What did Ali say to Don King after the rumble ?

"Marciano was the greatest!"

 

"Get out of my face or I'm going to tell Mobutu to feed you to the Congo River crocodiles" might provoke that quick change of expression....

 

"You're next Don"

 

Don King's face dropped quicker than Foreman did from the knockdown!

 

Probably F*** Off or Get Lost

 

"Fooled you sucker.....!"

 

My Godmother's auntie actually spent grew up in the 60s and 70s in America. She was the girlfriend of someone who was actually involved in the camp of Ali, I think it was a type of manager. The vibe I got was that he was one of those leechers who didn't give a **** about him. He was ringside for this fight and actually overheard what Ali said. So I have it on good authority that he said, and I quote:

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When Ali fought Berbick in his final fight, Don King had a claim on Berbick (or claimed he did) and flew down to the Bahamas a few days before the fight to extort $100K from the promoter or he was going to hold up the fight in court (or so he threatened).

Don went alone. The promoter, James Cornelius, got wind of this. He was Nation of Islam and allegedly arrived at King’s hotel room with a couple of leg-breaker NOI types who beat up Kinig pretty bad and sent him home.

Ali, of course, was also in the Bahamas. Some reporters asked him about King getting beat up and he quipped, knowing first-hand how Don’s fighters had been treated, “Was it Berbick?’

 

Ali didn't say anything to him. King smiled at Ali for a moment when he thought he had his eye, but he had the same look on his face moments before and after he smiled. A riot was breaking out and the police, who had already rounded up a bunch of folks and had them in cells under the stadium, were pummeling people. It was King's first major event, and the ring was being overrun and people were being clubbed. It was a dangerous situation. Everyone seems to realize it. Besides King, I think one guy in the whole mob is smiling for a couple seconds. Everyone else looks equally concerned, angry or is yelling for people to back off.

Ali didn't even get announced as the winner in the ring. They had to push their way back to the dressing room, instead.

Riots didn't tend to break out with police swinging batons when Ali fought in Vegas showrooms before that. Rahman Ali, Wali Muhammad (who passes by briefly) all seem to be pretty incensed at that moment.

 

I remember in the morning edition of the local newspaper the next day, Floyd Patterson was saying that he would come out of retirement to face Muhammad Ali for his newly won title. Of course nothing ever transpired from that statement.

 

I was reading Patterson's biography, and there's a passage in there from a guy who was in Floyd's home gym when Ali's team phoned Patterson in late 77 and asked Floyd if he wanted to fight Ali. Patterson hadn't fought since their rematch five years earlier. Patterson said no, and Ali fought Spinks instead (and lost).

Can you imagine Ali-Patterson III in February 1978?

 

Not to go off topic but Ali and Patterson seemed to circle each other a lot but the fights didn't come off.

I didn't realize it until a couple years ago but Ali actually signed to defend his title against Patterson in a rematch before he got his title stripped for draft evasion. There was even a press conference announcing it (which never gets reported in Ali books).

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So they fought in 65. They signed to fight again in 67 but Ali had his boxing license revoked. They fought in 72 and it was stopped on cuts, but it was a good fight. And Ali offered him another title shot at the end of 77.

Had Patterson phoned Ali after Ali beat Foreman, I wouldn't have minded seeing Ali-Patterson III in 1975 instead of Ali-Wepner or even Ali-Lyle. (Lyle was coming off a loss, as it was, when he fought Ali.)

 

That would have been a very interesting contest, especially that they were almost close to the same era. I will do you one better, imagine if Floyd had pulled off a major upset that night instead of Leon Spinks, many new challengers for Floyd, Ken Norton, Jimmy Young, Larry Holmes and Leon Spinks.