All language subtitles for Muhammad.Ali.A.Life.2016.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-TEPES_track3_eng

[narrator]
More than a half century

after Cassius Marcellus
Clay Jr.

burst upon the scene
as a gold medal winner

at the 1960 Summer Olympics,

Muhammad Ali remains
a magical figure

remembered and loved
throughout the world.

Ali brought unprecedented speed
and grace to his sport.

His charm and wit
changed forever

what we expect
a champion to be.

His accomplishments
in the ring

were the stuff of legend.

He was the most beautiful
fighting machine ever assembled

and arguably
the greatest boxer ever.

♪♪

But Ali's life and career

played out as much
on the front page

as on the sports page.

He was a beacon of hope

for oppressed people
all over the world.

Each time he looked
in the mirror

and said "I'm so pretty,"

he was saying
"Black is beautiful"

before that sentiment
became fashionable.

♪♪

When he refused induction
into the United States Army

at the height
of the war in Vietnam,

he stood up
for the principle

that unless there is a very good
reason for killing people,

war is wrong.

♪♪

And there was an aura
of pure goodwill about him.

When Muhammad Ali lit
the Olympic flame

in Atlanta in 1996,

hundreds of millions of people
around the globe watched

and were united
in caring for one man.

♪♪

Ali's greatest contribution
to humanity

might have been
that by his example,

he taught a lot of people
how to love.

♪♪

No athlete has ever
contributed more

to his country or to the world
than Muhammad Ali.

This is his story

as told by some
of the men and women

who understood him best.

You know, everybody's got
an Ali story.

My first awareness
of Muhammad Ali

was watching the second
Joe Frazier fight.

I guess when I was about
12 years old,

I made the mistake
of betting on him

when he fought
the Fight of the Century

against Frazier.

I was 11 years old
when I watched Cassius Clay

dance and fight his way

to an Olympic gold medal
in Rome.

My first awareness
of Muhammad Ali

was at the age of 7.

I was training in the old
Resurrection Boxing Club

in East L.A.

And so he's hitting
the heavy bag,

and he's moving like
there's no tomorrow.

And finally, he senses
that we're looking at him,

and he stops everything
and calls us over.

"Get over here, everybody.

"Let me give you
a life lesson.

"Remember, keep your hands up,
use your footwork,

and keep all your money."

I remember vividly
being a young boy of...

first of all, of 8 or 9,
and just seeing this man

who just looked like
poetry in motion.

He almost seemed to kiss people
with his punches.

You always heard the name
as a kid,

but I wasn't familiar
with his career

the way I became familiar
with it later.

I remember I watched constantly
old fights,

constantly old video,
old interviews.

My first recollections
of Muhammad Ali

is probably
on the playgrounds,

where kids would imitate
Muhammad Ali--

"float like a butterfly,
sting like a bee."

I had been sent down to cover
the fight in Miami Beach

because, as we all knew,

Cassius Clay was going to be
knocked out

in the first round against
Sonny Liston, the champion.

There was no point wasting the
time of a real boxing reporter.

When I met Ali in 1967,

I had a fan's interest
in boxing,

but like many people
of my generation,

I was drawn to Ali.

I remember reading about
this guy named Cassius Clay

who was fighting
in a very stacked

light heavyweight division.

When he won the gold medal,
I kind of took note,

and everybody said,
"This guy is something special."

Here's this guy that
emerges from the Olympics,

the 1960 Olympics,
with a gold medal

in the light
heavyweight division,

and what does he want?

You know, he wants
a tomato-red Cadillac, okay?

He wants to become rich.

He wants to be the youngest
heavyweight champion ever.

You know, this is
what he stands for.

This is what he wants.

You know, I don't think there
was a whole lot more than that.

But it's interesting.

On the route to that goal,
a life happened, you know?

And it's this life that we're
here to talk about today.

[bell dinging]

I had been sent down to cover
the fight in Miami Beach.

I went down there
with the express instructions

of driving my rental car

back and forth
a couple of times

between the arena where
the fight was going to be held

and the nearest hospital,
because "The New York Times"

didn't want me wasting
any deadline time

following Cassius Clay
into intensive care.

I did it, and then
I went on to 5th Street Gym,

where he worked out.

In the 5th Street Gym,
you didn't meet Ali, right?

You met Cassius Clay.

I'm not so sure, again,
that he changed,

you know, that dramatically,
as much as the world

and its perceptions of him
changed dramatically.

There was kind of the rumor
that Cassius Clay

was a member of
the Lost-Found Nation of Islam

and the fact that Malcolm X
was somehow involved.

It wasn't only
the Nation of Islam

that they were fearful of
in regards to Cassius Clay,

but I think that it was
the residue of Jack Johnson,

and, you know, America surely
was not ready for it,

and I think that
the black youth of America

was ready for
Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali represented
the Nation of Islam

under the tutelage
of Elijah Muhammad,

and Elijah Muhammad
taught at a crucial time

in black America

that having ownership

and having dignity and pride

but you have to recognize
and love yourself first

before we can love
or you love anyone else.

