For some reason, still my favorite Ali quote: “I’ll hit him with so many punches from so many angles, he’ll think he’s surrounded!” Damn ...
"If Roy Jones wants to fight me I'm sure he"ll find it very stimulating...I'd be totally ominous". This content is protected "I held him like he was my woman". This content is protected " If he wants my respect...he's gonna have to get in the ring" This content is protected
"I can do my sport no greater service," Tex Cobb on Howard Cosell's quitting boxing because Howard felt Holmes Cobb was a mismatch and a travesty. Tex Cobb to Larry Holmes after their fight: "Next time we fight in a telephone booth." Larry's classic response: "Yeah you go ahead, and I'll call you."
"i'm gonna come out there and kill your roosters!" 4:22 mark below... This content is protected Hopkins screaming into the mic during a presser on HBO in 2002 in hopes of attaining a rematch with Roy Jones. Both men wanted the same amount in purse money. "60/40 I kick your ass!" There are some classics here fellas.
Max Baer called the reception of the hotel he was staying at, while suffering what turned out to be his fatal heart attack to describe his symptoms. Reception: Do you want to see the house doctor? Max: No, I want to see the people doctor. Under any circumstances that is a great line. At death's door (literally), it's an absolute killer. Pun intended.
"I ain't got time to bleed." Iran Barkley after the 2nd round to his cornerman working to try and stop a bad cut over his left eye. Barkley knocked out Thomas Hearns in the following round.
" I ain't got no dog-proof ass!" - Sonny Liston on why he never took part in the civil rights movement.
This is a perfect example of why Sonny was miscast as the dumb ignoramus by Clay/Ali. Upon hearing about Ali's hernia which caused the second fight to be postponed Sonny, who had trained hard and had got himself into the best shape he could be, was gutted but said: "It could have been worse. It could have been me." meaning at least he (Sonny) didn't have the hernia. Sonny had brilliant natural wit compared to Clay's 'I'm pretty. I'm the greatest. He's ugly.' schtick. Cassius just kept repeating those lines whatever the question or circumstances. Sonny often had a quick one-liner, borne of his natural mother wit. I loved his comment also in an earlier post on why he looked miserable - "Do you smile when you go to work?" Similarly, people say that Ali would have got inside Tyson's head psychologically. Not with words he wouldn't. Ali's trash talk would, at best, have bemused Tyson who was used to far more offensive ghetto talk. On the other hand, Mike's comments 'I'm gonna make you my girlfriend with your big lips and eat your kids' would have been like nothing Ali had ever heard. Bear in mind how he lost it when Oscar Bonavena called him 'maricon' a Spanish sexual slur, then think how Tyson's offensive slurs might have got under his skin.
Not a fighter quote but I absolutely love these two lines from The Sweet Science by A J Liebling. I've mentioned these before so please indulge me if they're old hat but I think they bear repeating. On Rocky Marciano's one punch kayo of Jersey Joe Walcott - 'Joe flowed down like flour from a chute." On Archie Moore vs Harold Johnson "Archie hit Harold with a left hook to the chops that it is a pleasure to remember not having received." Who writes like that nowadays? Who wrote like that, then? Sheer poetry.
Another Tyson classic was when he was being interviewed by a woman reporter and he said something like, "I don't give interviews to women unless they, you know, fornicate with me" Can't seem to find it but I'm sure it is out there somewhere
" Man, this is the wrong place to get tired " Ali to Foreman when he was really gassing in round 6 (?)
'I will knock him out', I" will knock him out", "I will knock him out". John Mugabi, don't remember which fight.