$3,000 book will laud boxer Muhammad Ali

COLOGNE, Germany, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- German publisher Taschen Books next month will release a 75-pound, $3,000 book about the life and times of boxing great Muhammad Ali.

The book, titled "GOAT," or "Greatest of All Time," will be sold in a limited edition of 10,000 for $3,000 apiece. Of these 1,000 will be accompanied by a sculpture of a leaping porpoise by pop artist Jeff Coons, at $7,500.

The 20-by-20-inch book will have 792 pages of 3,000 photographs and text, and will be bound in silk and Louis Vuitton leather.

Publisher Benedikt Taschen said in announcing the book Wednesday that he expected it to sell out quickly as did his first extra-large book containing Helmet Newton's erotic photographs. That book weighed 66 pounds and sold for $1,500.

Taschen said he had watched Ali's fights on German television as a child and especially admired him for refusing to be inducted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War even though it cost him his world heavyweight title.