That transition was happening
before that Liston fight.

Maybe Ali had some fear
within himself

because he wanted
the brass ring,

he wanted that belt.

This man, who was
principally a boxer,

but also a free spirit
who found himself

with the influence-makers
of the time.

I climbed up these narrow,
twisting stairs

up to the ring, and there were
these four little guys

right behind me, you know?

My age, and they were wearing
these terrycloth cabana suits,

and they were kind of noisy.

When I got to the top,
I asked about, you know,

"Who are those guys?"
and they said,

"Some British band."

All five of us were pushed
into a dressing room

which was locked,

and, of course, it turned out
that it was The Beatles.

I was the fifth Beatle.

[laughing]And they were so angry.

I asked them, you know,

who did they think
was going to win?

"Liston's gonna knock out
that little wanker."

But here we were
for 15 minutes, talking,

and they were cursing
and banging,

and then suddenly,
the door bursts open.

And for the first time,

the five of us
saw Cassius Clay,

and he was
the most beautiful creature

any of us had ever seen.

You know, he was big,
and he glowed, and he smiled,

and he just kind of leaned
into the room, and he said...

"Come on, Beatles,
let's make some money."

And so, they followed him
out of the dressing room

like kindergarten kids,
into the ring.

The Beatles lined up
in a row.

Cassius hit the first one.

They all fell down
like dominos.

They formed a pyramid
to try to hit his chin.

And they capered around
the ring like children.

And then, they all disappeared
into their separate fates...

The Beatles, Cassius Clay,
Malcolm X...

America starting to pull apart
over the Vietnamese War.

The Civil Rights movement
bubbling up,

along with rock 'n' roll.

I think that's the moment
when the '60s truly began.

He did make a huge impact
because of the fact

that there were
very few people of color

that took a stance.

People wanted to say things,

couldn't say things,
and was afraid to say things--

all three above,
Ali said it for them.

People drew to him
like a magnet.

Radicals, revolutionaries,

the ones they were looking for--
the FBI, the CIA--

they all would take a chance
on getting caught

just to talk to this guy.

And he was excited
about that.

He was... He didn't think
of himself so big

that he would draw
these people toward him.

It just would happen,
and he would just--

he would get really excited.

For him to be so boisterous
and being unapologetic,

I think, for a person
of color at that time,

was a huge statement.

From what I understood,
it's that he always wanted

to be part of
the Nation of Islam,

but because he was a boxer,

they really weren't
too ready to accept him.

Well, it was also that if
he had publicly revealed,

you know, on a broad scope,
the fact that he was following

the teachings of Elijah Muhammad
before the fight,

he might never have been
allowed to fight Sonny Liston.

Only Malcolm X
had this sense,

you are going to win
the fight.

Before the fight,
they meet in the locker room,

and Malcolm X says, this is
the cross and the crescent.

This is-- this is
the equivalent to a crusade.

Only he had this forethought,
this confidence,

along with Cassius Clay,
that Clay was gonna win.

Sonny Liston
versus Cassius Clay

is one of those great
heavyweight upsets.

So, Cassius shows up in Miami
a 7-1 underdog.

Everybody thinks
he's going to lose.

He knows Liston's gonna be
overconfident,

so Cassius goes in to fight
and what he feels is,

I'm going to try
to tire him out,

kind of a matador
versus a bull,

and he does this,
and he does it for a round,

then he starts
hitting him with jabs,

and all of a sudden,
Clay hits him, boom.

And there was a spurt of blood
from Sonny's left cheek,

and Sonny literally
pawed at the blood

and looked at it with an
incredulous look on his face,

and I remember, at that moment,
thinking, we're gonna win.

Probably Liston had had
something put on his shoulder

or his glove, and he got it
into Clay's eyes.

He goes back to the corner,
he says to Angelo,

"I can't see.
Cut off the gloves."

And Angelo Dundee says,

"I ain't cuttin'
your gloves off, baby.

"This is for the championship.

Go out there
and stay away from him."

And Liston is
coming after him.

Bundini, who was in his corner,
said, "Yardstick him,

just keep him away,"
but he's taking shots.

But by the middle of the round,
his eyes start to clear

and now Clay starts
working on him,

starts landing punches.

He's all over Liston.

Liston is cut
under both eyes now.

By the end
of the sixth round,

Liston has had it.

Cassius is in his corner,

and he realizes
the fight's over.

Then he's up,
he's running around the ring.

He says, "See? I told you
what I was gonna do!

I'm the greatest."

"I must be the greatest."

From the time Cassius Clay
was 12 years old,

he was saying
that he was the greatest.

As you know, I think
that I'm the greatest.

I'm the greatest.

