Ali screetched up in a red Cadillac convertible, parked in front of a fire hydrant, and jumped over the car door.

For the next 20 minutes, Ali talked boxing, footwork, why he wanted to fight -- and launched into an epic, unprompted riff about traveling to Mars and fighting for the intergalactic boxing title. All went smoothly -- until Aisner realized he'd forgot to turn on the tape recorder.

"I was mortified," he says. "I said, 'Champ, do you think you could do that again?'"

The champ obliged.

(via @LTBelcher)

Boxers, before and after fights  Sep 10 2009

From a series by Howard Schatz.

Mashup sport: chessboxing. "The basic idea in  Feb 07 2006

Mashup sport: chessboxing. "The basic idea in chessboxing is to combine the no.1 thinking sport and the no.1 fighting sport into a hybrid that demands the most of its competitors - both mentally and physically. In a chessboxing fight two opponents play alternating rounds of chess and boxing. The contest starts with a round of chess, followed by a boxing round, followed by another round of chess and so on." More from the LA Times and the Guardian.

David Remnick on the sad end of Mike Tyson  Jun 24 2005

David Remnick on the sad end of Mike Tyson.