Muhammad Ali - In His Own Words (1998)

[Music] in 1954 a 12-year-old boy's bike was stolen in louisville kentucky a police officer calmed the teary-eyed kid and taught him how to fight so it would never happen again the boy was cassius clay and he hasn't stopped fighting since [Music] in 1960 cassius clay won the olympic gold medal in light heavyweight boxing after his olympic victory clay announced he would turn pro fight fans had never witnessed a fighter so flamboyant so outspoken cassius clay was a force to be reckoned with clay won his first professional bout in the sixth round and set his sights

toward champion sunny liston [Music] clay's younger brother rudy embarked on a professional fighting career of his own and his older brother was always there to lend encouragement take your time cook on him rudy watch him hook on your hand there you go take your time he's taller than you keep it distance there you go take your time oh come on bring him home hope bring him home bring him out of the way take your time bring him home bring him home he give me that rock come on you got it take your time on it

but when cassius was around it was difficult even for his brother to get a word in edgewise well we don't know if we can stand another clay on the boxing scene but i'm ready to make his professional debut is rudolph valentino clay when are you planning to turn professional rudolph well bob i plan to turn professional in at least two or three months how many amateur fights have you had well i've had 83 i'm at the fights mostly around kentucky and chicago and new york nice one seven to seven what will you see what was

going what would you be fighting in i'll be fighting that's a heavyweight i'd say that's cash the same as cashes if you want to find this yes your amateur fights i've won seven to seven out of eighty-three well let me finish let me talk this bar is modest i'm the greatest he's not a talker i'm going to fight sonny listen right after i now laid into cooper and as soon as i now lay the inner cooper i want that big ugly bear right in uh right here on miami beach at the orange bowl because there's

not a place large enough inside the holes and then after that you rank yourself number three and above you you rank listen and patterson which would you rather fight and why well to tell you the truth i would fight floyd patterson because sonny liston is a much rougher fighter than patterson he's a much harder hitter than patterson and sonny liston i watched him here in the gym a few months ago and he was here to fight howard king and he can hit a guy in the elbows and just about break his arm but patterson he's

a good fighter but i believe in a way he's overrated because in a way i believe he's overrated but if i had to fight either one of them i would invite sonny lester i mean patterson [Music] well you're all right i don't know how you found out but i haven't been working as hard as i should uh i just got through with the henry cooper fight and this regular fighting is pretty tough but we me and my trainer here angelo dundee we have something that we're going to do the last two weeks in london which

will make up for lost time my campaigning day is over but as you know he's starting to pop off and he has a hunch that he's going to catch me with a good punch so we'll see when we get there in anticipation of the liston title fight a louder more brash cassius clay emerged his legendary braggadocio came out in full force clay seemed to always be in the camera's eye as a master manipulator of the press cassius took over his own promotion and even marketed a record album aptly titled i am the greatest i come

to very listen not to praise him i'm going to fight sonny liston that is if he doesn't chicken out i am the greatest mr listen is an old man he's 30 years old he has no business been in the same ring with me i'd like to help that poor man i want to give him lessons boxing lessons talking lessons i'll teach him anything but since he's going to fight me what he needs most is falling message he can't fight i watched him shadowboxing and his shadow won in the first round i can picture my fight

with old man listen i will step into the ring looking like a beautiful movie star and for the first six rounds i'll go pop pop pop and that's the way so fast listen will think he's surrounded and then i'm really going to start swinging the word around town is that the the publicity i've been getting recently out of new york and here is that uh you know it's uh it's a little different from well i hate people you know all that kind of stuff but do i like i hate anybody what have i ever done

wrong just tell all of the people out there who bet known sonny that all of them are going to lose their money and get to the fight early because i might get him in one cache of sunny liston said that you should be arrested for impersonating a fighter he said you should be turned over his knee and spanked do you think he means all these things or maybe this is just a gag to sell more tickets well jim i've been down here in miami training for the past three and a half years i've been boxing