I tell the people
that I'm the greatest.

I don't think
he believed it then.

I don't think he believed it
at the Olympics.

I don't think
he believed it

early in
his professional career.

When he beat Sonny Liston,
I think the idea

started to take hold
in his mind

that maybe
he was the greatest.

Athletes were supposed
to be reserved,

complimentary
to their opponents,

and not belittle anybody.

I don't care
how small the ring is.

I'll fight the chump
in a telephone booth.

"Not only am I a better boxer,
I'm better looking."

I can't be beat.
I had 180 amateur fights,

22 professional fights,
and I'm pretty as a girl.

[laughter]

"I do everything better
than anybody else. Why?

Because I am the greatest."

Well, this is
a title change in sports.

Most fighters, you know,
"I do my talking in the ring."

But, of course,
he was instant copy.

He turned the sporting scene
in 1964

from black and white
to Technicolor.

Every athlete out there

that you see celebrating

all came from Muhammad Ali.

You know, Ali brought
a lot to boxing.

I mean, he brought
big money to boxing,

he brought, mm...
trash talk to boxing.

I'm not training too hard
for this bum.

They call it trash talking.

They call it getting
in a guy's head.

I predict that tonight
somebody will die

at ringside from shock.

It had a lot to do
with Muhammad Ali.

Being a New Yorker, you know,

we say what's on our mind
all the time.

Ali wasn't a New Yorker,
but he certainly said

what was on his mind,
whether you liked it or not.

I asked him myself, I said,
"Why you do that?"

He said, "You know what?
Let me tell you something.

"I went to a wrestling match
in over Kentucky,

"and this guy,
Gorgeous George,

"pretty white boy,
blonde hair,

"comb his hair,
said he was pretty.

"Two blondes on his arm.

"And they hated him so bad,

"they couldn't wait
to fill up the arena

to see this guy get hurt."

He said,
"That's what I'm talking about."

He said, "And that's
what I'm gonna do.

What I'm doing for boxing."

Suddenly,
this Louisville Lip,

"Hey, Beatles, let's get
together and make some money."

Three days later, he's coming
into the convention center

for an interview
the day afterwards,

and he's somber,

and he's kind of
this Malcolm X.

"I don't have to be
who you want me to be.

I'm free to be
who I want to be."

And the question
I've always wondered was,

was he really free to be
who he wanted to be?

Or was he carried along
in the currents of history?

You have important
figures like Ali

that sets the path for you
to give you the encouragement

to say, "You know what?
I can do it differently."

Controversy
will always sell tickets.

When we talk about boxing,
it's good guys versus bad guys.

Now, we have a guy
who's obnoxiously conceited,

belongs to
a hateful organization,

many people feel.

You got your guy
in the black hat, okay?

Now, we can put that white hat

on whoever you want
to put a white hat on,

and people are gonna
go to the fight,

watch the fight on TV,

hoping that Muhammad Ali
gets knocked out.

When we look around at what's
happening in the world today,

and particularly
in this country,

there's a sort of
scary quality that

the center isn't holding,

and, you know,
there's a fear

that you have all these crazy
people out there with guns.

There's a fear of terrorism,

that rational order
might not prevail,

and a lot of people
had that fear in the '60s.

It was a fear from the left.
You have all these kids,

of whom we might have been
among them, with long hair.

There's the anti-war movement.

And here's Muhammad Ali,

who's talking about
white people being devils

and separation of the races.

I think of
the great Yeats poem,

"The best
lack all conviction

while the worst are full
of passionate intensity."

And there was this sense
of passionate intensity.

We see it with Ali.

We saw it with the cadre
that surrounded Ali.

We see this today.

That, to me, is a harbinger
for what is to come.

In February 1966,
the country's pulling apart,

and that morning,
there's a terrific debate

in the Senate
over the Vietnam War.

Senators who were
against the war

are being called,
by a general, traitors.

And you could really feel
the country polarizing.

And so, here's Muhammad Ali,
just sitting on the lawn

of this rented house
in Miami.

I sat in a lawn chair
next to him,

and we drank sweet tea,

and then the cook
came out from the cottage

and whispered in his ear,
and he excused himself.

He had a phone call,
and he came back and told me

that, uh, it was a call
from the Associated Press,

that he had just been
reclassified 1-A.

And his first reaction...

"Why me?

"There are
all these poor boys

"in my draft board.

"Draft them.

"After embarrassing me

"and saying I'm too dumb,

now they say
I'm smart enough?"

I mean, he was very angry.

And as he was ranting,

the symbols of disaster
approached.

The TV trucks
and the radio reporters

and print guys,

"Sports Illustrated,"

and members of
the Nation of Islam

to protect him
from everybody else

and also to tell him that,
if he got drafted,

he was gonna be sent
to the front lines immediately.

Yeah, right.

And some cracker sergeant's
gonna drop a hand grenade

down his pants
and blow him to pieces.

