when the contract run out. i want black lawyers and managers. chauncey eskridge on north la salle street.
i don't need no "protectin'" from myself. why i need protecting from myself by them?
i ain't one of their thoroughbreds! or their charity things. "let's do somethin' for that well-behaved colored boy, cassius." i ain't well-behaved nothing! i am a man.
and i am not cassius. i changed my name. i am muhammad ali, now.
that's right.
no one "made me".
i made me. no one's in that ring but me!
i know who i'm not. i'm not drinkin'! goin' back on my wife! i am not prayin' to no blue-eyed, blonde-haired jesus. i ain't.
you saying i'm just like him?
hey, man, where they put the real pilot? what you doin' up here?
no, man, i meant. in l'ville, when i growed up, they barely let black folks drive buses.
in the three-car caravan, passes the huge triumphal arch with its giant black star on the top. thousands line the route to see the heavyweight champion and cheer him. for ali it's another kind of parade.
hey, man!!!
how you doin'? what's up, brother? i knew you were here. didn't think you were still here.
we just got here now.  and, maaan, the brothers were flyin' a dc 8. flippin' switches, navigatin', filing flight plans, talkin' french.
where you goin'?
november.
man, where should i go? we're planning on egypt.
shouldn't have quarreled with the honorable elijah.
you shouldn't have.  . quarreled with the honorable elijah muhammad.
you shouldn't have quarreled with elijah muhammad.
sonji. sonji roi.
'cause i love it, girl. how long you been workin' for herbert?
what kind of name is that?
what's your father do?
so who raised you?
whatcha doin' tomorrow? go ridin' with me.
i square it with herbert. i got a record player in my car.
got springs and stuff.
yeah. only one of 'em's smart. the one with the glasses.
people all screaming and fainting. i asked him, "this the way they act when you get big?"
he said, "champ. the more real you get, the more unreal it gonna get."
let's go.
where you live?
i think i gonna keep you around forever, girl.
herbert said you weren't a muslim.
why?
i'm no virgin. but i may as well be. i ain't jokin'! i always know when i know. see this face? i mean, you got a pretty face for a girl's face, but you ever seen somethin' as pretty as me? now, you about five-foot-three. that's too small. but i overlook that, too, 'cause.
'cause of your spirit!
yeah. 'cause you too much fun!
but you gotta be a muslim.
maaan, i ain't never been with a girl like you.
that's right. i wanna marry her.
and get me a kosher cook. lady who cooks at malcolm's temple. put my brother on the payroll. 50g a year for drivin' and jivin'.
yeah. how 'bout it, howard. you be my official full-time photographer.
no. marriage is the cornerstone of muslim life.
she gonna be a muslim, now! so fix it up, herbert.
what you drinkin'?
what's goin' on? we're late.
what questions?!
what?
you were the first. you walked me forward, my brother. you were the first.
meets liston, nails him with a straight right. ali begins baiting him, dancing. liston tries to cut off the ring, jabbing ineffectually. ali lets liston in, pulls back, then pivots on his right foot, throws a short right and ramp into slo-mo. to see liston not see it coming.
get up, sucker! get up and fight! no one gonna believe this!
why you done up like that?
"worry"?
the world looks at me, girl! what if i straightened my hair, live in the white suburbs? how i am says something!
where's herbert?
what do i do?
please stay, brother herbert.
i ain't dead!
yeah?
huh?
what you talking about?
you know about this?
i flunk their draft board test. now, without testing if i am "wiser" or "worser," they decide i can go into the army.
and i'm not cassius clay. that's a slave name. i'm a free man. i'm muhammad ali.
you make a lot of mistakes for a so-called educated man. you really go to law school?
i'm the best thing that ever happened to you, howard cosell. without me you be a tall white man with a microphone in his mouth.
keep talking. you were saying something half-smart.
why? i'm no stokely carmichael, h. rap brown.
of a good "ne-gro," who do what he told?