12 years and all i've been predicting and popping off and i'm actually really tired of talking i'm through talking all the talking is over i only have a few days now before the rumble and sonny listen is popping off his mouth and making all of these way out statements and i'm going to put an end to it february 25th and and i don't have to convince nobody now that i am great they all know it because they're paying 250 dollars for a seat and i'm sure the house will be sold out and now i'm willing

to back up all of my talk i'm just tired of talking actually we got a late report out today that there's a possibility the fight may be changed from vegas to miami beach are you surprised at hearing oh i felt so good i just jumped in my head hit the ceiling oh i'm so happy so many people here talk about listen beating me i'm unranked it will be no match oh i'm so glad i'm going to make all of them shut the mouths were you surprised to learn about this or did you did you feel

it was definitely going to be vegas well i felt it would be in vegas but i was awful angry because in vegas the place is too small i'm the biggest fighter in all history i'm the greatest fighter in all history and i don't think that the fight should have been held in a small place like that and convention hall is a lot larger i will like it there but wherever it may be listen must fall cash is uh you're famous for making up these poems have you thought of anything now that the fight might be

changed here to the beach let me see something real quick here uh they say they said that the fight would be vegas but now looks like the beach but wherever it will be listen i will teach is for several years now you've been saying some pretty mean things about sonny liston we've known you for a long time is this really you talking or is this you trying to build a gate to sell tickets well a lot of people say it's just talk is talk to bill the gates that's true it do help it builds the

gates but uh i've only i've never really never missed a prediction and uh uh if it's just talk well why is it that ref i'm winning all of my fights and why is it that i'm the most colorful and most talked about fight in the world today and if it's just publicity and i don't mean it why is it that is that tomato juice or tomato ketchup on my opponent's faces or is it blood i mean um he's made a statement in the paper today about uh uh he just wants to defend his title and

i want to take it he's not mad at me i'm not really mad at him but i'm i i must have to admit i'm a little mad at him i don't like the way he talk well what about this grudge that's supposed to be going well i don't know nothing about no grudge or nothing all i want to do is fight and get this thing out of the way you just soon go right now and now and when i was at his home in las vegas five policemen had to come with dogs to break us

up you better keep me away from him because we might fight here and now well uh sonny is supposed to be really angry at you i don't that's what i heard he's angry he don't like the way i talk and he's got a grudge and all of this well just to show him how bold i am i'm here to meet him and ready to go to war if necessary i'm not jiving you think that's a good idea it don't make me no difference i mean i'm ready now i'm tired of waiting for this fight i'm

nervous he's got my job i'm the champ [Applause] and here he is ladies and gentlemen the new heavyweight champion of the world cassius clay cassius uh you know i was outside they're looking for a lot of folks who uh who bet on uh clay and everybody did it seems i couldn't find the one who bet ain't people hypocritical jail now everybody bet on me ain't that something how did you feel during the fight when did you feel that you you you started to get the confidence well i thought it would knock him out in the

first round uh i believe that was one of my best rounds i was hitting it with so many hooks and right crosses he was about out but uh after the first round i saw nothing but fear in his eyes and i'm so happy now i don't have to talk as loud as i used to i told the world what i would do i just missed my prediction for one round if he had came out uh in what in eighth round i would have knocked him out and my prediction would have been accurate i would have

gotten less than an eight like i've been telling the world but uh so now the people a lot of people were saying that if i beat something less than all of the people out there you know who you are a lot of the high school children i know were saying if he beat sonny dustin then i know it was a fix so uh what made it so good i didn't knock him out they can't say it was a fix or nothing like it because i didn't stop the fight the doctor and the referee stopped to

fight he couldn't see after her they just took him christian hospital he needed a little more experience how do you stand now cassius with the draft i don't know i'm just waiting do you have any plans uh from now on for the next couple of months well i'll just tour the road and do some exhibitions um try to get me a good exhibition my hometown lined up for next week uh in the opening round i noticed that you were fighting a style that a lot of people said to fight that is uh to stick and

move uh did do you adopt this plan when the fight started or did you do it before i've always felt like that but i got a lot of experience out of watching the sugar ray robinson and jake lamotta film and this was the same type fight robinson was a dancer like me i was a dancer like robinson brother would you give liston a chance again well jim i don't know if the public would want it i'll give listen the chance anytime he wanted he's a nice fighter a little more experienced he'll be able to beat

me would you say listen was overrated yes he was overrated i don't have to tell you that everybody who saw the fight will tell you that i played with him i made him look like amateur saint liston said tonight that even after you beat him for the title uh that you're still not a fighter what is your comment for this oh he's right i'm not a fighter i can't fight i'm nothing i've only had 250 fights never lost none world olympic gold medal winner two-time united states aau champion international pan-american game champion national aau champion