And he rants,
and, you know,

cameras and microphones are
thrust in his face.

"So, do you know
where Vietnam is?"

"Yeah, well,
I know where Vietnam is."

He didn't know
where Vietnam was.

I didn't know where
Vietnam was.

"How do you feel
about the Viet Cong?"

"I don't know about..."

"How do you feel about
fighting in the army?"

"How do you feel about going
and killing people?"

"How do you feel
about getting killed?"

And this went on
hour after hour after hour,

and now it's late
in the afternoon,

and maybe, you know, the last
radio reporter shows up,

sticks the mic out
and asks for the 200th time,

"So, how do you feel
about the Vietnam War?

How do you feel
about the Viet Cong?"

And he said,

"Oh, man, I ain't got nothing
against them Viet Cong."

And then the world stopped.

So he called me
on the phone,

and he said,
"What's this bout the war?

How come you all done
go to war?"

And I said,
"Well, brother,

"let me tell you something.

"You was once a slave.

"A long time ago.

"If you sign your name...

"on that
military paper,

"you're gonna be
a new slave of the white man

"for the rest of your life.

"They can promise you
anything,

"but that doesn't mean they're
gonna keep their promises.

"We can defend ourselves,

"but we're just
going over to take.

This is a wrongful war."

"Yeah?"
I said, "Just say hell no,

"you ain't gonna go,
and be serious.

And you'll be the greatest
and most famous person ever."

[Randy Roberts]
When Ali refused induction

into the army, probably all
of the establishment in America

and much of America went,
you know, crazy.

"This is not
what Joe Louis did."

You know, "Joe Louis
in World War II

didn't wait to be drafted.
Joe Louis enlisted."

The most recognizable
athlete in the world,

now he is saying, "No.

"I'm not going to go
into that war.

"I ain't got nothing
against them Viet Cong.

"This war has nothing
to do with me.

"They haven't hurt me.

"They didn't rape
my ancestors.

"They didn't enslave me.

"They didn't burn
crosses on my yard.

"If there's a war
to be fought,

"if I'm fighting
for my people,

"I'll fight in that war,

but I'm not gonna
fight in this war."

Take a small fire and go
throw some gasoline on it,

and it sets America ablaze.

When you look at Ali

and what he stood for,
boldly and proudly,

you must say to yourself,

he wasn't just a fighter,
he wasn't just the greatest.

He was bigger than that.

When it's across
the board, socially,

and it goes everywhere,
that makes you bigger,

and Ali went everywhere
with his stance on the war.

Whether you believed in it
or you didn't believe in it,

it impacted everybody.

It made you think, wow,
this guy believes in this

so strongly, he's willing
to give up his career.

Now, suddenly, his stand
becomes one of principle.

He doesn't want to go,
but he's saying,

"Well, Elijah Muhammad
had gone to prison

"instead of entering
into World War II,

so this is what
I'm going to do as a Muslim."

As the war becomes
more unpopular,

he becomes more popular.

I mean, there's this direct
relationship between the two.

[reporter]
Anti-war demonstrators
protest U.S. involvement

in the Vietnam War
in mass marches,

rallies,
and demonstrations.

I almost feel like
he doesn't change.

America kind of catches up
to him at a certain point.

Now, he becomes the hero,

really the patron saint
of the 1960s.

Well, you know,
I went to college campuses

when he was speaking.

This is how
he made his money mostly,

during the three years
of his exile.

He had been heavyweight
champion of the world,

when that really mattered.

Here were all these
little white boys

and their girlfriends
who kind of adored the idea

that this epitome
of American masculinity

was doing the same thing
that they were,

so they weren't, you know,
such unpatriotic cowards.

And then, of course,
he would always spoil it,

and he would start
making nasty comments

about marijuana use
and interracial dating.

I told him,
just be yourself.

I told him, just go ahead
and make the speeches.

When he started getting around
a lot of the Muslim brothers,

he started doing all this
Islamic dogma and all that,

I said,
no, don't do that.

You don't do that,
you sound stupid.

Just say what you feel
about people.

One time...

he made a speech,
it was wonderful.

Everybody clapped.

I gave out the buttons.

And-- and in the clearing,

in the darkness,

there was a heckler.

Said, "Go home,
you draft-dodging nigger!"

And he said,
"Ladies and gentlemen,

"I was a little boy,

"and I used to throw rocks
at this donkey.

"And my grandma said,
'Cassius, don't throw rocks

"'at that donkey,
'cause one day

"'that donkey's gonna die,

and he's gonna come back
and haunt you.'"

He said,
"Ladies and gentlemen,

I believe that ass is
in here tonight."

You can say to a person,
"Start talking about Ali.

What did you think
about Ali?"

You know,
within about 15 seconds,

you'll know everything
about that person's--

their political beliefs.
Wow.

I mean, you know,
he's that litmus test.

