Had the cruel irony of Parkinson’s Disease not robbed Muhammad Ali of his infamous wit and sizzling rhetoric, the previously unseen segments that make up the first half hour of the recently released, 'Champions Forever: Ali – The Lost Interviews', may not have held the weight they do today.

Instead, as producer Craig Glazer explains, they are by most accounts the last in-depth interviews the man affectionately known as “The Greatest” was able to give before his illness progressed further, eroding his ability to communicate with the one weapon that rivaled his flashing jabs --- his mouth.

The original incarnation of ‘Champions Forever’, released in 1990, featured heavyweight champions Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Ken Norton, and of course, the incomparable Ali, being interviewed together for the first, and so far, only time.  They shared a stirring trip down memory lane, recalling the ring heroics and spiteful rivalries that marked an unprecedented era for heavyweight boxing.

Their collective triumphs and tribulations, along with Ali’s candid reflections on a remarkable life, would be enough to intrigue most boxing fans.

Equally as interesting, however, is the story behind the making of the original film and how, after 20 years locked up in a vault, Ali’s lost interviews came to be made public.

(Photo by Robert Riger/Getty Images)

Craig Glazer was fresh out of prison when he began working on the original version of 'Champions Forever'.

As a student at Arizona State University, Glazer found the square life a bit too boring, and set out on a remarkable crime spree which he outlines in his book, ‘The King Of Sting’.

“I didn’t want to just grow up to be a guy that looked out the window at the age I am now and say, ‘boy, what if?’  I wanted to try life out…all my heroes were people on television that were gunfighters and outlaws…and I wanted to be one of those guys.”

After being ripped off in a botched weed deal, Glazer started emulating the Hollywood bad guys he looked up to at the time.

"We were robbed by some low level Mexican mob guys...I got beat up pretty bad and wanted revenge, but really it was an excuse to be an outlaw.”

He met an older Vietnam Veteran named Don Woodbeck, and the two started performing ‘stings’, posing as cops to rob drug dealers.  His crew eventually expanded to 11 people, but before the law could catch up with him, Glazer would join the good guys, becoming an undercover agent at the age of 20 in Kansas City.

His stint on the right side of the law wouldn’t last, however, and before long he had teamed up with Woodbeck again to continue his daring criminal lifestyle.

Things soon began to unravel.

“My partner got shot and killed by some drug dealers in 1982 and I would do my final sting against Colombian drug dealers posing as organized mafia guys laundering their money, millions of dollars…and it turned out they were not Colombian drug dealers.  They were the FBI and they arrested me.”

Glazer was sentenced to 7 years in prison, and served 4 1/2 years behind bars, where he ultimately made the connections that would lead him to Ali.

He befriended a man who knew a bodyguard for Ali, Foreman, Frazier and Holmes, and when he learned about the plan to make a movie with the champs, he was offered a production job upon his release.

“I had just been out of jail, I literally was out of the halfway house for a couple of days then I'm on the set of MGM Studios, where we put the movie together.  And Ali was my hero as a kid,” he explains.

"I'll never forget when I got out of the car from the halfway house, which was in a horrible part of L.A. and a terrible place to stay.  It was worse than prison.  I was happy to be on the set, but to be on a movie set 48 hours after my release and standing by Ali, it kind of took my breath away.”

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The movie was released and did well, but Glazer knew there was much more to the story.  At the time the filmmakers wanted to depict Ali as he was in his youth, shadow boxing, joking and being gregarious, so many of the more serious moments where he reflects on his religion and mortality weren’t included.

Glazer understood the historical significance of the interviews that ended up on the cutting room floor.

Along with producer Ron Mamady, he purchased the rights to the footage from lawyer Ed Masry, of Erin Brockovich fame.

“I convinced them that in the vault I've got all these interviews I did with Muhammad, and I'd like to own them for posterity and maybe one day, twenty years from now, which is now here, I'll do another movie and include all that.  They sold it to me for $25,000. I've owned it ever since with my new partner Ron Hamady.  It's been bitter sweet, we've re-released it and this is the first big thing we've done with it.”

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In the end, Ali left a lasting impression on Glazer, one that motivated him to reform his once criminal ways.

"I saw some of myself in Ali even though I'd gone down a different road obviously. I came away thinking he was the great man I thought, in a different way, a more reflective way.

“I think it gave my own life some meaning and inspired me to stay out of trouble.”

Glazer admits that Ali’s condition troubled him, but it also served to add gravity to his words, for the once bombastic brawler was now humbled by his own vulnerabilities.

“At that time people weren't aware how deep his illness was and frankly I think he was a little embarrassed.  It tore me up.  All I could think was how unfair was it.”

"I think the lesson to be learned from Ali’s life, is we don't have to act so big, and we're not so small, that's the lesson."

Top Photo: Robert Riger/Getty Images

michael.talbot@citynews.rogers.com