59-60 have predicted what round my opponents will fall in 16 fights don't have a mark on me but i can't fight he never said a word to you after the fight today did you go over and talk to him in his corner and say anything to him at all you haven't talked i was so excited i'm so happy i was when did you feel that you had the title wrapped up well after the first round i knew i had him when he uh he uh started getting kind yeah start getting tired okay catches is it

true you're going to marry d.d and avoid the army oh man what you're talking about cassius clay the newly crowned heavyweight champion of the world announced that he had converted to the islamic faith and taken the islamic name muhammad ali cassius clay is a name no more is that right yes sir it's muhammad ali muhammad means worthy of all praises and ali means most high in the asian african language how long have you had the name well for about two weeks now there was anybody special gave you the name yes sir my leading teacher the

most honorable elijah muhammad is this part of the religious beliefs and concerns yes sir i'm going to soon take a world tour and i'll be going out through asia and africa egypt the holy city mecca and all of these will holy lands you must be of the islamic faith and you must have a islamic name to enter the gates with an ali victory the stage was set for a list and rematch however the champ was temporarily sidelined by a hernia operation and the wba's reluctance to sanction a second fight champ i think the first thing

we'd like to know is how you're feeling after that operation and some rest now feeling real fine uh i was out of the bed in two weeks and i've been walking and i'm getting stronger each day and i should be ready to go in light training in about seven weeks that's what i think everybody would like to know about seven weeks now we have a projected date on the fight for some time in april yeah we know nothing about that somebody came up with that statement but the managers and everybody cleared it up and told

them nobody can tell me when to fight i'm the champ i'll set my own dates and we need the doctor's word anyway before we start and then i'll have to see how i'm feeling so uh seven weeks will put you probably somewhere in february how long if you started training in february after that would you be in shape to fight about a month of light work and gradually and then then after that go into hard training lastly fight should come off in about four months i would like to see it in my four months uh

chevallo is supposed to fight floyd patterson now oh yes he will annihilate the rabbit no wash woman will he now lead the rabbit you mean you think chivalro can beat patterson yes well if chavalo does beat patterson that will sort of eliminate patterson and i i know in the past couple of years you've always wanted a shot at patterson well uh paterson yeah if he win but if he don't qualify then chevaldo would be a man i predicted shavao will knock the rabbit out there's a movement afoot by the wba not to sanction the fight

what would your group do in this situation well i figure the reason they wouldn't want to sanction the son enlisting uh muhammad ali fight again would be because well i beat liston so bad and it looks like that he don't have a chance so they'll just probably find on another contender if they won't recognize listen do you think they could possibly strip your title from you you know they tried to do that once and the whole united nations shook up i went all over asian africa and the world won't know what was happening made the

whole country look bad they are making themselves look awful silly they're making uh people won't respect their judgment by them being a ranking committee who ranked fighters and whose decisions should be expert decisions will this make them look awful bad because the world knows everybody will bear witness beyond the shadow of a doubt that floyd patterson looked like he didn't have a chance against sonny lester the second time been sanctioned and they recognized that bout of floyd patterson was he now laid by johansson seven times in one round he hit the ground they built that

up to be another big fight i'll fight any man in the world i'll beat any man in the world dog jones was good meat but he got beat you didn't complain about who floyd patterson's fault cut and shoot texas roy harris they built that could be a big fight pete water maker never had a professional fight his first professional fight they built that to be a good fight brian london a man that couldn't beat my little brother they promoted that to be a fight obama mud thing now here i am fighting who you said a

monotone who was supposed to be the baddest man in the world now he's nothing what if he's nothing then get me somebody hearing about about possibly not being going on as scheduled uh does that affect your training at all well it could if uh they let me know something like a couple of weeks before the fight but it wouldn't affect me now all i would like to do is see the fight out of the way so we work on the next challenge of floyd patterson and get the boxing game back on the move again i

