I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in a world of my own.
Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.
I always bring out the best in men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I’ll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I’m gonna tell ya, that’s one helluva man, and God bless him.
Never put your money against Cassius Clay, for you will never have a lucky day.
I shook up the world, I shook up the world.
It’s in my blood to be around people while I was training.
I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.
I give thanks to God and to all the people in the U.K. who have supported me over the years.
Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.
There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.
My toughest fight was with my first wife.
I’ll beat him so bad he’ll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.
I figure I’ll be champ for about ten years and then I’ll let my brother take over – like the Kennedys down in Washington.
I had to prove you could be a new kind of black man. I had to show the world.
All of us are so mixed. My great-grandfather was white.
To make America the greatest is my goal, so I beat the Russian and I beat the Pole. And for the U.S.A. won the medal of gold. The Greeks said, ‘You’re better than the Cassius of old.’