How could this man
be so great?

How could he be so dynamic
and charismatic,

and yet some people were saying,
"I hate Muhammad Ali"?

I didn't agree with
all of his principles

when he was a younger man.

What I did agree with
and respected

was that he had
these convictions,

and he stood by them.

[Khalilah Ali]
We was in Philadelphia,

and we had
a phone call...

from Jesse Hill...

about he had
his license back to fight.

It was the most epic moment
of Ali and I's life.

When Ali came back
to boxing in 1970,

he was unquestionably
a diminished boxer.

But he was also no longer
a member of the Black Muslims.

He was practicing a more
traditional form of Islam.

And I think that,
for two reasons

American society
perceived him differently.

They had pretty much
caught up with him

in being against
the Vietnam War.

They appreciated the fact

that he hadn't gone
into the Army,

that he had sacrificed

millions upon millions
of dollars for his principle.

They took the heavyweight title
away from him, but he--

he didn't stop believing
in-- in what he was capable of.

He didn't stop believing in
the fact that he could come back

and win it again, he didn't stop
believing in the fact

that, you know,
he stood for something,

and he wasn't gonna give it up--
give up what he stood for,

no matter what
the price would be.

The two great
moral crusades of the 1960s

were the Civil Rights Movement
and the anti-war movement.

And Ali was smack
in the center of both of those,

and it was
remarkable, really.

The New York Yankees
weren't in the middle of that.

No.The Boston Celtics
weren't in the middle of that.

Ali was at the vortex
of virtually everything

that was going on then.

It seems like an almost
biological groping

for the spotlight.

Maybe that's why
Eldridge Cleaver
said what he said.

Eldridge Cleaver said boxing is
the two-fisted testing ground

of masculinity in America,

and a heavyweight champion,
as a symbol,

is the real Mr. America.

That's what being
the heavyweight champion

of the world meant.

You were the real
Mr. America.

In a nation
that prides toughness,

in a world that prides
toughness,

you were the toughest S.O.B.
in the world.

[bell dinging]

It was the first time you had
two undefeated heavyweights,

each one with
a legitimate claim

to being heavyweight champion
of the world.

In many ways,
the first Frazier fight

was the return of the king.

He was the heavyweight
champion.

He had not lost
his title in the ring.

It had been taken away
by politicians, paper pushers.

The fight was announced,
and the day it was announced,

I sent in a check
to Madison Square Garden.

You mailed it in
in those days.

I was ringside.Oh, wow.

Uh, and I was
on a telephone,

uh, alerting the desk
as to what was happening

so that they could
replay the additions

that were going on.

So, I became, uh,

the Times building's,

uh, play-by-play
announcer for the fight.

I thought that
I was just reporting,

you know, what I saw.

But I think I was
reporting what I felt

because the hundreds
of people in the building

who-- I was
patched in all over--

who heard
my blow-by-blow account

all thought Ali won big.

[laughter]

I-- I left the paper
for the first time

soon after that, because I felt
kind of emotionally corrupted

that I cared
so much about him

that I wasn't seeing
straight anymore.

In the 15th round,
Joe knocked Ali down

with that
horrific left hook.

[Robert Lipsyte]
Terrible fight, in terms
of brutality and violence

to the two of them,
and in a sense,

America's heart

went out
even further to Ali

as a man of principle
because he had bled for us.

He had made this, you know,
flesh sacrifice.

[Khalilah Ali]
He was hurt, he was hurt
for a long time.

It was on his conscience 24/7.

And people would
come around,

and... they asked him
about the fight.

He'd say, "I wasn't myself,
I wasn't myself."

You know,
he deserved it.

"I didn't train right--"
he blamed himself.

And he said he too ugly.

"He's too ugly, I can't
let him be the champion."

I said, "Why do you call
somebody ugly, man?

Why would you do that?"

Say, yeah, he's too ugly
to be heavyweight champion.

I think a lot of people
felt after that fight

that he would be around
for a while as an opponent,

somebody that contenders
would have to fight

on their way
to the championship,

but that, you know,
his championship days were over.

And then...

[bell ringing]

...the so-called
Rumble in the Jungle

was a mythologized fight.

Return of the black hero

to his birthplace,
to Africa.

Long before barbecue grills,

George Foreman was

this kind of forbidding,
unbeatable thug

in this Sonny Liston mode.

So, it's ten years later,

and he's doing it
all over again.

Everyone that was
watching was screaming,

"Get off the ropes!
Get off the ropes!

He's gonna lose!
He's gonna lose!"

And I just wanted
Muhammad to win so badly.

When you get punched
in the face...

the world looks
like a different place.

When you get punched
in the face,

it tests
who you are as a person.

And I didn't understand
what he was doing.

And then,
all of a sudden,

when George kinda
puttered out,

and Muhammad
just started going,

you had to hear...

[imitating roar of the crowd]

It was exhilarating!

