Muhammad Ali: A Tribute to the Greatest

by Thomas Hauser

  ANGELO DUNDEE: Muhammad was always susceptible to the left hook; against Sonny Banks, against Henry Cooper, against Joe Frazier, whoever. You see, no matter how great a fighter is, he always has flaws. Muhammad’s problem was that left hook. He always had a problem evading it.

  A. J. LIEBLING [WRITING IN THE NEW YORKER ABOUT CASSIUS CLAY BEING DECKED BY SONNY BANKS]: The poet went down.

  MICHAEL KATZ [SPORTSWRITER]: In the early years, you couldn’t touch him. The only legitimate criticism—at least people thought it was legitimate—was that he had no chin because he went down against Henry Cooper; he went down against Sonny Banks. We didn’t know how good his chin was because, except for the few times he got caught off balance, nobody was hitting him.

  HAROLD CONRAD [FIGHT PUBLICIST]: I had a gimmick worked out with Ali. It was a magic trick we did together. He’d be someplace with someone and he’d tell them about a friend of his named Mr. Wizard who had mental telepathy powers. Mr. Wizard was me. Ali would tell this person to pick any card out of a deck of cards, and if they telephoned Mr. Wizard, he’d be able to identify the card they were holding. So they’d pick a card—say, the four of clubs. Then Ali would telephone, and we had this code. As soon as I answered the phone, Ali would say, “Could I speak to Mr. Wizard.” I’d go, “Clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades.” And when I hit the right suit, Ali would say, “Hello, this is Muhammad.” Then I’d start counting. “Two, three, four, five,” all the way up to ace. And when I hit the right card, Ali would say, “Mr. Wizard; I’ve got someone here who doesn’t believe in you. I’m gonna put them on the phone, so you can show them how powerful you are.” It worked every time. No one could ever figure out how we did it.

  MUHAMMAD ALI [ON JOHN F. KENNEDY]: I liked him. He tried to do good, and I liked his personality. When he was killed, I felt empty. I got a chill all over. I frightened me that something like that could happen to the president of the entire country right in the center of the country.

  BOOKER JOHNSON [ENTOURAGE MEMBER]: Malcolm X is the one who really inspired him to become a Muslim. Malcolm was the most eloquent speaker we had among us, and in those days he was telling us something new. He gave us courage, a feeling of independence, and this is what inspired Ali. But Ali had to be taught the religion slowly. You don’t just give a baby steak because, if you do, it will choke him.

  DICK SCHAAP: One night—and this goes back to when Ali was Cassius Clay—I took him and his parents on a drive around Manhattan. It was snowing and, somewhere downtown on Second Avenue, we stopped for gas. The station attendant was a huge black man; six-foot-six, maybe taller, real mean-looking. While he was putting gas in the tank, he was wiping snow off the windshield. Finally, I turned to Cassius and said, “Tell him that’s good enough; close the gas tank, and we’ll get going.” So Clay leaned out the window and said, “Hey, man; that’s good enough.” And the guy answered, “Who’s doing this; you or me?” At that point, all Cassius said back was, “You’re the boss, man. You’re the boss.” I couldn’t let that pass; so as soon as he pulled his head back inside the car, I said, “Hey, wait a minute. All night long, you’ve been telling me you’re the greatest fighter who ever lived; you’re going to be heavyweight champion of the world; you’re not afraid of Sonny Liston. How can you let this guy talk to you like that?” And Cassius told me, “That man looks meaner than Sonny Liston.”

  BETTY SHABAZZ [WIFE OF MALCOLM X]: Cassius Clay asked my husband if he would bring our whole family down to Miami Beach [for the first Liston fight]. It was supposed to be our anniversary present. I was expecting, so my husband had to do some prodding to get me on a plane and to get our three little girls ready, but of course we went. Cassius was a nervous wreck. He had a great deal of apprehension about fighting Sonny Liston. But my husband talked to him like a little brother and helped him conquer his fear. And this was after Malcolm had been cautioned not to go. He was told by Elijah Muhammad that, if he went, it would be on his own as an individual, not representing the Nation of Islam; and that, if he had good sense, he would stay away because there was no way Cassius Clay could win. But Malcolm felt that, if Cassius Clay was totally focused on the fight, he could win. And one of the things he said to me was, “If he loses, he should not be alone.”