don't want to waste too much time with dustin and i hope the thing goes off if not in boston somewhere else and soon but it will go off according to the latest news out here and everything will be alright champ how do you feel about your training so far what physical uh shape are you in right now well i'm in i'm just about 75 percent up the hill i have a little more to go i don't really bear down until the last three weeks in boston but i'm really shaping up pretty good now in other

words you're satisfied with your shaping that's right i should be in tip-top condition to retire the barrier this time this will be the greatest prediction in the history of all boxing i've never been wrong i meet sonny nestor in boston massachusetts november the 16th are we going to get them you're going to get them gold stools for them yeah we have some little stools made up the sun is enlisting sit down stools they will also be sold and i want all of you to buy one and file the prediction and i'm always perfect i want

all of you to know listen wait and see sonny liston will be all mine in round nine he must fall in man rumble young man rumba are we going to get him go dance float like a butterfly stand like a bee rumble young man rumble sonny neston sonny listen made two mistakes in his whole life that's when he fought me the first time and that's when he fights me the second time and i want to say one thing to the people out there and taller miami channel 4 made me great that's why i stopped listing

in eight [Music] women if you get by floyd patterson how about ernie terrell uh some of these others george chavallo are they still in your list whoever the world and the public wants me to fight as you know i'm a confident man i don't believe i can't see anyone beating me how much predictions up to date for the past four years have been accurate i would fight who the public won't submit a fight and right now all over the world i've toured scotland sweden london bermuda british honduras virgin islands and puerto rico all of these

countries i've visited in asia and africa egypt and all over the world here in america from the slums of harlem to the slums of georgie i've been all around talking to the children and the old people and everybody wants to see patterson so patterson is next and then i'll take another world tour after patterson to see who they want to see next and whoever the world wants me to fight in line i'll fight the late 1960s proved difficult for ali while his fight record remained perfect his personal life was in shambles his first marriage ended

in divorce and his life was threatened when he spoke out publicly against malcolm x do you feel your recent marital difficulty will affect your career in any way no that's nothing that's out of the way or that'll soon be over we rather not discuss it in public it's in the courts they'll handle it but this is just another small problem that will soon be out of my way has anything occurred in a connection with this that satisfied you in any way no no nothing nothing can stop me as you know i've been under all type

controversy all kinds of pressures not only by one individual but by rumors about hundreds of malcolm x's boys coming to assassinate me in the ring 300 policemen guarding me people taking insurance on my life nothing worries me this is nothing but a small thing that will soon be out of the way after your last fight there was a lot of controversy which came up and now they want to have federal boxing legislation how do you feel about that well i don't know what are they going to do whatever they're going to do they're going to

do i'm nothing but uh but the champion and i can't really stop nothing as far as that's concerned but whatever they think is best they'll do are you in favor do you think it'll help boxing well i don't think honest thing i think will help boxing is what i've been saying and i'll keep saying is we need more white hopes more good white contenders that's the only thing will help boxing we would like to fight here in the united states but if not i guess we'll have to go somewhere else is montreal a sudden move

or have your people been negotiating with montreal well i really don't know i've been here on this end waiting to see what happened and i got a call today saying that it will be in montreal on the 29th was it was it very important that you fight this month uh in march well a lot of where it was well it was important because of the time and uh it would be the best time to fight there wasn't much activity going on here in the country and i've been training and terrell and i and everybody has

invested a lot of money we would like to see it go over well i need a lot of training for all of my fights i take nobody cheat the george cavallo fight prove that if i wasn't in the i wasn't in my best shape but if i had taken him lightly then uh he would have probably beat me because it went 15 and he ended up strong and i had to work a little harder than him all the way to keep going only conditioned and did it but i have about five weeks to get ready

for this one and i'm sure i'll be good and ready by that time are you fighting so soon because uh you think that you might be in the army and you won't be able to fight for a while no i'm not talking about that [Applause] i don't really know who i'm going to fight but i wouldn't like to fight aaron and terrell since he seemed to be the top man i'm still trying to talk it into these people's head to listen to me they don't have a man around the whoop man i want three men

a night so that we can have a good show and the people can see something for the money three men a night and i'm trying to get ernie terrell or doug jones and say uh brian london or tad spencer or knight train lincoln who's ever the top three men i'm on three in one night but really i don't know who i'm gonna fight next and i really don't see nothing around good enough to get me a warm up heavyweight champion cassius clay goes through the final stages of training for the defense of his title against