I guess that's
when you first realize

the heart that he had.

He-- he just had
this indomitable will.

Muhammad Ali was,
I think to a great extent,

rehabilitated in the world.

But... the damage,

the terrible damage had,
uh, had already begun.

Even when he won
to Foreman,

he constantly talked
about Joe Frazier all the time.

"That shouldn't've happened,
that shouldn't have--

I should have never
let that happen."

And-- and he-- I think
it's a haunting thing.

It haunted him.

Because he couldn't
get it out of his head.

[bell ringing]

For me to have
the-- the beautiful image

that I wanna have of him,

I have to forget about
how he took apart Joe Frazier,

and how it affected
and impacted Joe Frazier,

with him being
so mean towards him.

Joe Frazier's so ugly,
his face should be donated

to the Bureau of Wildlife.

I saw some of the damage
that he did to Frazier,

not just physically with
his fists, but emotionally.

Where he was actually
changing Frazier,

a guy that...

didn't have anything mean
to say about anyone.

But all of a sudden, he started
becoming a little mean.

The way he treated
Joe Frazier,

I don't believe Joe Frazier
ever, to his grave, got over it.

Joe Frazier!
Joe Frazier!

I saw the Thrilla in Manila
in a theater,

and... I'm not so proud
to say it, but we snuck in.

[laughs]

That's crazy ghetto,
but it's true.

I was it
when I went back to school

and said I saw the fight,
what-- nobody believed me.

"No, you didn't,
no, you didn't,
no, you didn't."

"Yes, I did!
Go ask so-and-so, yes, I did!"

In that movie theater,
it was everything.

It was men, it was women,
it was young, it was old,

it was white, it was black,
it was Spanish, it was Asian.

It was everything,

and that's what's the coolest
thing about boxing.

It brings a world
inside to that arena.

Ali, one of the most
mystifying aspects to him

is some of the things
that he did

and some of the things he said
were just absolutely repellent.

But, yet, love for him
seemed unconditional.

You know, people that would
be upset by what he said

still loved him
and respected him

because he symbolized
what they believed

or he symbolized something
valuable to them.

He was the greatest
flawed hero.

In every great
fighter's life,

there's always
a Larry Holmes fight,

because you can't
tell the great ones

when to stop.

[bell ringing]

Ali-Holmes was an atrocity

from beginning to end.Yeah.

The Nevada Commission
made a show of saying,

"We want Muhammad
to be checked out

medically,
before the fight."

When I was writing
"Muhammad Ali:
His Life and Times,"

I had medical waivers
from Ali,

and I got a copy of the full
Mayo Clinic Report on Ali,

which was sent
to the Nevada Commission.

Among the things
the report said is that,

when Ali tries to touch

the tip of his finger
to his nose,

there's a slight
degree of missing.

Now, if you can't touch the tip
of your finger to your nose,

you shouldn't be
in the ring with Larry Holmes.

It was gut-wrenching
to watch,

because this was
not competitive,

this was simply
the ongoing humiliation

of a great fighter
at the moment in his career

when you knew that
he was going to get humiliated.

You start
to really believe that

you can summon this
out of you

if you just really,
really believe in it,

because your self-belief
is what got you there

in the first place.
So, you feel like, no,

if I just really
believe in it enough

and put the work behind it,
I can do it.

Obviously,
it's not the case.

Nature is nature,
we all get old.

And, as I was standing
and watching this,

I felt a--
a poke in my ribs,

uh, a shorter person

getting my attention
standing next to me,

and I turned,
and it was Mick Jagger.

And I-- I knew Mick
a little bit at the time,

uh, and he said to me,

"Lamps, do you know
what we're watching?"

And I said, "No, Mick,
what are we watching?"

And he said,
"It's the end of our youth."

And... within that sentence

is a statement

on what Ali meant
to my generation.

[children laughing]

[man]
Two... one...

[second man]
And lock!

[indistinct voice]

[man]
Two... one...

[booming]

I don't know that
anybody in my life

has paid his dues

the way Muhammad Ali has.

And I think America
really responds to that.

One, by standing up
for his principles,

whatever we think
his principles are or weren't.

Uh, he lost
almost four years

and millions of dollars,
not only in prize fight money

but in endorsement money.

I think that America
really responds,

you know,
to people who...

put their money
where their mouth is.

In my mind, Ali is
the most significant athlete

in the history of sports.

He fuses the world of sports

and the world of politics.

We'll never go back
to those halcyon days

of the 1950s with boys
playing baseball

on green fields and not having
an opinion about anything.

He brings politics into sports,

he brings sports
into politics.

He wasn't just an athlete,
he becomes a celebrity,

a person
that people listen to.

You know, Malcolm said,
you know, "Someday,

"Cassius is gonna be,
like, a senator,

"or a congressman,
or a president, diplomat.

People are gonna listen
to what he says."

Well, they did
listen to what he said.

