I Am Ali

Will you enter, mystery

challenger, and sign in, please?

Are you in the movies?

No.

One down, nine to go.

Mr. Gabel.

Are you an athlete?

Yes.

Miss Francis.

Are you a golfer, mystery guest?

No.

That's five down and five to go.

Mr Gabel.

Are you, a boxer?

- Yes.

- Miss Francis.

Boy, that sure isn't the

voice for it, is it?

Let me see now.

What could that be?

Are you a fellow who was named

after a chap

that they brought the mountains to?

By the name of Muhammad?

- Are you Cassius Clay?

- Well...

Yes!

Friday.

Yes?

Assalamu alaikum, Grandma!

- Walaikum assalam!

- What y'all doing?

Downstairs watching television.

- Yeah? Where's May May?

- Downstairs.

Don't tell her.

Put her on the phone.

OK. May May!

- Yes?

- Assalamu alaikum!

- Walaikum assalam, Daddy!

- How's my daughter?

Fine. We went to go

see Mama Bird.

Good. I heard that. Did you...

were you happy to see her?

Yes.

I was just getting dressed.

I'm getting ready to go look at

another place like Deer Lake.

- You are?

- Yes.

It might be possible that if I

like it, I might fight again.

No!

Don't fight again, please.

Take the title back four times.

Can you imagine?

Don't fight again.

You're getting old.

- I'm getting what?

- Old.

Too old?

How old is your daddy?

- How old? Like, 37?

- That's right.

Angelo Dundee is in the ring,

the veteran trainer

of Muhammad Ali

since the first couple

of fights of his career.

The crowd is starting to chant, "Ali.

Ali. " Like old times.

Ali is six feet three, but

Trevor Berbick is not small.

He's six feet two and a half.

Ali is almost 40 years old.

Trevor Berbick is 27.

Here he comes.

What a production this has

turned out to be.

I knew what I wanted to do

at the age of 12 years old,

and every thing has a purpose in

life and every man has a purpose.

And it's the knowing of that purpose

which enables every soul to fulfill it.

And he who knows his life purpose, then

he knows exactly where he's going.

I'm not conceited,

I'm just convinced.

- My buddy, Muhammad Ali.

- How's the weather?

How's the weather?

Beautiful here.

Beautiful here.

My name is Gene Kilroy. I'm the former

business manager of Muhammad Ali.

The greatest fighter of all times.

The greatest friend.

The greatest guy.

I learned a lot from him.

Yeah, man, I step in town, I jump off

a plane and in my cool white suit.

, brothers!

Boy, it was better

than a ringside seat.

You know, a ringside seat, you

gotta go when the fight's over.

To be part of the victory

and part of the defeat,

you know, that was a special thing.

You know, be right there.

I wanna introduce a long-time

advisor of the champ, Gene Kilroy,

who is our spokesperson today.

Gene.

It's nice to be here.

Looking back over my life,

somebody asked me one time,

"Do you have any fear?"

I said, "The only fear I have is that

some day my mother's gonna wake me up

and say 'It's time to go to school',

that my life has been a dream. "

With Muhammad Ali, I've been

blessed to be around that man.

There are multi-millionaires who

would have given a million dollars

to be with Ali every day

like I've been with him.

My first encounter with Muhammad

Ali was the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

He was like

the Mayor of Olympic Village.

He wears a gold medal around,

everybody wanted to be around him.

Everybody,

everybody wanted to meet him.

Tell me how you came to get

such a Roman name as that.

Well, as I understand, I'm

Cassius Marcellus Clay the Sixth

and my great-great-grandfather

was a Kentucky slave

and he was named

after some great Kentuckian.

Cassius Marcellus Clay is

a great name in Kentucky.

And, really, where he was from

and where it was all originated,

I couldn't tell you, but since I've

reached a little fame in boxing,

most people want to know where I'm

from and, where did I get that name.

But really, I haven't

really checked on it,

so I see that I'm gonna have

to go look and...

You'll have to look it up.

See what it's all about, now

that I'm getting interviews.

- Hey, Gene.

- Yeah.

I heard a little story you might like.

Goes like this.

As a boy, I grew up in

Louisville, Kentucky.

In the state of Kentucky that has

pretty horses and fast women.

I come from a really loving,

close family.

My dad and ma were

Christian people.

Very hardworking

and good, decent people.

My dad was a commercial artist.

My dad was the best sign painter

in Louisville, Kentucky.

Way back in a little one-horse

town called Louisville, Kentucky,

back in 1941, Mr Cassius Clay

married Mrs Odessa Grady

who later became Mrs Cassius

Clay and they had a little son.

This is Mrs Clay.

And this is my daddy.

Mr Cassius Clay Senior.

- Say hello.

- Hello. Hello.

- We're very proud of him, lady.

- Thank you.

I was born in 1943.

Muhammad was born in 1942.

We were 18 months apart.

We had fun.

In those days he was

known as Cassius Clay.

He was loquacious, he was cocky.

He's always been different.

He was born for greatness.

Today we're going to my old home

site down at 3302 Grant Avenue,

here in Louisville, Kentucky.

The house where Muhammad Ali

and myself was raised.

We shared a room, and that was one of

the most happiest times of my life.

He was funny. He was funny. And

everything he did, I would go with him.

The running,

the boxing, everything.

I was just his best companion in

those days. I was his best friend.

We were that close, like salt and pepper.

Like salt and pepper.

And it all begins here.

From the root to the fruit.

Maryum, tell me something.

When I started boxing,

how old was I?

I was 12 years old.

You were 12?!

Yeah.

I thought you was younger.

- Twelve.

- 'Cause somebody stole your bike.

Yeah, that's when I was 12.

It was on a Monday night

in Louisville, 1953.

We both went to a home show. Every

year they had, like, a big carnival.

We had rode our bicycle

we got for Christmas up there.

And when we came out

of the home show,

our bicycles had got stolen

so we cried.

We were little boys.

We started crying.

So we asked somebody coming

out of the building.

"Please tell us where we could find a

policeman to report our bikes stolen. "

And the gentleman said, "Go downstairs

and there's a policeman downstairs. "

So we went down a long flight of steps.

It was a boxing gym.

The policeman was in the

corridor talking to some kids.

He was all hostile

and wanted to whip somebody.

So I said, "You never fight

if you don't know how. "

I said, "Has anybody ever taught you

how to fight?" and he said, "No. "

I said, "You should come down

here and learn how to fight first

before you

starting picking fights. "

So that was the beginning of it.

He started coming to the gym and

he was a very religious trainer.

And so he was there when I got

there, and he was there when I left.

He was 12 years old and weighed 87 pounds.

That's how he got started.

Cassius Clay of Chicago

challenges Gary Joyce,

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