Press Release - Edition Patrick Frey

 Press Release
Eric Bachmann
Muhammad Ali, Zürich, 26.12.1971
Muhammad Ali, Zurich, 26.12.1971 shows the iconic American smooth-talking rhymester-boxer
before and during his prize fight in Zurich against German heavyweight Jürgen Blin on December 26, 1971. Hans-Ruedi Jaggi, a Swiss hustler and promoter, succeeded in bringing the
champ to Zurich for the fight.
At Zurich’s Playboy Bar, Jaggi made a bet with Jack Starck, a society reporter for the Swiss
tabloid Blick, for a bottle of Ballantine’s that, after having already got Jimi Hendrix and the
Rolling Stones to give concerts in Zurich, he would now lure the mighty Muhammad Ali to town
for a fight. He subsequently flew to the States three times but couldn’t get an “in” with Ali.
Eventually he made it through to Ali’s Black Muslims. When asked by the clan’s spiritual leader
Herbert Muhammad, “What’s with the dough?” he pulled $10,000 — pretty much all the money
he had at the time — out of his silver ankle-boots and a preliminary deal was promptly signed
and sealed on a sheet of hotel stationery.
Zurich photographer Eric Bachmann accompanied Ali during his ten-day stay, on his winter
jog through Zurich’s woods or buying shoes in a working-class neighborhood, going through
his training drills and, finally, during the big fight, which rapidly climaxed in the seventh round
when he knocked out the blond German giant Jürgen Blin. Muhammad Ali, Zurich, 26.12.1971
documents the events in brisk chronological order, as befits a boxer who “floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee,” in a rapid-fire succession of impressively intimate and humorous shots
against the placid urban backdrop of mid-’70s Zurich. The book is richly illustrated with a great
many facsimiled boxing match program pages and newspaper clippings.
Edition Patrick Frey
T +41 (0)44 381 51 02 Limmatstrasse 268
CH-8005 Zürich
mail@editionpatrickfrey.ch
www.editionpatrickfrey.ch
Press Release
Eric Bachmann
Muhammad Ali, Zürich, 26.12.1971
Nº 164
Concept and design: Dominik Bachmann
Hardcover, 392 pages
15 color images and 179 b/w images
29 x 20 cm
ISBN 978-3-905929-64-5 (English Edition)
ISBN 978-3-905929-65-2 (German Edition)
EUR 70 / CHF 88
For further information on picture usage or if you wish to receive a review copy, please
contact: Gloria Wismer, Edition Patrick Frey.
T +41 (0)44 381 51 02 E wismer@editionpatrickfrey.ch