Transcript Muhamed Ali Remembered

"I shook up the world! I shook up the world! »
"Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black
men beat each other up."
"Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it, and
I didn't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name,
and I insist people use it when speaking to me and
of me."
Some Quotes to Remember

"Nobody has to tell me that this is a serious business. I'm not
fighting one man. I'm fighting a lot of men, showing a lot of
'em, here is one man they couldn't defeat, couldn't conquer.
My mission is to bring freedom to 30m black people. »

"I am America. I am the part you won't recognise, but get
used to me. Black, confident, cocky. My name, not yours.
My religion, not yours. My goals, my own. Get used to me."

"We were brought here 400 years ago for a job. Why don't
we get out and build our own nation and quit begging for
jobs? We'll never be free until we own our own land. We're
40m people and we don't have two acres that's truly ours."
The politics

"I am America. I am the part you won't recognise, but get
used to me. Black, confident, cocky. My name, not yours.
My religion, not yours. My goals, my own. Get used to me."

"We were brought here 400 years ago for a job. Why don't
we get out and build our own nation and quit begging for
jobs? We'll never be free until we own our own land. We're
40m people and we don't have two acres that's truly ours."
The politics

"I'm gonna fight for the prestige, not for me, but to uplift my little
brothers who are sleeping on concrete floors today in America.
Black people who are living on welfare, black people who can't
eat, black people who don't know no knowledge of themselves,
black people who don't have no future."

"I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin'
hell, but as long as they ain't free, I ain't free."

"What's really hurting me - the name Islam is involved, and
Muslim is involved and causing trouble and starting hate and
violence. Islam is not a killer religion, Islam means peace. I
couldn't just sit home and watch people label Muslims as the
reason for this problem." In the aftermath of the 2001 World
Trade Center attacks.
On refusing to serve in the
United States Army:

"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000
miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown
people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in
Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human
rights?"

"Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Viet
Cong ever called me nigger."

"I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and
burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination
of white slave masters of the darker people the world over."
The character

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can't hit what his
eyes can't see.

It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am

"I am the greatest!"

"I'm not the greatest, I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock
'em out, I pick the round. I'm the boldest, the prettiest, the most
superior, most scientific, most skilfullest fighter in the ring today."

"People don't realise what they had until it's gone. Like President
Kennedy, nobody like him. Like The Beatles, there will never be
anything like them. Like my man, Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of
boxing."
The character

"I don't want to fight to be an old man... I'm gonna only fight
five or six years, make me two or three million dollars and
quit fighting."

"It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am."

"The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain't ashamed
of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a
month? I said I was 'The Greatest', I never said I was the
smartest!"

"At home I am a nice guy - but I don't want the world to
know. Humble people, I've found, don't get very far."
The character

"When you can whip any man in the world, you never know
peace."

"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20
has wasted 30 years of his life."

"Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from
something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a
vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to
be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But
the will must be stronger than the skill."

"If you even dream of beating me, you better wake up and
apologise."
The character

"I love to see my name where everyone can read it. Someday
I'm gonna see it in bright, bright lights."

"I won't miss fighting - fighting will miss me."

"Superman don't need no seatbelt."

"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my
hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark."
The character

"Maybe my Parkinson's is God's way of reminding me what
is important. It slowed me down and caused me to listen
rather than talk. Actually, people pay more attention to me
now because I don't talk as much."

"I always liked to chase the girls. Parkinson's stops all that.
Now I might have a chance to go to heaven."

"Will they ever have another fighter who writes poems,
predicts rounds, beats everybody, makes people laugh,
makes people cry and is as tall and extra pretty as me?"
Africa

Muhammad Ali was idolised across Africa for his prowess
in the boxing ring and for championing the rights of black
people.

Following his funeral on Friday, the BBC looks at his
relationship with the continent

Ali embarked on his first African tour in 1964, saying: "I
want to see Africa and meet my brothers and sisters." His
visit began in Ghana, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa
to win independence from a European power.

"I am glad to tell our people that there are more things to be
seen in Africa than lions and elephants. They never told us
about your beautiful flowers, magnificent hotels, beautiful
houses, beaches, great hospitals, schools, and universities,"
he said.

Ali spent time in 1974 training in Kinshasa, built on the
banks of the Congo River, getting acclimatised to its tropical
climate and attracted crowds of fans when he went out in
the city.

His itinerary included Nigeria, Africa's most populous state,
where crowds welcomed him with chants of "king of the
world".

The African trip came in a historic year for Ali - he defeated
Sonny Liston to become world champion, dropped his
"slave name" of Cassius Clay and converted to Islam.
Sonny Liston
The 22-year-old also visited Egypt,
bridging the racial divide in Africa.
He fused politics and religion, giving the black power
salute while shouting in Arabic "God is great" at the
pyramids in Cairo.

He visited Egypt again in 1986.

He once said that if a boxer was to be big, he had to be a
Muslim "or else he won't get to nations like Indonesia,
Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, and
Turkey - those are all countries that don't usually follow
boxing".
Kinshasa

His most famous visit to the continent was in 1974 to
Kinshasa, capital of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of
Congo), for the Rumble in the Jungle fight in which he
reclaimed the world title after defeating George Foreman.

Zaire's then ruler Mobutu Sese Seko arranged the fight,
which increased Ali's fame and brought the country to the
world's attention.

Mobutu agreed to pay $5m (equivalent to approximately
$24m today) to each fighter.

The fight was held at 04:00 local time. Millions watched
around the globe on television as Ali entered the ring
whipping up the 60,000 crowd, who chanted "Ali, boma ye",
a phrase in the local Lingala language meaning "Ali, knock
him out".

He visited Sudan in 1988, four years after he was diagnosed
with Parkinson's disease, to spread the message of Islam as a
religion of peace. Here he prays in a Sufi mosque in
Khartoum.

South Africa's first black President Nelson Mandela, who
had also been a boxer, once said: "Muhammad Ali was not
just my hero, but the hero of millions of young, black South
Africans because he brought dignity to boxing." The pair
met in 2005.