  ATTALLAH SHABAZZ [DAUGHTER OF MALCOLM X]: I remember going down to Florida to celebrate Muhammad’s birthday in January of 1964. The fight against Liston hadn’t happened yet. But there was a birthday cake. If it had been a wedding cake, there would have been a bride and groom on top. But on this cake, there was the figure of Ali [then Cassius Clay] made out of sugar with both arms raised in victory standing over Sonny Liston.

  SOL SILVERMAN [THE ATTORNEY APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA TO HEAD A COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING PROFESSIONAL BOXING]: The proposed Cassius Clay versus Sonny Liston heavyweight title fight is a dangerous mismatch which could result in grave injury to the young challenger. Such mismatches not only endanger the overmatched boxer, but degrade boxing from a great sport to a sordid racket.

  CUS D’AMATO: I think that Clay has the equipment with which to beat Liston, provided it’s used intelligently. Clay has speed and maneuverability. And if he employs an unpredictable strategy in applying that speed and maneuverability, I think he’ll be able to confuse Liston and frustrate him and, after accomplishing this, be able to hit him with the kind of punches necessary to win the fight.

  DAVID HALBERSTAM: I remember being very nervous the night Cassius Clay fought Sonny Liston. Clay seemed so young and vulnerable. And I remember caring about what would happen to him, being frightened that a dark shadow would fall over him, because Liston seemed to be what he was supposed to be.

  JACK MCKINNEY [SPORTSWRITER]: The problems Clay had with his vision in the first Liston fight were no accident. The two toughest opponents that Liston faced prior to Clay were Eddie Machen and Cleveland Williams. Machen lost a twelve-round decision to Liston and complained afterward that he’d been bothered by an astringent in his eyes. But he’d fought so poorly that no one believed him. Everyone thought it was just an alibi. And Cleveland Williams gave Liston all kinds of trouble in the first round. I was at that fight, and after the first round there seemed to be a lot of confusion in Sonny’s corner. In fact, he was late coming out for the second round because his mouthpiece wasn’t in. He knocked Williams out in that round. And after the fight, Williams was obviously having trouble seeing. He kept rubbing his eyes. Later on, I kidded Sonny’s cornerman, Joe Polino who was responsible for the mouthpiece, about the confusion. Joe told me, “Someday I’ll explain it to you.” Well, I got my explanation at the first Clay-Liston fight. If you look at a film of what went on in Liston’s corner between the third and fourth rounds of that fight, you’ll see Polino in the ring with Willie Reddish [Liston’s trainer] standing behind him, blocking everyone else’s view. And Polino is at Sonny’s knees, rubbing something on his gloves.

  NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE EDITORIAL ENTITLED “AND THEN THERE WAS CASSIUS” [PUBLISHED ON FEBRUARY 27, 1964; TWO DAYS AFTER CASSIUS CLAY DETHRONED SONNY LISTON]: The clicking shutters; the stampeding crowd; the excited chomp chomp as sportswriters ate their words by the thousands. It was a moment of glory straight from the story-books, as the one who had seemed an impossibly outmatched underdog stood victor over the champion; a moment that might have been wrapped in red, white and blue bunting and warmed the hearts of generations to come. But then there was the voice of Cassius: “I am the greatest! I am the king! I am the greatest”—shrilling to the world in tones that seemed to echo a thousand little Hitlers through all the ages of man, and the magic was gone. Instead of a champion, there was a boastful bully; instead of a sport, a spectacle. And it was sad. For one felt the loss, not only of what might have been a fighter’s finest moment, but the loss of what might have been a hero.

  MALCOLM X: Brother Cassius will never do anything that will in any way tarnish or take away from his image as the heavyweight champion of the world. He is trying his best to live a clean life and pro
ject a clean image. But despite this, you will find that the press is constantly trying to paint him as something other than what he actually is. He doesn’t smoke. He doesn’t drink. He’s never been involved in any trouble. His record is clean. If he was white, they’d be referring to him as the all-American boy.

