Muhammad Ali: What they said

Ali won 56 of his 61 fights, 37 by knockout

Muhammad Ali was vocal throughout his career, giving an opinion on just about everything - but here we look at what people said about him. "I always felt like God made Muhammad special, but I don't know why God chose me to carry this child." Odessa Grady Clay, Ali's mother 

"When he was a child he never sat still. He walked and talked and did everything before his time. His mind was like the March wind blowing every which way." Odessa Grady Clay

"Well, you better learn how to fight before you start challenging people that you're gonna whup." Police officer Joe Martin to a young Cassius Clay after the latter's bicycle was stolen


"He used to ask me to throw rocks at him. I thought he was crazy, but he'd stand back and dodge every one of them... I could never hit him." Rahman Ali, Ali's brother

"Even at 18, Clay was the most vivid, the most alive figure I'd ever met." Legendary American sportswriter Dick Schaap

"My wife and kids are crazy about him, I'm crazy about him, but he won't do what I tell him." Boxing great, early Ali sparring partner and future opponent Archie Moore

"In private, a lot of the time he was real thoughtful and quiet. But he knew how to promote himself. God, he could do that." Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer.

"There's only one Cassius Clay. Thank God." Angelo Dundee

"He destroyed a generation of fighters by boxing with his hands down. Everyone who did that got creamed but Ali was so quick he could get away with it." Angelo Dundee

"Sometimes he sounds humorous but sometimes he sounds like a man who can write beautifully but can't punctuate." Archie Moore before his 1962 fight with Ali

"Everyone in Britain hates his bloody guts." Britain's Henry Cooper before his 1963 fight with Ali - Cooper floored Ali before being defeated 

"I think I'm gonna have to hurt that boy bad." Sonny Liston, who defended his world heavyweight crown against Cassius Clay in 1964

"I'm going to pull that big tongue out of your mouth and stick it up your ass." Sonny Liston

"It will be the most popular fight since Hitler and Stalin, 180m people rooting for a double knockout." American sportswriter Jim Murray on Liston-Clay

"Clay will win. He is the finest negro athlete I have ever known and he will mean more to his people than Jackie Robinson." Civil rights activist Malcolm X on Liston-Clay

"You know Ali is a nut. You can tell what a normal man is going to do, but you can't tell what a nut is going to do and Ali is a nut." Liston, two years after losing his crown

"Because billions of our people in Africa, Asia and Arabia love you blindly, you must be forever aware of your responsibility to them." Malcolm X

"He has always been a little kid, climbing out onto tree limbs, sawing them off behind him and coming out OK." Ferdie Pacheco, Ali's fight doctor

"Cassius Clay is disgracing himself and the negro race." Floyd Patterson, who fought Ali in 1965, on his rival's politics and religion

"I wanted to go down with something that would be worthy of a knockout. Then in the 12th Clay became a punching maniac. A happiness came over me. I knew the end was near." Floyd Patterson

"The greatest Ali ever was as a fighter was against [Cleveland] Williams. That night, he was the most devastating fighter who ever lived." Legendary American commentator Howard Cosell on Ali's demolition of Williams in 1966