Muhammad Ali Boxer Quotes

Allah is the Greatest. I'm just the greatest boxer

This is the legend of Cassius Clay, The most beautiful fighter in the world today. He talks a great deal, and brags indeed-y, of a muscular punch that's incredibly speed-y. The fistic world was dull and weary, But with a champ like Liston, things had to be dreary. Then someone with color and someone with dash, Brought fight fans are runnin' with Cash. This brash young boxer is something to see And the heavyweight championship is his des-tin-y. This kid fights great; he’s got speed and endurance, But if you sign to fight him, increase your insurance. This kid's got a left; this kid's got a right, If he hit you once, you're asleep for the night. And as you lie on the floor while the ref counts ten, You’ll pray that you won’t have to fight me again. For I am the man this poem’s about, The next champ of the world, there isn’t a doubt. This I predict and I know the score, I’ll be champ of the world in ’64. When I say three, they’ll go in the third, 10 months ago So don’t bet against me, I’m a man of my word. He is the greatest! Yes! I am the man this poem’s about, I’ll be champ of the world, there isn’t a doubt. Here I predict Mr. Liston’s dismemberment, I’ll hit him so hard; he’ll wonder where October and November went. When I say two, there’s never a third, Standin against me is completely absurd. When Cassius says a mouse can outrun a horse, Don’t ask how; put your money where your mouse is! I AM THE GREATEST!

Anything the mind can conceive, the body can do.

Elijah Muhammad announced that Cassius Clay had renounced his name and taken another. From now on he would be known as Muhammad Ali. Mohammad means ‘worthy of all praise’. Ali means ‘the greatest.’ To journalists who refused to use his new name he declared ‘I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.

He has made it possible for me to help change the history of manager/boxer relationships and is forever encouraging me, not only to give the best performance to the people, but to be a part of the struggles of the people, to be concerned with the progress of the people and to stand for the principles of peace, justice and equality—to show that in a profession which is mainly known for brutality and blood, a man can have nobility and dignity. It is not only I who owes Herbert Muhammad a debt of gratitude, it is the entire boxing and athletic world.

Commentators observed that he moved in the ring ‘with lightning speed, firing left and rights in stunning combinations’. This would later become enshrined in boxing folklore as the ‘Ali shuffle.

King and Ali were not willing allies. Doctor King denounced the Nation of Islam for encouraging African Americans to abandon Christianity. He criticized it for its refusal to include Whites in any resolution of civil rights issues. He declared that ‘the hatred and despair of the black nationalist’ was inimical to the cause, which should be based on love.

Sherman Jackson, a Muslim scholar from the University of Southern California said of Ali’s passing ‘Something solid, something big, beautiful and life-affirming has left this world.

Clay’s quick, light boxing style – ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’ – was deemed inadequate to beat Liston. The night before the fight, Harvey Jones, the sparring partner of the young man already known as the ‘Louisville Lip’, presented a poem by Clay. Clay comes out to meet Liston and Liston starts to retreat, If Liston goes back an inch farther he'll end up in a ringside seat. Clay swings with a left, Clay swings with a right, Just look at young Cassius carry the fight. Liston keeps backing but there's not enough room, It's a matter of time until Clay lowers the boom. Then Clay lands with a right, what a beautiful swing, And the punch raised the bear clear out of the ring. Liston still rising and the ref wears a frown, But he can't start counting until Sonny comes down. Now Liston disappears from view, the crowd is getting frantic But our radar stations have picked him up somewhere over the Atlantic. Who on Earth thought, when they came to the fight, That they would witness the launching of a human satellite. Hence the crowd did not dream, when they laid down their money, That they would see a total eclipse of Sonny.

And again he has said ‘Malcolm was the first to discover the truth, that color doesn’t make a man a devil.  It is the heart, soul and mind that define a person’.

One of the challengers was Henry Cooper in Britain. After felling Ali with a left hook, Cooper fended off a series of blows that injured his left eye. With his opponent covered in blood, Ali continued to jab at the injured eye. It was to be a foretaste of the merciless attack on Terrell in 1967.

In its ruling the Court declared that ‘moral and ethical objection to war was as valid as religious objection.’ The decision was unanimous. Politically and socially the decision was dynamite. Opposition to the war in Vietnam was mounting, though support for it was still strong, and conscientious objectors were empowered. Ali’s resistance to the draft contributed powerfully to the energy of the Civil Rights Movement.

He declared that ‘the hatred and despair of the black nationalist’ was inimical to the cause, which should be based on love.

In your struggle for freedom, justice and equality, I am with you,’ said Ali. ‘I came to Louisville because I could not remain silent while my own people, many I grew up with, many I went to school with, many my blood relatives, were being beaten, stomped and kicked in the streets simply because they want freedom, and justice and equality in housing.

Indeed, one might make the argument that had Muhammad Ali been in the ring in the present day he would never have risen to iconic status. Instead he would have been labeled a racist and a hater. Back then however the concept of Black Supremacism turned America on its head, and perhaps provided a mirror by which White America could see itself.

The fight itself was unspectacular. Berbick was not considered an exceptional fighter. He seemed to be sparing Ali simply for the sake of keeping the fight going. But in the last three rounds Berbick took total control of the ring without Ali delivering a single blow. The fight was decided unanimously for Berbick. Afterwards Ali said ‘I think I'm too old.

3) Before the 1974 fight with George Foreman: ‘Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.

4) On life: ‘Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don't let yourself believe it will happen to you.

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” –Muhammad Ali Legendary American professional boxer and activist

Carmichael’s volkish black nationalism and creation of new values required, as the Black Muslims insisted, shedding a false enslaving identity for a true (i.e., authentic) one rooted in black Africa. This included shedding that most obvious sign of identity, one’s name. So just as Malcolm Little dropped his “slave name” for a simple X, representing his lack of identity in a white racist society, the boxer Cassius Clay reemerged as Muhammad Ali, the basketball star Lew Alcindor as Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and the beat poet LeRoi Jones as Imamu Amiri Baraka (ignoring for the moment that Islamic names reflected an identity imposed by an earlier slave-owning elite, the Arabs). Carmichael himself became Kwame Touré, after two African dictators of the sixties, Sekou Touré of Guinea and Du Bois’s failed Pan-African savior, Kwame Nkrumah.