Dick Gregory called Ali
the baby of the universe...

in trying to explain
why we all love him

and why we all
wanna embrace him.

But I think also,
as that baby,

there was a kind of
innocence and naiveté

in which he felt that

nobody really
wished him any harm.

I personally think
most of his decisions

were reactive decisions.

No athlete is
going to dream,

"I'm going into sports
and making it a platform

for-- for political
statements."

You go into sports
to be the best,

to make a lot of money,
to become famous.

But then real life intervenes.

And, you know,
that happens to all of us.

But all of us aren't
Muhammad Ali.

Everybody has
their own take on Ali.

The one common thread

when you talk
to people about Ali

is that Ali was special.

Remember the fighter
who knocked him down

by stepping on his foot?

Chuck Wepner.
Chuck Wepner.

Okay, so this is
now a, um...

an event
at Gracie Mansion,

the mayor's residence
in New York.

So Chuck Wepner is
invited.

And Chuck Wepner is
standing far away from Ali,

just kind of
looking at him.

And I pass by,
and I said, you know,

"Hey, come on,
let's go over,

let's just say hello
to the champ."

And he says, "No, I'm not
sure he'll remember me.

"But if he does
remember me,

"he probably
doesn't like me.

"Uh, and I-- I really
don't wanna do that.

I think
I'm gonna leave now."

And he started
to walk away

to leave the party.

And in the distance,

Ali spotted him,
ran over,

and stepped on his foot.

Yes, yes, yes, yeah.

So, I mean, how do
you have that kind of,

call it emotional
intelligence?

What it is.

How do you know
when somebody is

needy in some way?

Yeah, there was
another moment I remember

from that--
that event, actually.

The mayor brought Ali
inside Gracie Mansion

because there were
some political donors there

that he wanted Ali to meet.

And Ali came
into the mansion,

and he started to go
towards the kitchen.

And the mayor said,
"Wait, Muhammad,

"come with me over here,

there's some important
people here."

And Ali pointed
to the kitchen and said,

"There's important people
in there too."

And he went in
and hugged everybody

who was working
in the kitchen.

We did that healing tour
at one point,

where we went to high schools
across the country,

talking to students
about bigotry and prejudice

and tolerance
and understanding.

And we were walking
down the aisle,

and I was standing
next to Artie Curry,

who was with HBO at the time,
a wonderful person.

And Ali was walking ahead
of us, and I said to Artie,

"Ali's gonna hug the girl
in the yellow dress there."

And Artie said, "You're crazy."
I said, "No, watch."

Sure enough, they get to
the girl in the yellow dress.

Ali hugs her
and kisses her.

Uh, we walk a little further,

I said, "Now he's gonna hug
the woman in the green sweater."

"What? What are you
talking about?"

He hugs the woman
in the green sweater.

And we got up onto the stage,
and Artie said to me,

"How did you know that?"

And I said,
"Because he chose

"the least attractive
women he saw,

and he wanted
to give them hugs."

You know, the pretty girls get
kissed all their lives.

Now these girls can
tell people,

"I was hugged
by Muhammad Ali."

Ali came through my gym doors
at the Wildcard Boxing Club

and asked me
if he could work out.

I said, "Yeah, sure."

As soon as he started
hitting the heavy bag,

the tremors went away,
and I says, "Look at that."

I said he's just like me,
because once I get in the ring

and I started
catching on the mitts,

I stop shaking,
and all the tremors go away.

He stayed in the gym
for about four hours.

He told his jokes,
he did magic.

He did levitation.

He showed us pictures of him
getting arrested.

And I asked him
if I could have his autograph.

He said, "What did you call me?
Did you call me a nigger?"

I said, no,
I didn't call you...

And he's just, like,
laughing at me.

One thing I always
found interesting

was that anytime you tried
to give him a compliment

in any way, he would
kind of brush it off,

"No, no, I'm just a nigger
trying to get bigger."

And it was kind of
shocking coming from him,

and it was, of course,
something I've never

been able to get
into "The New York Times."

I remember being with him
at a fundraising event

for Muhammad Ali's
Museum of Tolerance.

And he got up to speak

to all these rich white guys
about tolerance,

and he started
with one of his jokes,

which was,

"So, there's a Mexican
and a Puerto Rican

"and a black guy sitting
in the back of a car.

Who's driving?"

Dead silence.

And he said,
"The police."

And everybody laughed.

I-- I went and talked
to them afterwards.

I said, you know,
you thought that was funny

for the Museum of Tolerance?

And they said,
"Yeah, that was wonderful."

It just shows that
he's not bigoted at all.

He has a tremendous open heart
and loves everybody.

And, at that point,
I came to realize

that he had been

totally emotionally
rehabilitated

in American society,

One of Ali's childhood icons
was Chubby Checker.

While I was working
on the book,

Ali, when he was in New York,
would frequently come

to my apartment for dinner.

