Transcription
He would come to the gym, and if he didn't get a ride to the gym, he didn't have no car. He would run. He would run across the causeway.
Muhammad Ali, one of my great heroes, had a great line in the 70s when he was asked, "How many sit-ups do you do?" He said, "I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that's when I start counting because that's when it really counts. That's what makes you a champion."
"Terry, I'm the greatest fighter that ever stepped foot in the ring. Money will be lost that night. This will be the biggest upset in the century of all boxing. I think you're a big bag of win. Damnest showman that ever lived. And you ain't kidding anybody. The odds are 7 to 1. It's very big odds for a heavyweight championship fight. It has to be Liston. Liston is a much bigger puncture."
"Where all these big mouth people talking about I talk too much. Well, I want all of them to be there and I'm going to shut up all of his mouth and precious players won after six rounds and then is not my name no more. You want to keep calling me a white man's name. I'm not white."
He beat the hell out of those who didn't want to use his name. Mr. Muhammad Ali has just refused to be inducted into the United States Armed Forces. I'm just about broke. I'm not allowed to work here now in America. I'm going to fight not for me but to uplift my little brothers who are sleeping on concrete floors today in America. They want to be famous to their people. It's a wonderful move.
"I'm going to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. George can't hit what his eyes can't see. All of you chunks are going to bow when I whoop him. All of you. I know you got him. I know you got him, Dick. But the man's in cover. I'm going to show you how great I am. Bluffed him. I'd done everything. Beat him up basically for about five or six rounds. I thought it was easy. Then about the sixth round, he whispered in my ear after I hit him in the side, that all you got, George. And now who's going to stop me? Well, ain't nobody going to stop me. I must be the greatest. I took back the world. I took back the world. I told you all of my critics that I was the greatest of all time."
He was not racist enough to take risk. Never right. When you a kid, you always bet certain fellas, "I'm going be champion one day, and when I'm champion, I'm going to come back and show you I'm wrong." Another say, "Guys, I'm going to be a great doctor one day, and I'm going to be a dentist or I'm going to be a great scientist. I'm going to be a president of the country." But very few people are actually able to make good of the vows and come home and say, "I told you."
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