I Am Ali Page #7

- Yes, I do!

Let me hear you.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G

Oh, wa, go, go, L, M, N, O, P

Q, R, S, T, U, V

W, X, Y and Z

Now I know my ABCs

Won't you come and play with me?

Hey, hey. Ooh, I

love you, Muhammad.

I just love you so much. I think

about you every day. I miss you.

It doesn't come to me

as him being famous.

He's being Dad.

It really didn't faze me any

because I feel like everybody

else, like Dad is Dad.

I grew up with Rasheda,

Jamillah and Maryum.

We was a close-knit family and we

knew about our other siblings.

We would go, like, say we had summer

or winter break out of school,

we would go to California where

he stayed at the Fremont Place

and we would meet up with

all of our other siblings.

We had fun.

We'd swim in pool, bike ride.

He used to always do

magic tricks and stuff.

I had a bit of a problem in school

because a lot of kids wanted to see

if I could fight like my father,

and I really didn't wanna do so.

So they would pick on me a lot.

I never really wanted to be in the

limelight. It's really no life for me.

I just wanted to

be a normal child.

He actually said to me, "I

don't want you to be like me. "

"I want you to be

better than me. "

So how can you be better

than the greatest?

The man's in trouble.

Listen, George Foreman. People

are afraid of George Foreman.

They talk about how hard he hits.

The world has been deceived.

You listen to me now. I've never told

you wrong. The man don't hit hard.

This will be the biggest upset

since Sonny Liston

and I think it is befitting that I go

out of boxing just like I came in,

defeating a big, bad monster

that nobody could destroy.

A hard punch.

I'm the underdog.

If he hits me, I'm in trouble,

like the Sonny Liston fight,

but I came back and I shook

the world and I got Liston.

Now it's ten years

since Sonny Liston.

I'm meeting another big, bad,

strong monster, knock-out artist.

He's a bully. He's slow.

He has no skill, no footwork.

He's awkward

and I have given him a name.

I named Floyd Patterson The Rabbit.

I named Sonny Liston The Bear.

And he shall be known

officially as The Mummy.

- The Mummy. Why?

- Why The Mummy?

Because he fights, when he's fighting,

if you ever watch him in the ring,

he, he, he, he drags like

that after his opponent.

And how's The Mummy gonna

catch me?

When you're fighting The Mummy, you

just keep a step ahead of The Mummy.

- Yeah, yeah.

- See?

Yeah, just move on, The Mummy.

"No, Mummy, I'm over here.

No, Mummy, I'm over here. "

Yeah, no, you're moving too fast.

The Mummy don't move that fast.

I remember the day we left

Deer Lake.

We were going to Zaire, Africa.

Before we left the camp, and Ali

ran in and he called Cus D'Amato.

He said, "Cus,

how do I fight this guy?"

Cus said, "He is a

bully-type individual.

"Your first punch

must be with...

with bad intentions,

devastating tenacity. "

I got on and I said, "Cus, look what

George Foreman did to Kenny Norton. "

"Look what he did

to Joe Frazier. "

And Cus yelled.

He was in New York.

I could have heard him from New

York to Deer Lake, Pennsylvania

without the phone.

He said,

"But they're not Ali!"

We flew Air Zaire. All black

people, all black pilots.

And on the way over Ali was saying to

them he wanted to meet the pilots.

"How old are you? 23? 27?"

Ali said, "See, if black people

get the chance to do it,

they could do something

in life. " He believed it.

And all of a sudden we hit some

turbulence and Ali got a little scared.

He said, "I hope those young pilots

are as smart as the old pilots. "

He talked about fighting George Foreman.

"Cus is right, he's a bully. "

"I know just what to do.

I know how to fight him. "

As we were walking off the

airplane, Ali turned to me.

He said,

"Who don't they like here?"

I said, "I guess they don't

like the white people. "

"No, no, I can't say George

Foreman's white. Who else?"

I say, "The Belgians," and Ali yelled,

"George Foreman's a Belgian!"

And everybody started yelling,

"Ali, boma y. Ali, boma y!"

And I turned to our interpreter.

I said, "What did they say?"

He said, "They say, 'Kill him.

Kill him. '"

Muhammad Ali!

Muhammad Ali!

When George Foreman arrived

with his entourage,

his sparring partners, here he

has one of his loyal companions,

a German Shepherd dog

by the name of Diego.

The Belgians used to put the German

Shepherds on the black people.

I knew we were home free.

It was a blessing that

we fought in Zaire,

because no-one

could bother us.

We had time for each other. You

know, we had our own cook there.

We had our own movies.

We had it nice.

Ali loved it when his mom and

dad was there, and his brother.

He wanted to make

'em proud of him.

Show 'em what it was to really

achieve something in life.

Getting back on George

Foreman, why he's not here?

- Never mind about getting back on.

- What you mean, never mind?

Why, he's always ducking.

That makes me mad.

Sonny Liston killed the game and Floyd

Patterson fighting once a year,

and now this man who was at a

press conference the other day.

He wouldn't talk.

He sends this bald-headed man over,

Dick Sadler, to talk for him.

And then, then, then he

didn't show up the other day.

Get off my head.

Listen. I'm gonna float like a

butterfly and sting like a bee.

George can't hit

what his eyes can't see.

Now you see me, now you don't.

You think you will,

but I know you won't.

Thank you, Ali.

Thank you, Angelo Dundee.

Is that all the time I get?

OK.

Thank you, Ben Degabula

and Dick Sadler.

Don't do that, champ.

Get away, get away.

Mobutu's

right-hand man came in.

Said George Foreman cut his eye,

the fight may be called off.

I say, "Ali, if he leaves this

country, he will never fight you

because you're not showing any fear,

you're not showing any respect. "

So I told him, "Take the

passports so they can't leave. "

If he would have left, there would

have never been an Ali-Foreman fight.

The other day, messing around

the gymnasium, he got cut.

He's doing everything

to get out of this fight.

Then he almost had a car accident.

I don't know what's gonna happen.

I just wanna see him that day

in the arena,

because that's one place

he won't be able to duck.

The vibrations are against him.

The planets are against him.

And already, he's lost

the first five rounds.

I'm gonna prove to the world

that I'm still the fastest,

the prettiest,

the most classiest,

the most scientific, the

greatest fighter of all time.

The African people loved

Muhammad Ali.

They thought he was a savior.

Muhammad could have said to the

people when we went to the stadium,

"I wanna be your president. "

Everybody would have followed him.

They loved him so much.

It was unbelievable,

the power that this man had.

There's a theory in life. It's said

that the strong will beat the weak.

But the brains will beat

the strong every time.

He said, "He's strong,

but he has no stamina. "

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