i stay out of jail and i get to fight.
yes.
waves in robert lipsyte, the new york times sportswriter in his late 20's we've seen before. he and howard bingham, waiting inside, know each other. they enter. the phone's already ringing.
ask chauncey eskridge in chicago. he's my lawyer. no. i'm out on bail. yeah, i fight. i fight clean. i'm an athlete. army's there to kill, kill, kill. my religion forbids that. no. i never shot anything in my life. do i know where vietnam is? yeah. it's on tv.  in southeast asia? it there, too? that's a joke, man!
what do i think about who? vietcong?
man, i ain't got no quarrel with them vietcong.
no vietcong ever called me nigger.
so what? i ain't gonna be what anybody else want me to be. i'm not afraid to be what i want. and think how i want.
people are following me.
what?
they gonna take away what no fighter in the world can?
what 'bout terrell?
motherfucker. he got a deferment for bein' too tall, or havin' flat feet. why don't he serve for me? tellin' me what i should do.
yes.
apologize? no.
yes, sir!
yes, sir. i am not going to apologize to you. this isn't a courtroom. and i don't have to sit here and answer your questions.
i ain't draft dodgin'! i ain't goin' to canada. i ain't burnin' my draft card. i ain't burnin' the flag. i'm stayin' right here. and you want to throw me in jail? go ahead. i'll do my time. i been in jail four hundred years. i'll be in jail four, five more. but i ain't goin' ten thousand miles to help murder and kill poor people for you. 'cause if i'm gonna die, i'll die now, right here, fighting you. if i wanna die. you my enemy, not vietcong or chinese or japanese. you my opposer when i want freedom. you my opposer when i want justice. you my opposer when i want equality. you want me to go somewhere for you, but you won't even stand up for me in america, for my rights and beliefs, you won't even stand up for me here at home.
what?
what you call me?
announce it right here or from flat on your back!
what's my name?!?
what's my name, motherfucker?!
what's my name? ali, at the apex of his athletic skills, fires six- or eight-punch combinations and then changes direction. ali shoots jabs and hooks going backwards; every move and set of combinations is a dance. ali's never been as light on his feet, as fast, as complex as in this fight. like any moment of greatness, we want it to last forever.  then, ali throws a 17-punch combination.
what's my name?!
my name?! what's my name?!
if the court would give me my sentence right now instead of waiting and stalling.
watch now.
blow on it.
this spooky! don't get scared.
so what's fresh, girl?
what's the freshest of the freshest?
feed me those things, i gotta come back as a wrassler. 645 pounds. i'd still be pretty. but i be fat pretty.
i remember something.  wha's your name?
you had a long braid.
that was you?
you see the ellis-quarry fight?
ellis the champ? man. i beatin' on him since we was sixteen. they give ellis to joe frazier? frazier'll kill him. then they out of juice. where's the gate? so they gotta let me fight. i fight ellis in a phone booth. middle of times square. you think that draw a crowd?
tijuana?
can't fight here. can't fight outside the country.
why i want to be in the restaurant business?!
how much all this gonna cost?
look out!
not then.
i always tell the truth.
thought we already got turned down there.
where the money come from, chauncey? herbert tell me i'm runnin' on empty. put aside "how do that happen"? licenses all revoked. no passport. i can't fight here. can't fight abroad. and what happen if i lose the supreme court?
man give him a shot, he took a shot.
how's he?
i'll call 'em, i'll call 'em.  may-may! it go in one end and come out the other.
you so much better at it, mama.
maaan. joe frazier can't talk, can't up the gate, can't fill the arena. they gotta let me fight.
i need angelo, rudy, ferdie --
cosell? this muhammad ali.
go to georgia or alabama or sweden. everybody know i'm the champ. the crown is a lie. i know it's a lie. joe frazier know it's a lie. it time for everybody to stop lying and tell the truth.
