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Muhammad Ali Goes to Mars: The Lost Interview

It was in the summer of 1966 when a star-struck 17-year-old set out to interview his idol: Muhammad Ali. Twenty miles from the South Side of Chicago, in Glencoe, Ill., Michael Aisner was calling repeatedly to the gym where the boxing champ was training. Finally, a man named Mr. Shabazz — Jeremiah Shabazz, perhaps? The man who introduced Ali to Islam? — picked up.

“Where are you from?” Shabazz asked the boy.

“I’m from WNTH, a high school radio station,” Aisner said.

“The champ doesn’t have time to talk,” he told him.

Aisner called back two days later. And then two days after that.

“Can I interview the champ?” he asked again.

Finally, Shabazz relented.

“Ok,” he said. “The champ will meet you.”

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