Names Ali Called His Opponents

I meant George was the original!!! The wrestler!

 

Classic, Alis wit is something else in boxing

 

Rumor has it Liston wasn't really scared of a wrestler called Dick Bruiser.

 

Oh, there were plenty of trash talkers before Gorgeous George Wagner. "I can lick any sonovabitch in the house. John L. Sullivan!" (Signing his name in the air as he issued his challenge.) "I can't sing and I can't dance, but I can lick any sonovabitch in the place!" - Jack Dempsey, aping his idol Sullivan.

Jim Corbett, Tommy Burns, Jack Johnson, Jack Sharkey ("I have no problem with colored fighters," said by him just before Joe Louis gave him a big problem. Just take a look at the angry fuming on Joe's face as he glares towards a flattened Sharkey while walking away! That was no poker face.)

"I'll moider da bum!" - Galento about everybody. (One day, I hope somebody enhances the ring microphone audio of Max Baer/Galento, so we can have an uncensored listen to just what insults they were exchanging.)

Ali may have claimed to have learned his behavior from Gorgeous George, but Archie "Rocky Marciano won't hit me" Moore was an early mentor of his, and Ali has acknowledged that the Mongoose was the one opponent of his who gave better than he got in their pre-fight banter. (Moore's braggadocio is what pissed off Charley Burley so much that he resolved to shut Archie up.)

Ali and Gorgeous George came along right when television was at a formative stage, but there were plenty of colorful braggarts before.

 

Oscar Bonavena = Ringo

Ali thought he looked like Beatle Ringo.

 

Ali's nicknames for opponents:

Holmes= The Peanut
L. Spinks= The Vampyre
Shavers= The Acorn
Patterson= The Rabbit
Foreman= The Mummy
Frazier= The Gorrilla

 

Wilt Chamberlaine.

 

the difference between ali&your mayweathers,mayorgas&mallignaggis when it comes to trash talking was that he had wit&it was almost always tongue in cheek&never really became too disrespectful(although smokin' joe would disagree)

 

True.