I’m really frightened until the first two or three punches. What’s My Name? Muhammad Ali ***** 2019
When he walks into the gymnasium in Miami beach you see it’s a happy air about it … This is no usual fighter. ibid. Angelo Dundee
My $1,000,000 Getaway by Cassius Clay. ibid. Sports Illustrated from cover
The night before it’s hard to sleep. ibid. Muhammad
He’s a clean-living young man. ibid. Malcolm X
If I even say the wrong thing, it makes news. (Boxers: Ali & Say) ibid. Muhammad Ai
Cassius Clay Sentenced Lawyer Plans An Appeal. ibid. newspaper headline
Well don’t worry about it. We’ll be back. ibid. Drew Brown, cornerman post-Frazier fight
He has a broken jaw. He is a broken man. ibid. Howard Cosell, post-Norton fight
This is the most joyous scene every seen in the history of boxing. Muhammad Ali has done it! The great man has done it! ibid. post-Foreman II fight, UK commentary
I think Kenny Norton is crying. ibid. post-Norton II fight, US commentary
The Greatest is Gone. ibid. cover Time magazine
Ali again is in complete control. ibid. Spinks II US fight commentary
I’m happy to be getting out. I mean, it’s been hell. ibid. Ali
And the wise man is he or she who knows their life purpose. ibid.
There are probably no great compliments that I could pay my next guest that he hasn’t already paid himself. But I happily join him and millions of others – he’s without one of the quartz figures the world has ever known. Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes ***** Cavett, Sky 2020
The things that you all have done to us is worse than the devil you told us about underground. ibid. Ali
Watching Dick Cavett – it was some of the most memorable times I remember on television – I remember watching Dick Cavett and Ali. ibid. Reverend Al Sharpton
Everybody thought that Liston was going to destroy him. ibid.
After winning the heavyweight championship, Muhammad Ali successfully defended the title nine times between May 1965 and March 1967. ibid. caption
He felt an obligation to uplift blacks, and he saw the Nation of Islam as a vehicle to do it. ibid. Reverend Al Sharpton
People dying and being shot … I just feel so guilty laughing and joking like everything is so rosy when people are hungry and can’t find work, and out of work, and getting being put out of apartments … I’m just dedicated to it. ibid.
We’ve been in jail four hundred years. (Boxers: Heavyweights & Black Culture) ibid.
He’s perfect. He’s not as outspoken as Malcolm. He more willing to give the Party line. ibid. Randy Roberts
Sell a man as merchandise
On his body, put a price,
So my friends, it’s easy to tell,
White man’s heaven, black man’s hell. ibid. Muhammad sings
When Ali called him [Frazier] an Uncle Tom, it was cruel and it was personal. Now, Ali had done similar things with other opponents, but not like this … His taunting of Frazier was over the line. ibid.
When you saw me go down, it was hard … I was quite sure I was winning on points. ibid. Ali to Cavett re Frazier fight
From the comeback fight with Jerry Quarry in 1970 through the third Joe Frazier fight in 1975, Ali fought 22 times. ibid. caption
That picture there [Life magazine cover] that’s his defiance. I am not just a boxer, I’m bigger than boxing. I represent you, you, you and you. Muhammad Ali: A Life in Ten Pictures, Johnny Nelson, BBC 2021
The boy who would become Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. He was christened Cassius Marcellus Clay junior. ibid.
Cassius Clay took up boxing at the age of 12. Clay was a gifted fighter and climbed through the amateur ranks during his teens, winning a series of regional and national titles. ibid.
But Ali was a different king of champion, more than just a sporting hero … He was in living-rooms all over the world. ibid.
Three short years that they would spend in their lives that destiny created for them – that was their life brotherhood. Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali, Malcolm’s daughter, Netflix 2021
They are changing the way the world saw the black man. ibid. Dr Todd Boyd
He [Malcolm X] knew that in the battle to win the heart of Muhammad Ali he had lost. ibid. Randy Roberts
He said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of his greatest regrets. ibid. Muhammad’s daughter
I love boxing. It’s competition stripped down to absolute basics. One fighter against another battling for pride, reputation and the simple right to say, I beat you. For me and for a lot of people the greatest of them all was Muhammad Ali. Frank Skinner on Muhammad Ali, BBC 2022
He was a man of principle, a civil rights activist and a born entertainer. ibid.
Everybody on the globe loves him … he is a universal hero. Ken Burns, Muhammad Ali I: Round One, David The Greatest I, PBS 2021
He was a pioneer, he was a revolutionary, he was a groundbreaker, a guy known simply as The Greatest. ibid. Todd Boyd
He called himself The Greatest and then proved it to the entire world. He was a master at what is called the Sweet Science, the brutal and sometimes beautiful art of boxing. Heavyweight champion at just twenty-two years old, he wrote his own rules, in the ring and in his life. ibid.
He stood on principle even when it cost him his livelihood. ibid.
Reclaimed his title twice and became the most famous man on Earth. ibid.
Papa Cash [father] was also an unrepentant womaniser who could be violent when drunk. ibid.
Dundee was impressed by the teenager’s determination and ambition. ibid.
He had earned his spot on the United States’ Olympic team. ibid.
‘This kid is irresistible’ wrote one reporter. He even made friends with the Russia. ibid.
He had fought more than one hundred amateur bouts and was ready to turn professional ibid.
Each day Clay rose before dawn, laced on a pair of army boots and did his road work. ibid.
Angelo Dundee saw a flawed fighter but one with exceptional hand and foot speed and a tireless work ethic. And he was sure could smooth Clay’s rough edges. Ken Burns, Muhammad Ali II: Round One: The Greatest II
‘Whatever you do, pay to get in.’ ibid. Ali
Although he had struggled against Jones, Clay had much to celebrate. He was now 18-0 and still the number two contender behind the ex-champion Floyd Patterson. The media attention he had tirelessly courted, good or bad, now came in torrents. ibid.
‘I’ll be champion of the world in ’64.’ ibid.
The next day he told a reporter, ‘My religion is Islam. I believe Allah is God.’ Ken Burns, Muhammad Ali III: Round Two: What’s My Name? I
In time Elijah Muhammad and his son will control nearly every aspect of Ali’s life. ibid.
In May, Ali began a month-long tour of African countries. ibid.
Ali was irrefutably in a class of his own. ‘Comparisons with heavyweights of the past are hardly relevant’, wrote one sportswriter. ‘Patterson had as much chance of beating him as The Spirit of St Louis would have had against a jet fighter’. ibid.
‘I don’t like boxing. Boxing mean nothing to me.’ ibid. Ali
By 1966 Muhammad Ali had become the highest paid athlete in the world. ibid.
Another writer called him the worst influence on people since Adolf Hitler. ibid.