  BOOKER JOHNSON: Ali’s father felt that he should be the administrator of his son’s affairs. He and I used to argue. I’d tell him, “This is a different situation. You’re dealing with lawyers and accountants, and your son has to have the intellectual equivalent on his side in order to deal successfully with them.” After a while, he settled down and quit talking that he should be the administrator. But for a long time, he felt that he was cut off from his own flesh and blood. It was a shame, because it should be a wonderful feeling for a man to know that his son is such a wonderful achiever and the most famous person in the world. What you should do under those circumstances is be proud of your son and enjoy his glory. But Mr. Clay blew a lot of that feeling. He missed out on a lot of the glory that he could have enjoyed, because he didn’t understand that his son was an organization, his son was an institution. The job of administrator was something that he just wasn’t equipped to handle.

  ROBERT LIPSYTE [SPORTSWRITER]: In the 1950s and 1960s, people talked about sports as one of the few areas where black Americans could make progress. But the truth is, sports was a bastion of the old order. Black athletes could become stars, but they had to do it on the terms of an existing ruling class. They had to be grateful. They shouldn’t go out with white women. They were expected to be dutiful and modest. These were men who oftentimes were egocentric, narcissistic, and very vain. But they knew the drill of dealing with the press. Never talk about yourself; always talk about the team. And now, along comes Muhammad Ali, who breaks all the rules and challenges that order. He’s immodest. He’s not sufficiently grateful to white America. He says what he thinks. And even though he’s celebrated and people are fawning over him, he knows that, as far as white America is concerned, if he were still Cassius Marcellus Clay and not the heavyweight champion of the world, he’d be parking cars.

  ANGELO DUNDEE: I always let Cassius be Cassius and Muhammad be Muhammad.

  ROCKY MARCIANO: It’s a very bad situation now, because there’s a lack of respect for the present champion and that creates a lack of respect for all past champions. Nobody questions my fights; they were all tough ones. But people just don’t treat you the same way since he came along.

  DICK GREGORY [POLITICAL ACTIVIST AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE]: A lot of people were afraid because he changed his name. You can’t change your name. It’s an awful thing to do to change your name. You don’t believe that? Ask Coca-Cola. Tell them to change their name.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: God’s got me here for something. I can feel it. I was born for everything that I’m doing now.

  ANGELO DUNDEE: Ali changed boxing. For a hundred years, the only thing fighters would say was, “I do the fighting; my manager does the talking.” Then Muhammad came along, saying, “Hey, I do the talking. I’m the star. Nobody else talks for me.”

  ROBERT LIPSYTE: Ali understood television. He understood the show, whether it was the poetry, the pre-fight weigh-in, or the fight itself. He was a born showman, brilliant at dramatizing himself. Whether he would have been the same phenomenon without television is hard to say. But he understood what television wanted; that instead of someone coming down, smiling, and shaking hands nicely for still photographers, television wanted the provocateur.

  ANGELO DUNDEE: Every day is like a new toy to Muhammad.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: I don’t usually tell people this because they don’t understand, but I don’t have no fight plan. It would be the worst thing I could do to go in there with my mind all made up. I’ve been fighting since I was a child, and I do everything on instinct. Sometimes I wonder at myself when I see a big fist coming at my head, and my head moves without me thinking and the big fist goes by. I wonder how I did it.

  ANGELO DUNDEE: Ali did things wrong in the ring and made it look like art.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: The minute I’m hit; two steps backward, and I’m on the other side of the ring. Messages race out of my mind—retreat, retreat, danger, danger. I hear the messages and I’m moving away, but I’m still watching and thinking. It don’t take long to clear your mind when your body is right. When you’re in condition, it only takes ten seconds; then you’re usually out of trouble. If he gets too close, just clinch him. Grab him, do anything. Stall for time, don’t let him know you’re stunned. Keep dancing with him like nothing’s wrong. All this happening while the crowd is hollering.

  FERDIE PACHECO [ALI’S RING PHYSICIAN FOR MOST OF HIS BOXING CAREER]: With the young Ali, boxing was truly “the sweet science.”

