- [Mick] Welcome to Fighter's Heaven.

The former training camp of Muhammad Ali located here in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania.

(bell ringing and audience cheering) So, Muhammad Ali loses to Joe Frazier in 1971, and he decides he wants to reinvent himself and find another place to train.

He loved this area.

It's very, very open.

It's nature.

It's trees, fresh water, fresh air.

It was very basic, very Spartan, which is why Ali ended up here, because he wanted to just get away and keep it simple and refocus after suffering his first career loss.

The camp in total consists of 17 or 18 buildings, depending on if you count sheds and buildings that were used for storage.

The gym side of the road went up first.

It consisted of the gym, the kitchen, Ali's cabin and two bunk houses that were used for his sparring partners to stay in.

And then another building was the chalet, which was where Ali's family stayed when they came while he was here training.

The training sessions here were just unique because it was free and open to the public.

People just pulled up, came in, sat down in this gym on just folding metal chairs that were around the gym and just watch him spar and workout.

- [Jeff] I first came here as a young man in my early twenties.

I came up here and I just fell in love with the place.

This place was crowded, and this gym would be packed with people.

Really hot.

That made me interested in photography.

I thought this would be an interesting place to come shoot.

I mean the atmosphere and the vitality and what a subject matter Ali was.

(camera shutters clicking) This photo was actually taken right in that corner over there, he looks so confident and determined, and he almost has a regal look to it.

This is a shoot I always liked.

It's Bundini Brown, who was one of his trainers.

He actually coined the phrase, "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

- While Mohammad Ali was here training, a lot of celebrities showed up here at the camp.

We have it as part of the tour.

We have a collection of photos.

The who's who of the 70's.

- [Jeff] People like Tom Jones, Kris Kristofferson.

- [Mick] Andy Warhol was here.

Howard Cosell was here.

- List goes on and on.

There's, there's a lot.

- So Ali came here and trained at the camp from '72 when it started and up through his last fight in 1981 with Trevor Berbick.

(upbeat music playing) And then eventually, it slowed down and it became a camp that was in a lot of disrepair.

- I used to come up here when my children were small just to walk around, and the weeds were this high and it was a shame to see it that way.

(solemn music playing) - In 2016, Mike Madden bought the property.

He was a huge Muhammad Ali fan.

And his sole mission at that time was just to preserve it.

And there was a lot of work to be done.

The buildings were beat up.

They weren't used for a period of time.

Part of the restoration project was the stripping of the bark on the exterior and replacing some of the logs.

But structurally we're about 80% or better original here.

This whole restoration project has been a labor of love for Mike Madden from the get-go up until now.

We're constantly looking for pictures, photos, videos that will help us recreate what it was like while Ali was here training.

- I'm just amazed at what Mike Madden has done in bringing this place back to life.

- Here we are standing outside the centerpiece of the camp.

The gym.

In the gym behind me is the ring that replicates where the ring was back in the day.

One of the neat things for visitors as they visit the camp is step up here in the ring, have their picture taken here in the red corner, either sitting and standing, and then having Muhammad Ali look over their shoulder, like it is now.

We're standing here in front of the kitchen where Ali and his staff would gather for their meals and also hang out and socialize.

You see the table, that is the original table, standing in front of me and on the wall are his Aunt Coretta's rules to her kitchen.

Besides this gathering for the meals and eating, it was also a place to hang out and talk and socialize.

Ali built eight cabins here on the property, upper and lower level, to house his staff and any overnight guests.

Behind me is the mosque here at Fighter's Heaven where Muhammad Ali would go to pray and worship while training for his next upcoming bout.

One of the striking features and eye-catching parts of the camp are the boulders that were brought in and painted by his father, Cassius Clay, Sr.

The name on each rock honor someone that Ali admired and respected throughout his career.

So, one of the highlights of the camp, but for visitors is when they get over into Ali's cabin.

As you can see, it looks different than any of the other buildings because it's made out of an old railroad bridge.

When visitors enter this building, they watch a video clip of Dick Cavett interviewing Muhammad Ali here in the cabin.

And some of the items that are talked about are here presently, starting with an old rope bed.

- 200 years old?

- This bed's just about, about 190 years old.

I just had it reinforced.

- It's been recreated based off of pictures from 1974, how it looked.

This table here is similar to the table that was here.

- There's this old table over here.

- How come you have a... - This table weighs about 850 pounds.

This was made out of a real old tree.

- Everything in this room is based off of the video that we show.

And in this area of the cabin, there was a setup of a water hand pump that is shown in the video of Dick Cavett interviewing Muhammad Ali and actually Muhammad Ali pumps out a glass of water for Dick Cavett as the interview is going on.

- It looks nice.

- I've seen a lot of people actually get emotional here.

They say, you always feel Ali's presence.

- The reaction here has been great.

People really get what we're doing here.

Our hope for the future and moving forward is to remind and educate people about the life and legacy of Muhammad Ali.

(upbeat music playing)