By Jeff Powell for the Daily Mail
Published: 22:37 GMT, 7 March 2019 | Updated: 22:37 GMT, 7 March 2019
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One foggy January night in London 46 years ago, Muhammad Ali slipped into the Royal Albert Hall through a side door to watch a boxing match.
The Greatest had flown across the Atlantic to cast an eye over the man who would be the next stepping stone on his long and arduous road from Vietnam perdition to the reclamation of his world heavyweight title.
Joe Bugner was warming up for a fight with Ali by outpointing a Dutchman called Rudie Lubbers. This was a laborious affair. Ali had seen enough well before the end of the 15 rounds and he headed for the exit as surreptitiously as his fame permitted.
The world-famous Royal Albert Hall in all its glory hosting a 1933 Len Harvey fight
My assignment was to seek his opinion of the skills of Bugner and of the splendour of the venue so I hurried after him. As I reached the street he was climbing into his limousine. I asked if he could spare a moment and he said: ‘Jump in, man.’
‘Joltin’ Joe is gonna go,’ he rattled off among other quick-fire observations on Bugner as we sped towards the Park Lane Hilton. When we arrived, he said: ‘Come on up to my suite.’
It was to be a late night spent talking about boxing, the bigger fight for freedom, conscientious objection and anything else that came hurtling across that electrified mind.
As we finished putting the world to rights at close to 5am he said: ‘That’s a helluva hall you got there.’ Then he chuckled: ‘Fit for The Greatest.’
Muhammad Ali called the venue a 'helluva hall' after watching Joe Bugner fight there
Ali had boxed an exhibition there two years earlier and would come back