  MUHAMMAD ALI: I’m so fast, I’ve got moves you can’t even see.

  ROY JONES: People talk about Ali’s defense, but I think his offense was the key to his success. When Ali was young, you didn’t have time to think against him. He was always putting pressure on you because he could strike at any time. It was like, what his opponent did didn’t seem to matter. And he had the safest jab I’ve ever seen because he didn’t over-commit. He used his jab to keep you away and keep you in range until he hit you.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: I don’t know anything about fighting, really. Only about me fighting.

  JOE PATERNO [FOOTBALL COACH]: Ali would have made a great linebacker and an outstanding tight end. I don’t know if he had the foot speed for any of the other skill positions, but his strength, quickness of hands, and balance were awfully good. Now maybe football wouldn’t have been the right game for him. Certainly, at age eighteen or nineteen, he’d have needed guidance as to what he could and couldn’t do as far as alienating his teammates was concerned. I’m liberal politically, but I’m conservative in terms of lifestyle and how I coach the team. And here at Penn State, we have a rule about players getting along with each other. You can only say you’re sorry so many times. But I don’t want to underestimate Ali’s ability to accommodate any situation. If he’d made a commitment to it, I’m sure he would have been a team player. I know, I’d have loved the chance to coach him.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: Most black people in this country are mentally dead, and we don’t wake up easy. It takes something like an earthquake to wake up our people. Oh, maybe black folks will get upset about something and burn a building or two, but in a couple of days, we forget.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: We were taught when we were little children that Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow. Then we heard about Snow White. White Owl cigars. White Swan soap. White Cloud tissue. White Rain hair rinse. White Tornado floor wax. White Plus toothpaste. All the good cowboys ride white horses and wear white hats. The President lives in the White House. Jesus was white. The Last Supper was white. The angels is white. Miss America is white. Even Tarzan, the King of the Jungle in Africa, is white.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: Things that are solid, black people don’t think about that. They just dance and sing and go to church and shout. We never thought about doing nothing for ourselves. We depend on white people to grow our food and make our clothes. Used to be a sign on Miami Beach that said, “No dogs, Niggers, and Jews allowed.” Jews got mad and united and bought the damn beach.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: I got tired of watching black entertainers on TV. Diana Ross married a white man. Lena Horne married a white man. Leslie Uggams married a white man. Lou Rawls married a white woman. I said to myself, if God will just let me be big, I’ll do it different. James Brown and Sidney Poitier and Diana Ross and Lena Horne and Eartha Kitt; them niggers don’t talk to black people. They don’t come through Alabama and talk to people. Niggers get big, and then they forget you.

  TOM HOOVER [A FRIEND]: Ali’s treatment of women when he was young isn’t something that should be emulated. But the things he did right were more important than the things he did wrong. He made black women feel good about being black the same way he made black men feel good about themselves. He made b
lack women feel every bit as beautiful and desirable as white women.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: Whenever black athletes want to do something, white people run to Joe Louis, and Joe Louis always talks like the boss wants him to. Joe makes himself look real ignorant when he attacks me for standing up for my people. If Joe Louis don’t like what I’m doing, he should discuss it with me behind closed doors. But instead, Joe Louis is making himself an Uncle Tom for white people.

  JOE LOUIS: Clay has a million dollars worth of confidence and a dime’s worth of courage. He can’t punch; he can’t hurt you; and I don’t think he takes a good punch. I’d rate him with Johnny Paycheck, Abe Simon, and Buddy Baer. A lot of guys would have beaten him if he was around when I was. I would have whipped him.

  MUHAMMAD ALI: What’s this about Joe Louis beating me? Slow-moving shuffling Joe Louis beat me? He may hit hard, but that don’t mean nothing if you can’t find nothing to hit. What’s he gonna do when I’m jumping and sticking and moving? And don’t say I can only do it for a minute, because I can keep it up for fifteen rounds, three minutes a round. Now how is Joe Louis gonna get to me? Would I just quit dancing that night and stand there and let him hit me? Joe Louis, you’re really funny.