The Greatest (1977)

Muhammad Ali: Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali

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Quotes 

• Cassius Clay : I am the greatest!

• Reporter : Do you think we're really going to go along with this Black Muslim business? You'll still be Cassius Clay to me.

  Muhammad Ali : You just want to keep me a slave. I'm known as Muhammad Ali. Cassius Clay is dead. And *you* of all people should know that!

  Reporter : Why should I know that?

  Muhammad Ali : Because it was your article that I read this mornin'. You said: Sonny Liston will murder Cassius Clay!

• Cassius Clay : Hey, Mama, you, what's happenin'? You sho' lookin' good. What chu doin'? How about a date or somethin'? Let's take a ride.

  Hooker : Nothing freaky!

  Cassius Clay : Nothin' freaky? Come on, woman, get in the car.

• Cassius Clay : Seriously, you don't recognize me? I bet you one thing, before the night's over, we will know each other.

  Hooker : Oh, yes, in deed! I'm gonna know you.

  Cassius Clay : Yes, ma'am. 'Cause we gonna have a good time tonight, Mama! Right?

  Hooker : That's right!

  Cassius Clay : Give me five. You got a little soul don't you.

  Hooker : Give it back.

  Cassius Clay : Yes, ma'am.

• Cassius Clay : I want you to answer me one question. Are you any where as *good* as you look?

  Hooker : I'm better than I have been; but, not as good as I'm gonna get.

• Cassius Clay : Hey, man, who in the world are you? I mean, what would Johnny Bratton or Sugar Ray Robinson need wit chu as great as they were?

  Drew 'Bundini' Brown : 'Cause you just don't train the body, you got to get into the soul.

  Cassius Clay : You can talk all the philosophies and stuff you want, Sonny Liston is the King and he shall remain that way until he gets into the ring with Cassius Clay.

  Drew 'Bundini' Brown : The old master painter from the far away hills, who painted the violets and the daffodils, said the next champ gonna come from Louisville.

  Cassius Clay : Man, you alright. Crazy, just like me!

• Cassius Clay : Put this one in your little bag: When I start fighting, I'm gonna be known as the Greatest of them all! Because they all will fall in the Round I call.

• Drew 'Bundini' Brown : How big it is for you to win the heavyweight championship?

  Cassius Clay : I dream about. Always dream about it. I dream about all the things I've had to give up until now. All the ice cream. All the cake. All the pie. I dream about the things I'm gonna have to give up to get the title. Mainly, the pretty women, man. That's hard! The pretty women.

• Cassius Clay : I'm here to tell you all, you think I'm just talkin'? You think I'm just runnin' my mouth? With these two fighters in here are slow, they have no class, no speed, no skill. Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston are not in my class! They're not fast enough and you been robbed. You're wastin' your money. How can you have a heavyweight title fight without me?

• Cassius Clay : Sonny Liston! Sonny Liston! Attention, the true heavyweight champion is here. I've been lookin' for you all over! I want you. Get all your money off the crap table. I bet you, I'll whip you right now! I'm too fast for you! Sucker! I say you ain't nothin'. Pickin' Floyd Patterson. Well, why don't you face me, says my mother? So big. I will destroy you. I will bet you all the money you got. Right here, right now. Right now, I'd knock you out, sucker! Right here. You and me. This is Cassius Clay! The Greatest fighter in the history of all boxin'. You are nothin'. You are nothin'. You hit me, you can't whip me, sucker. I'm tryin' to tell ya, you can't duck me forever. You can't duck me forever. You know who I am. Floyd Patterson. You knocked him out once. You'll knock him out again. But, I'm the one that you don't won't.

  Sonny Liston : You're a fag.

  Cassius Clay : A faggot? I got somethin' for you. I got somethin' for you. That's right. Everybody's watchin'.

  Sonny Liston : They don't ever see you with no ladies, you are a faggot.

  Cassius Clay : Don't see me with no ladies? I see you got two pretty ones here. That's why you gonna get whooped, sucker.

