Hitting Ali in the body or on the arms was like hitting a piece of cement.
Except for Ali, fighters had never been marketable.
Twenty years I've been fighting Ali, and I still want to take him apart piece by piece and send him back to Jesus.
I was a daredevil before, and after I lost my sight I was the same. I loved riding bikes, scooters and horses. I even learned to box. Muhammad Ali is my hero.
When I turned pro, Muhammad Ali was laying back, and I was able to fill up an area that was empty.
Ali vs. Stevenson would have served as a symbolic battle between the United States and Cuba, capitalism and communism: Castro's values instilled in his boxers pitted against the values of 'merchandise' boxers from the rest of the world.
Muhammad Ali meant everything to me. He inspired me to box after watching re-runs of him winning a gold medal in the Olympics and being a world champion.
So I decided to move that scene in the doctor's office to two-thirds into the movie, after the viewers had come to know Ryan and Ali and share in their happiness.
Pakistan never valued Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan saab until English songwriter Peter Gabriel started collaborating with him. After that, the country suddenly realised that they have an amazing talent. This is the story of a lot of artistes there.
You get these moments in the ring that live forever. That's what Muhammad Ali accomplished, and I hope that I have, too.
In 2007, my life changed forever. I signed on 'Tashan,' a full-on glamorous masala movie, with two of the hottest and fittest actors around: Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan. And me, rising out of the sea like a Bond girl, wearing nothing but a green bikini. I had nightmares of how my love handles would be on display for the whole world to see.
Do you remember a scene with Ryan and Ali playing in the snow? Well, that was improvised.
The danger of leaving overwhelming wealth and power in the grasp of a small minority is a lesson that leaders such as ousted Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak have learned a little too late, as the demonstrations across the Arab world indicate.
Our next black president, I think, can be more like Muhammad Ali.
In fifty years of covering the sport, of course Muhammad Ali is by far the dominant figure.
On the sets, Ali Zafar was extremely entertaining... he would just start singing out of the blue. It was just great!
U2 was involved in Live Aid, and I ended up going to Ethiopia and working there for some time with my wife, Ali.
Sugar Ray Leonard was as close as anyone came after Ali to being Ali, but he wasn't Ali.
'Ali' is the story of a lower middle-class golfer who becomes a champion. I find the game very interesting and would like to continue playing it regularly after the movie is wrapped up.
Joe Frazier's life didn't start with Ali. I was a Golden Gloves champ. Gold medal in Tokyo '64. Heavyweight champion of the world long before I fought Ali in the Garden.
I think Ali was a fan of mine, even though he never said it. A lot of fighters thought I was pretty good. Nobody every really spoke different on that. But a lot of fighters thought I was good so.
I've read a lot of books on the laws of attraction, and in my home, I have a big book on Muhammad Ali, which I've read because he is, like, a hero of mine, but other than that, no, I'm not a big reader.
Ali was a guy that had a lot of discipline. If you hung around him, you'd be able to get some of that discipline that he had. And I learned from that. He was a sweet man.
Getting up to Zaire - getting ready to fight Muhammad Ali - I thought this will be a matter of just a little exercise. I'll probably knock him out in three rounds. Two, three - maybe three and a half rounds. That was the most confidence I had in my whole life.
It's obvious that they're going to want Ali's daughter and Frazier's daughter to fight it out.
Ali's belief in himself was something I picked up on, and it's become my own philosophy.
Roy Jones and Muhammad Ali are the inspiration for my style of fighting.
I made the decision to turn pro, and I remember what Ali said to me: 'Get Angelo Dundee. He's the right complexion with the right connection.' He knew boxing. Our relationship was so genuine, so sincere.
I'd see people being really successful, whether it was my teammates or big-name fighters like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, and I'd think, 'I want to be a legend like that.'
Ali helped raise black people in this country out of mental slavery. The entire experience of being black changed for millions of people because of Ali.
The patriarchy is alive and well in Egypt and the wider Arab world. Just because we got rid of the father of the nation in Egypt or Tunisia, Mubarak or Ben Ali, and in a number of other countries, does not mean that the father of the family does not still hold sway.
When Mike Tyson was only 18, his managers used to market him on posters, reminding you that if your grandfather had missed Joe Louis, or your father Muhammad Ali, don't you miss Tyson.
'Freaky Ali' may look like an easy role to others, but it is not easy.
Martin Luther King didn't know he was going to have a day named after him; Muhammad Ali didn't know he was going to be the people's champion. He was doing what he was doing because it was right.
There's so much pressure on becoming the next Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson, and if you don't achieve that in boxing, you're nothing.
Muhammad Ali inside the ring and Muhammad Ali outside the ring were totally different men; his abrasive, magnetic daring and infectious self-love outside the ring galvanized the world and distracted many from his sniper's precision. He was a heavyweight with the fluttering gracefulness of a middleweight.