Date of interview: Sept 7, 1973
Location of interview: Hollywood, California, USA
Guys, Muhammad Ali...the heavy weight boxing champion of the world, otherwise known as the Peoples Champion...has been my idol since I was in 1st grade, but I was only 5 years old at the time of this interview, so I missed it and its totally new to me...blowing me away. He was a poet, a man of character, an example to all striving to improve and rise to the top. But I found an old interview of him and Johnny Carson and out of nowhere with a straight face of concern...Ali brings up the subject of UFOs.
Ali opens up, changing the subject with the words, "I've been studying UFOs." At this point you hear laugh tracks as if he were joking, but his face is expressionless and dead serious. At a time when Muhammad Ali could have opened the publics minds to the possibilities of alien life, Johnny Carson makes jokes and the audience laughs it off.
Ali talks about having seen UFOs while out running in the early mornings on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 3am and 5 am. But the audience laughs at him about it. He has had over 16 sightings of UFOs and probably more over his lifetime. He even said on the show that a person in Washington DC working for a UFO bureau named Harold Sulken who gave Ali some documents, photos and films of actual UFO. Who was Harold Sulken, and did he work for the US government? We may never know. But I would say he did, probably worked on Project Blue Book.
Ali took time away from doing an interview about a national fight that would have earned him more money and publicity, just to talk about a serious matter that he thought the world needed to hear. Again, Ali has impressed me...like the champion he always was and will be.
Scott C. Waring