ernie terrell a rugged sparring partner tosses some heavy leather at the champ forcing him to give ground experts predict that terrell will prove to be the toughest opponent for cassius so far [Music] clay's draft board says he could be drafted in february two appeals for deferment have already been turned down gaseous cassius rattles off a bit of dog reverse for the challenger terrell he's gone around claiming to be the real heavyweight challenge but after i'm finished he'll just be a trip now i'm not saying this just to be funny but i'm fighting ernie because he

needs the money ernie's answer will come in the ring at the houston astrodome in the late 1960s muhammad ali made repeated requests for deferment in the military draft all requests were denied fire stories moved in the last couple of days about your reclassification in the draft and how do you feel about them well i know just about as much as you know i mean all i'm doing is reading too do you think that if your name was just plain joe blow instead of muhammad ali the heavyweight champ of the world that your reclassification in the

draft might have been a different situation well i don't know i imagine the government's fair about anything they do like that i don't imagine they would do nothing intentionally it's just a law so i just cross those bridges when i get to them ali could no longer sidestep the question of the military draft in april of 1967 he was called upon to serve the country in the vietnam war former world heavyweight champion cassius clay refused to take the oath of induction into the army the black muslim fighter who's also known as muhammad ali was immediately

stripped of his title by the world boxing association clay insisted that he is an ordained minister and should be exempt clay also charges race discrimination by the houston draft board he faces federal prosecution and a possible five-year prison sentence plus ten thousand dollars fine later martin luther king praised clay's courage nine top negro athletes meet with cassius clay to discuss his anti-draft stand they include bill russell lou alcindor and former pro footballer jimmy brown says brown after the meeting the champ is sincere in his religious beliefs he believes in his religion and his stand is

based wholly on that clay's induction refusal cost him his title and he faces a possible five-year prison sentence he claims exemption as a minister of the black muslim faith deposed heavyweight champion cassius clay at a federal court in houston is found guilty of violating the u.s selective service laws by refusing to be inducted clay contended his status as a black muslim minister made him exempt from the draft released on bail he faces a possible 18-month wait for an appeal decision stripped of his title ali lost three years at the apex of his boxing career his

refusal to serve in vietnam also cost him the public support [Music] with ali sidelined joe frazier tore through the heavyweight division and earned the championship title [Applause] with a supreme court reversal in the works the wba voted to reinstate ali setting the stage for his return to the ring in 1970 well really to tell you the truth for the first time in public it wasn't me who asked them i wouldn't lower myself to ask them to reinstate me it was uh my managers and angelo dundee and a few of the boxing people got together and

written it up and asked me to okay and i figured it was all right but i never asked nobody that makes a little sense because i can recall you once telling me that you're the champ everybody knows it and uh you don't need the wba or anybody else this is only the request of my managers they wanted to draw up a little letter and wanted me to okay it i have my signature on nothing you don't care one way or another no i know you keep on world affairs you're a figure of the world yourself

what did you think of the pope coming to this country oh yes i watched that on television yesterday and one thing it really surprised me he got more attention in new york he gets more attention now than i get he quickly gained confidence with knockout wins over jerry quarry and oscar bonavena a showdown between ali and frazier was inevitable both men were unbeaten and the press dubbed their match the fight of the century show you what i'm going to do is your phrase yo i reckon joe frazier scares you newsmen and all these little people

walking around who don't know boxing but look at my face i'm the original champion a veteran of 186 fights not a scratch two-time united state golden glove champion two-time united states national aau champion world olympic champion 13 rounds addicted when my men will fall four years out of training a six week notice took frasier's toughest opponents and whooped him easier than he did jerry quarry fought joe frazier and hit him 46 times in the face in the first three rounds of the seven round fight quarry didn't go for three rounds with me and in those

three rounds quarry didn't land one blow why don't they talk about that they just don't want to admit i'm as good as i am you want to pick a round i'll pick the round and everything five minutes before the fight since everybody can't afford 200 seats and 500 seats i'm this is going to be a special privilege just for my fans out there in the tv audience mohamed during these three hard years of all the troubles that you've had did you really think you would ever be going back in there i knew i'd be back

