Muhammad Ali credited as playing...
Cassius Clay • Muhammad Ali
- 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: 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.
- 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!
- 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.