  Sonny Liston : Why don't you stop acting like a fool. You are embarrassing colored folks.

  Cassius Clay : Embarrassing colored folks? Is that what you are? You the heavyweight champion, representin' us, lookin' like you look. I tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm givin' you 24 hours to saddle your horse up and ride outta Las Vegas. Saddle up your horse and be outta town!

• Cassius Clay : Out of sight! Well, what time? Eight o'clock?

  Ruby Sanderson : Eight o'clock it is.

  Cassius Clay : Be pretty.

  Ruby Sanderson : I will.

  Cassius Clay : Of course, I will be pretty.

  Ruby Sanderson : You are fine.

  Cassius Clay : Alright.

  Ruby Sanderson : Alright. See you later.

  Cassius Clay : Be on time, baby. Don't be too slow. Women is always late - especially you colored girls.

• Malcolm X : No majority ever gave a minority a fair share of the loot without force.

  Cassius Clay : Well, force is somethin' we can't really do because we're not united. Once we unite, we will have that force.

• Malcolm X : For every one of them in the world, there's two non-whites going on three. Don't forget that.

  Cassius Clay : That sounds a little different: the white minority.

  Malcolm X : They still got the edge on power; but, it's movin' the other way and that's what's really important.

• Cassius Clay : Why are white people so afraid of the name Malcolm X?

  Angelo Dundee : Well, because of, well, I don't know. Maybe it's his religion.

  Cassius Clay : Look, Angelo, when it comes to boxing, you the man. You are the sole reason for me being where I'm at today. Now, why are you worried about a religion? Just take care of the boxing. I'll worry about my religion.

  Angelo Dundee : Because you already got a faith! Why don't you stick with it?

  Cassius Clay : My faith? Christianity? Is the white man's faith. Your Jesus is white. Your angels are white. Your lord's supper is white. Everything is white. I have to wait till I die to go to heaven, like you have everything now.

• Drew 'Bundini' Brown : Champ, Bill McDonald's on the phone. He want to see you down in his office. I don't think he like you no more.

  Cassius Clay : Now, he's all upset. He heard about Malcolm X. What chu mean he don't like me no more?

  Angelo Dundee : Alright, Alright, Alright.

  Cassius Clay : He don't like nothin' but some money. Whatever nigger can make some money. If Liston wins, then they'll be his nigger. What do I care about Bill McDonald?

• Angelo Dundee : Just play it cool, will ya? Don't get aggravated! And don't get him aggravated. After all, there is a compromise, for Christ sake. Alright, for our sake.

  Cassius Clay : For Allah's sake.

• Ruby Sanderson : How do you know for sure, when he put it to you, that you would be giving all of this up?

  Cassius Clay : When you think about it, it was simple. For me to turn down what I believe in, my people, the black people, just to please white folks, to get this fight. And probably some, 10 or 15 years from now, when I'm no longer fightin', Whitey's got no more use for me, and black people remember what I did and turn their backs on me, then I'm really in trouble.

• Dr. Ferdie Pacheco : Now, why did you do that Cass? You scared the hell out of me?

  Cassius Clay : I heard Liston wasn't scared of nothin'. As a matter of fact, he scares everybody, everybody's scared of him. So, I figured, if I act crazy, you know, that would really scare him; because, you never know what nuts gonna do.

• Cassius Clay : First things first. Now, listen, let's get it straight. Don't forget it now. Sonny Liston was supposed to destroy me. How wrong, all of you were. And you got to admit it. You got to all bow and tell me that I'm the greatest.

• Muhammad Ali : I have another announcement I have to make. The name: Clay, Cassius Clay. My name is no longer Cassius Clay. That's right. You've heard the rumors, I am a Muslim. That's my religion, now. My religion is Islam and the Honorable Elijah Mohammed has named me: Muhammad Ali.