because my record was too good i've had two minute fights i fought all contenders i fought every two months i gave everybody a break at the title i didn't duck nobody look what i'm doing as soon as i got my license i've had two big fights already it seems like yesterday when they gave me my license already bumped off carter and bonavena two tough men i could have lost everything could have got cut never had a chance to get a phrase i put everything on the line cause i'm a true fighting champion so i always

knew i'd be back because the fans and the little people they wanted to see me fight they didn't care what i believe and they know i've never been beat and you can't take no title with no pen and i knew that only in due time my record was so strong i was so good at too many world followers i knew i had to come back do you regret at all the trouble that your beliefs got you into regret no trouble i don't regret nothing has ever happened to me i just regret it because i'm gonna

take it all out on joe frazier right on his nose phrase is just so easy to hit and he can't back up he's got no boxing ability whatsoever he's just like like i was imitating that's all they do phrases don't even back up two steps frasier don't have a left gel phrase you don't have a right all phrases that is a wild left hook phrase has no defensibility fraser has no timing no reflexes no soul no rhythm when you say no soul what do you mean soul just timing rhythm like a like a freddy oster

a baller dancing you know glad dad the fight of the century proved disappointing for ali the world watched as frasier knocked ali to the canvas in the 15th round and ultimately won by unanimous decision [Music] ollie and frazier met again in 1974. this time ali was victorious with a knockout win in the fifth round right now i'll tell you what i'm going to do i want to rest a few months and i'm going to fight george foreman knock him out and truly retire well invested later in 1974 ali prepared to win back the heavyweight title

against seemingly insurmountable odds opponent george foreman was younger stronger and considered by many to be unbeatable 32 year old ali was given little hope of victory i've never saw george fulman tired yet jaws full moon lately haven't heard the man say round four round seven round nine round thirteen last round then i want to see i can't take nothing george but i haven't saw george in a good scuffle yet see when i fight a man i don't rely on hitting power when i first started listening hidden power didn't mean nothing because usually i'm fixing what

they can't find under here so i never worry about hitting power so a man like george that comes out with those that's big they throw me draws them back hey watch out from the left hit them right get ready come another level that's what i hear when you're throwing them so when the man so i don't believe that i'm going to be knocked out and punched around our experience is why i know i'll win millions watch the fight as it was beamed out on satellite around the world ali was in top form as he used

his famous rope-a-dope to tire the big man before knocking him out in the eighth round although ali fought well beyond what many considered to be his prime he retired with a formidable record of 37 knockouts 56 wins and only 5 losses beyond retirement ali continued on a personal fight this time against parkinson's disease the champ did not let the disease slow him down and stayed in the public eye as he continued with humanitarian endeavors in 1984 ali was instrumental in negotiating a release of american hostages in iran you were hoping i know to really use

that recognition as a pressure that's all i really had because i realized that the people who were holding them in the early 20s and with kids when i was doing my fighting i met those people once in the outside baby about 10 years ago the so-called gorillas and they all like shooting rifles and carrying them around and i was hoping that maybe some of those may be connected with the present problem and would contact us and at least hear us here i plead it is uh just it's frightening over there were you scared well not

really if we were having dinner one day in the hotel we could hear bums falling and it's like just long displays no law and order gangs on the street children carrying rifles and seeing bummed up buildings around you and gangs against gangs and it was really it was much tougher than boxing i should say to you assalamu alaikum because since boxing and your retirement you have been a minister you pray five times a day have you said your prayers this morning before coming here i'm just checking on you and you're really carrying the word islam

to israel none of them are not boxing this is my main mission to do all i can to propagate ellison make the people conscious of our great legion honorable wife dean mohammed and the mission people makes the things that you say muslims think of gorillas bombs hostages commanding gaddafi and this is a piece of religion islam mean peace greetings i salaam alaikum is peace and so this is what i want to promote now you weren't really over there to make a comeback herbert wasn't setting up a match over there for you was it i'm bill

are you serious [Laughter] ali showing the effects of advanced parkinson's disease captured the essence of the olympic spirit as he bravely lit the ceremonial tour to the opening of the 1996 summer olympics in atlanta georgia muhammad ali was once again a champion to millions of people around the world and left no question as to who was truly the greatest [Music] you