I first started pencilling this in 1964 when Ali beat Sonny Liston to win the world title. I can’t count how many times I’ve made a start on capturing his face over the years, and never been satisfied with it. A couple of years ago I thought I had nailed it – but it was only on Saturday at the crack of dawn when I heard the news that it came together.
The reports were still emerging when I put the first paint to paper. Mentally I had painted it a hundred times – but this time it was for real.
I was there in 1963 at the weigh-in when Henry Cooper fought Cassius Clay at Wembley and knocked him down. I met Clay again for the return fight at Highbury three years later, and several times after that. He never remembered my name – he just called me “artist”.
The last time I met him was when I was working in the US in 1992 at a big Sports Expo. Storming Norman was there! But Ali was the one everybody wanted to see. He still called me “artist”, and said: “When are you going to finish that portrait you keep talking about?”
Finally, it’s done.