• Muhammad Ali : How you gonna be my woman when everything you doin' is embarrassin' me tonight? My woman, walkin' around with your chest all out, your knees all out, your dress five inches over your legs, horny crackers and niggers lookin' at you, gruelin' at the mouth.

  Ruby Sanderson : Well, you bought this dress! You picked it out!

• Muhammad Ali : Come back here, woman! You got no clothes on!

• Muhammad Ali : I told you all I was the greatest! Never told you I was the smartest.

• Reporter : You're not interested in going over there to fight for freedom?

  Muhammad Ali : Fight for freedom? Fight for who's freedom? I'm not free right here. We got places on Miami Beach I can't go. My people are not free. Fight for who's freedom?

  Reporter : I'm talking about fighting the enemy.

  Muhammad Ali : Who's enemy? Man, the Viet Cong never called me no nigger! They your enemy, not mine!

• Muhammad Ali : I don't appreciate things that come too easy. I was just walkin' across the street, I saw this pretty sister over here, I thought I would just come over here, and, um, what I'm really tryin' to say, sister, um, do you know what I really want?

  Belinda : Some cupcakes? We have - our specialty is bean pie and we have carrot cake and everything here is fresh baked.

  Muhammad Ali : Well, if that's the case, I'll take some bean pie. I'll take some cupcakes. I'll take some carrot cake. And, most of all, I'll take *you* out to dinner tonight.

• Colonel : Morale is very important to us. Sports is very important for morale. Do you know what Sgt. Joe Louis did in World War II?

  Muhammad Ali : Yes, sir. I think he boxed exhibitions, did personal appearances and things like that.

  Colonel : Right. Now, there are no guarantees, but, you can be quite sure that that's what you'll be doing after your basic training.

  Major : We'd be crazy to use you where you don't have the most value.

  Muhammad Ali : Value for who? I mean, everybody know where I stand. I mean, I'm against the war in Vietnam. I've said on occasions, in the press, I don't think black people, I don't think they should go to Vietnam and fight Asians, yellow people, who've never lynched us, raped us, called us niggers, deprived us of freedom, justice, equality - for the same white man who's not freed us right here in America. Really, my conscience won't allow me to go. Although I won't have to go. You offer me deals where probably I don't have to fight or I could have it easy or do like Joe Louis did. Still, I know that you're usin' me to lead other people to the service, which is leadin' them to slaughter, and my conscience will still bother me. Sir, I just rather go to jail.

• Draft Lawyer : It'll all be going out. Nothing coming in to live on. You made it to the top of the mountain, champ; but, it's just as steep going down as it was coming up and a helluva lot faster. You got to get used to another kind of life.

  Muhammad Ali : Look, I mean, I don't care about that. I've been broke longer than I've been rich. I mean, I'll adjust to that.

• Muhammad Ali : If I'm not the champ, I don't have no source of income. I mean, this whole marriage thing, you better stop and reconsider. Maybe it's somethin' you don't want to do.

  Belinda : I've already made my mind up what I want to do. So, the rest is left up to you.

  Muhammad Ali : I'm not winnin' no popularity contests. I'm a draft resister - a nigger won't serve his country. He's against the Vietnam War , he's not patriotic. How do know some redneck cracker don't try to do somethin' to harm to you and me and the family?

• Muhammad Ali : The main reason I didn't go to Vietnam is because of my religious beliefs. My religion teaches me not to take the lives of other humans; that is, the Islamic Muslim religion. The Islamic religion has no color distinction, as all religions shouldn't have a color distinction. All people are God's people. For all souls are near and dear to the creator.

• Muhammad Ali : I like fans like you. Keep on coming.

  Velvet Green : Don't worry, I will - until I see them carry you out on a stretcher!

  Muhammad Ali : Did you say carry me out on a stretcher? I mean, why would you want to see me carried out on a stretcher? What have I done to you? I don't know you.

  Velvet Green : God won't always let the devil win. I want to be there when they bust your guts and split your face! I want to be there! If there's a God in heaven, it will happen and I want to be there! You conceited nigger! I'm gonna be there!