Ali Unplugged

On a chilly Sunday in 1974, photographer Bill Peronneau visited Muhammad Ali's training camp in the hills of eastern Pennsylvania. The images he shot that day, never before published, provide a rare glimpse into the private life of this most public sports figure.

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TWO COLOR PHOTOS: PHOTOGRAPHS BY BILL PERONNEAU/CONTACT FIRE POWER While Ali needed no more than an oil lamp, trainer Angelo Dundee relied on the hearth of a champion to warm himself.

THREE COLOR PHOTOS: PHOTOGRAPHS BY BILL PERONNEAU/CONTACT READYING TO RUMBLE With his bout against George Foreman in Zaire looming, Ali prepared his still lithe body for a shot at the title that had been stripped from him; meanwhile, his father, Marcellus Clay, got the poetry in motion.

TWO COLOR PHOTOS: PHOTOGRAPHS BY BILL PERONNEAU/CONTACT PRESSURE COOKER? Ali's mother, Odessa Clay, was among the small entourage at the rustic Deer Lake, Pa., training camp, where Ali could kick back, far from the spotlight that would glare ever brighter after he defeated Foreman.