And I had told Muhammad,
"We have a special treat

for you at dinnertime."

And, I don't know,
Muhammad might have thought

it was bread pudding
or something like that.

And around 6:00,
the doorbell rang,

and I said to Muhammad,
"There's your treat."

So, Muhammad went to the door,
opened it up,

and he started jumping
up and down like a little kid.

"It's Chubby Checker!
It's Chubby Checker!"

And what I remember most
about that evening--

and it was a wonderful evening,

we put on
old Chubby Checker records,

and we were singing together,
and Chubby was showing Muhammad

how to do the twist,
and Muhammad was twisting.

But what-- what I remember most,
is at one point,

Muhammad looked
at Chubby and said,

"Did you drive
all the way from Philadelphia

just to see me?"

And Chubby said, "Yes."

And Muhammad said,
"I can't believe it.

I'm honored."

And I realized
that all his life,

Muhammad Ali had
Chubby Checker on a pedestal,

and it never occurred to him

that Chubby Checker might feel
the same way about him.

I always believed
in my heart and soul

that one day
I will meet...

the greatest of all times,
Muhammad Ali.

I'm invited to this party
by a certain athlete.

That certain athlete's wife
comes over to me

and says that I must leave.

And the group of people
that I was sitting with

turned on me.

And everyone is
closing in on me,

and I got paranoid,

and I felt extremely
threatened,

And this one
particular person,

who is a celebrity,
who will remain nameless,

she went as so far
to get close to my face...

and tell me,
"Nobody wants you here,

so you better leave."

Brooklyn jumped out of me.

Bushwick came
in full force,

and I turned to the woman,

and I said, "If you don't
get the eff away from me,

"I'm gonna punch you
in your effing face.

I'm gonna punch you
in your big effing fat titty."

It's horrible,
it's embarrassing.

Everyone went...
[gasping]

And then I feel
a big hand on my shoulder,

and I'm thinking
it's security.

And I turn to say,

"Get the eff off of me!"

And it was Muhammad Ali.

In an instant,

I was that seven-year-old girl

that dreamed one day
I was going to meet the champ.

And I cried
like a little baby.

The tears just started
flooding down my eyes,

my mascara was
down in streaks.

And Lonnie was with him,
and she says,

"That's all right,
that's all right."

And she's like,
"You don't have to go anywhere."

Here's the champ
and the champ's wife

saying I don't have
to go anywhere,

and everyone
started to back off.

I was extremely embarrassed.

This was not
how I envisioned

that I was going
to meet the champ!

And I couldn't
get over it.

And Muhammad was
pulling me in close,

and he gets
very, very close to my ear,

and he whispers in my ear,
and he says...

[whispering]
"If I was younger..."

And I burst out laughing,

and then I started crying
all over again,

and I was getting
all hysterical again.

And I'm saying, "I didn't
wanna meet you like this.

"I don't wanna meet you
like this,

this is not happening."

And he just went...

And I calmed down.

He saw me at my worst
and put his hand on my shoulder

and pulled me in
and told me...

"I got your back, it's okay,

"don't worry about it,
nobody's gonna hurt you,

'cause I'm the champ,
and I'm here."

You know, he's a--
he's a powerful man.

He's a powerful man because,
you know... who does that?

Ali was the greatest, um...

here, you have a fighter
who not only possessed speed

but had tremendous power
as a heavyweight.

He commanded the room
when he walked into it,

no matter where he was.

He commanded
the arena when he fought

as soon as he stepped
into the ring.

And I think there's
a-- there's a magnetizing,

polarizing image

about a person like that.

Everyone that you
ever talked to

who's had anything
to do with Muhammad Ali,

and that includes,
you know,

people who've met him
in a hotel lobby,

or at fights, or boxing fans,
or non-boxing fans,

he always had time
for people.

Well, you know what,
he was one of the nicest guys

I ever met in my life.

And he was very important
to everybody

because...
he took a sport

at the time when it was probably
at one of its lowest

and brought it
back to the highest.

Being born in the '60s

and understanding

how Ali was...

our voice in the '60s,

to me, I can say

that I'm glad my mother
had me in the '60s.

You know, he's the first
big guy that showed

that kind of speed,
that kind of fluidity.

That kind of style.

He was the first guy that
did things wrong

and made it right.

He remains, um,

one of the most inspiring

and exciting figures
I've ever witnessed in my life.

I think that this was

somebody who had really...

closed the book
on the great story.

You know, from the brash kid
Cassius Clay,

who talked his way
into the championship,

to the revolutionary
Muhammad Ali

to the wounded,
exiled warrior,

and then finally
to the prodigal son.

He never, ever, ever stopped
being a man of the people,

the people's champion.

And as all great fighters
will tell you,

when the belts have gone,

and the ringing
in your ears is gone,

as long as people remember you
as the people's champion,

you'll always be up there.