Muhammad Ali attempted to lift the 76-year-old former World Bantamweight boxing champion, Johnny Coulon. Coulon was believed to be known for a famous trick in which he used his finger on the lifter's neck and wrist, making himself seemingly unliftable.
After retiring from boxing in 1914, Johnny Coulon, a former bantamweight champion, measuring 5 feet and weighing 110 pounds, took to the vaudeville circuit. He showcased his seemingly inexplicable ability to resist being lifted into the air. In the 1920s, after refining his act by touring American music halls and saloons, Coulon departed for Paris where his seemingly “occult” abilities attracted a great deal of media attention. This was during the height of the post-Great War Spiritualism craze, a time when séance sittings and interest in the “world beyond” were at their peak. While Coulon was wowing Parisians with his seemingly mysterious ability, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was making international headlines promoting a set of photographs purporting to show two English schoolgirls playing with real fairies.
Coulon’s act was reportedly closely scrutinized by committees of physiologists, psychiatrists, and other specialists led by Professor Charles Nordmann. They ran a battery of tests including wetting the tips of Coulon’s fingers and having him stand with his toes elevated on a small board to change his center of gravity. The committee concluded that a mysterious combination of physiological and psychological forces was at work, "not like an electric current and not like any force known to physiologists". Interestingly, many people felt compelled to try to duplicate Coulon’s abilities. It was reported that for a time, no work was getting done in Paris because the smallest staffers at every office were being press-ganged into “Coulon lift” experiments. Despite numerous attempts, no one could replicate Coulon’s trick. This further added to the intrigue and mystery surrounding Johnny Coulon, making him an unforgettable figure in the world of boxing and entertainment.
Coulon's act was straightforward. He would initially allow himself to be lifted by his "opponent," often a heavyweight boxer, wrestler, or weightlifter. The lifter would easily hoist the smaller man into the air, as Coulon would straighten his body into a vertical line and push down on the lifter's wrists, assisting in the lift.
Then came Coulon's special counter-grip, where he allegedly lightly grasped the lifter's right wrist (over the pulse point) with his left hand and placed his right index finger on the left side of the lifter's neck, near the carotid artery. It is speculated that no matter how much the lifter strained and struggled, Coulon remained firmly planted on the floor.
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