Ali Page #2

and anyone in this arena

will tell you.

There's a long, looping left hand.

Clay's eyes are wide open now.

- Come on, Cass! Move!

- Step back.

- Come on, Cassius!

- Come on, Chi-Chi!

I'm not prognosticating

anything...

but merely his survival

to this juncture--

Cass, hit him!

Break.

Let him go.

Sonny Liston is hurt.

He's bleeding from his eye.

He's defying the experts early.

We have to take a look at this man and

say he is not in awe of the champion.

He ain't nothin' to me.

And he know it.

This is it now.

Let me have that, John.

And now they're ready.

You gonna knock

the ugly off of him.

That's gonna take a long time,

but you can do it.

There he is. Get him off.

Do your job, ref.

Shake him.

Do your job, ref.

There it is.

Come on, ref.

Break.

- There he is.

- Clay slips around and out.

Up against the ropes.

Right above me now.

Too tight. Get in there.

My eyes. There's something in my eyes.

I can't see nothin'.

Come on.

- What's going on?

- Nothin'.

The guy's punchin' on the breaks.

Just take care of it. We're fine.

I can't see nothin', man.

Just go and cut 'em off, Angie.

No, no. You can't fight

with no gloves on.

Just get up. Get up.

Try and do it. Come on.

I can't see, man.

- Come on, Cass!

- Dance!

Liston crouching,

hitting to the body.

It's like he's blinking,

like he doesn't see Liston.

Ref, you gotta do your job.

Hold it.

Stay away from him, Clay.

Stay away from him.

The champion, you can see,

is the aggressor.

- Get him, Cass!

- Come on, Cass!

- Knock him up!

- Clay looks all done.

Hold on to him!

- Stop it. Stop. Break.

- Knock him up.

Get on him.

Get on him, man.

- You can see him now.

- You go get him, man.

Clay lands a left,

but Liston ducked under it...

and took it high

on the forehead.

It's Clay coming on.

And Liston backs away.

And all the predictions

are going down the drain...

as Liston is listless.

And there's the bell.

We're coming up

to round seven.

Wait a minute!

Liston's not coming out.

The winner and new heavyweight

champion of the world is Cassius Clay.

Eat your words!

Eat your words!

Les, I'm going up into the ring.

Get back.

I'm the greatest thing

ever happened to boxing.

Cassius. Cassius.

I shook up the world!

It's a scene of

absolute bedlam in the ring!

I am the greatest.

I'm a bad man. I shook up the world!

Did he ever hurt you?

I'm only 22 years old.

I ain't got a mark on my face.

- I must be the greatest.

- And you're pretty.

I must be the greatest.

Wait. Hold on. Hold on one second.

That's Sam Cooke back there.

- Come on, Sam Cooke.

- Let Sam Cooke in here.

The greatest rock-and-roll singer,

and I'm the world's greatest boxer.

Hello, Sam.

That mummy's

gonna get him, baby.

- That mummy ain't gonna get him.

- Yeah, he is.

He ain't scared of that mummy.

That mummy too slow to catch anybody.

- What's going on, Sam?

- How you doing, Cassius?

Don't believe that stuff on TV.

Don't listen to him.

- Hey, congratulations, Clay.

- Hey, thank you, Jim.

- Hell of a fight.

- You next, man. You next.

- Go ahead and get some food, brother.

- Cassius Clay versus Jim Brown.

Biggest fight in history.

- The mummy only has one eye.

- One eye and a limp.

That mummy's 643 years old.

He can't catch nobody.

Look at him.

You gotta fall down 'cause that's

the only way the mummy could catch you.

Way to go, champ!

- Yeah, you the greatest.

- Thank you, brother. Thank you.

- I'll see your next fight.

- You'll see the next one?

- Oh, yeah.

- Well, you better get there very early.

You better get there very early

'cause that man's going down.

If he talk a little jive,

he's going down in five.

He talk a little more,

I might drop him in four.

If you wanna have more fun,

do it in round one.

Oh, yeah. Hold on.

I'm doing the rhymin'.

The people really look up to you. You

plan on being a champ like Joe Louis?

Well, yeah, I'm gonna be

the people's champ.

Not like Joe Louis.

Well, you know, not exactly.

My name is not Clay.

Clay is the name of the people

that owned my ancestors...

and I no longer wanna be called

by that slave name.

- I am Cassius X.

- Minister Malcolm.

What about the divisions

in the Nation of Islam?

This is the champ's time. I'm here

as a friend to support his victory...

so I have nothing you want.

I'm definitely gonna be

the people's champion...

but I just ain't gonna be the champ

the way you want me to be the champ.

I'm gonna be the champ

the way I wanna be.

...for no home is immune

to termites...

no matter how well

it is built or maintained.

- Hey, brother.

- I was leaving.

I saw your light on.

What you doing up at this hour, champ?

Oh, man, I'm watching this program

on termites.

And them little itsy-bitsy things is

eatin' these people's whole house down.

Oh, man, look.

I've been invited to speak

at Ibadan University in Nigeria.

- You wanna go with me?

- Hey, look, man.

You can have six million termites

in your house and don't even know it...

till you going to get something to eat

and you bust through the floor.

- What'd you say? Where?

- Africa. You been?

Africa.

All right, come on.

Let's go.

What is it?

You ever thought

you'd lose it?

I mean, really lose it?

When I was little, I tore out

this picture of Emmett Till.

They put the barbed wire

around his neck...

and strapped him

to that 75-pound cotton gin fan.

And they cut out one of his eyes

'cause he looked at some white lady.

Man.

I couldn't take my eyes to it,

couldn't throw it away.

When I heard about those...

four little girls who got bombed

in that Birmingham church...

the prohibitions of the Honorable

Elijah Muhammad prevented me...

from speaking

my thoughts in action.

Because Birmingham was part

of the civil rights struggle.

You know, begging for our place

at the white man's table.

But dead children

are dead children.

So the anger I felt

I had to contain.

I locked it up so tight...

my muscles seized.

I lost control

over the right side of my body.

My leg gave out.

Right arm gave out.

"I'm having a stroke," I thought.

But I had to hold it in

'cause all I wanted--

Brother, all I wanted to do

was find something and break it.

Break a part--

Break any part of this system...

because you are so provoked

in your heart...

and your spirit

as a human being...

at dead children.

And I could do...

nothing.

Everyone knows

I can't do nothing...

anymore.

So Elijah Muhammad has suspended me

as a minister in the Nation of Islam.

Man...

you can fix that.

I don't know.

I'll try when we get back.

You get some rest, champ.

All right, brother.

Sit.

You know, only after

long service and high merit...

in the spiritual and physical rebirth

of Afro-American people...

is one granted an original name.

But you are special.

A world champion.

So there is a gift

I wish to give you.

From this day forward...

you will be known

as Muhammad Ali.

- What?

- That's right.

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