Facing Ali

Facing Ali (2009) is a documentary you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Pete McCormack. It gathers ten men who stood across the ring from Muhammad Ali at different points in his career — and lets them do the talking.

Joe Frazier, George Foreman, George Chuvalo, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, Leon Spinks, Earnie Shavers and others each carry a different version of what that fight was. Some speak of Ali with warmth; a few are still carrying the weight of the loss. Cut together with archival footage, their accounts add up to something larger than a boxing record — a portrait of what it meant to be the man every other contender had to measure himself against. Stream Facing Ali (2009) online on iFILM.