i ain't interested in the paycheck, i'd fight joe frazier for free in a phone booth in times square, if i wasn't broke. i still will.
i'm saying it's time for everybody to quit lying! muhammad ali is the champ! i have to, i'll get the fight on myself. and if they offer me money, i ain't gonna turn it down.
you can't call me that no more.
whyn't you call an ambulance or a doctor?
what's wrong with you, man?!
i leave you alone. you called me!
what you shame yourself like this for, maaan?! why you shame yourself?!
you know "low." you so low, the curb look like up!
those rhymes is old. forget 'em.
yeah.
no. there's no "back" to take you to.
you can't do what you do best in the world. and how you feed your family? from prison? who take care of your kids? and is allah, is god with me?
a thousand dollars to the man who brings me howard cosell's toupee! dead or alive!
put me on, howard.
i guarantee. it will be a historical and momentous night!
what heavyweight champion of the world? i'm not the champ. i am retired, finished, out of the game. and i ain't gonna let myself grieve and suffer none. but i know i will not fight again.
if tomorrow they say: "we want you to fight joe frazier. madison square garden. millions and millionses of dollars. here's your license back." i will tell them: "i am sorry, but i am done."
you'll have to wonder. what me and smokin' joe would have looked like.
howard, you losing your hearing along with your hair? don't put questions to it! i am through fighting. 'cause i got a bigger and more important match comin' up. the u.s. government. a heavier contender.
i don't know, but it's going to be a shocking and terrible fight. in fact, they might wish they let me stay in boxing.
there you go, agitatin'. you ask smokin' joe what he been smokin'?! joe frazier even dream he can whup me? he better wake up and apologize.  but, if i was to jump in the ring with joe, here's what you might see.  ali comes out to meet frazier, but frazier starts to retreat; if frazier goes back an inch farther, he'll wind up in a ringside seat; ali swings with a left, ali swings with a right. frazier keeps backin', but there's not enough room. it a matter of time before ali lowers the boom; now ali lands with a right, what
a beautiful swing, but the punch lifts frazier clean out of the ring. frazier's still risin', but the referee wears a frown, 'cause he can't start countin' 'til frazier come down. and frazier's disappeared from view. and the crowd is getting frantic. then our radar stations pick him up. he's somewhere over the atlantic. who would have thought when they came to this fight, that they would witness the launching of a black satellite?
but don't wait for they fight. 'cause it ain't never gonna happen. you only can wonder and imagine.
you want me to buy you a drink? ali's dad sits on a crate, painting the door of a delivery truck. he looks up. ali is there. emotion wells up in both men. the younger "rebelistic" son, seeing his father, who is so like him. the older hep-cat who got cheated by life of his potential and promise. in this case, his boy, his boy's name, pride and reflected glory.
i don't wanna fight no more. not with you.
who dress you, joe? you look like dale evans.
to be closer to you, honey.
there be two undefeated heavyweight champions! and they ain't fighting!
'cause you gotta get behind this and we gotta do this.
you wanna get this on, joe? you and me? or not?!
i can fight in atlanta.
georgia ain't got no state boxing commission. and atlanta got a black city council; a liberal jewish mayor, sam something. it all set. i do a prelim in atlanta with jerry quarry. but we got to get the steamroller movin' now.
you announce that if i beat quarry you give me the title shot. so what you say. maaan?
but you know you ain't the champ yet.
i'm fine. thanks.
what you want?
you want me to take you back?
you can't hit what you can't see.
all praise to allah.  . alaikum salaam.
you saying i can be a muslim again, herbert?
i never stopped. like i never stopped being champ.
when? after i promoted quarry fight? after i won it?
i already got frazier.
are we talking management, talking money or talking religion?
when i got leery and talked up how come i'm broke, then came the suspension. now, you explain that to me, my brother?
i love the nation, herbert. i love elijah muhammad. but it don't own me.
now, you go on out. and you make the frazier deal.
yeah.
what are you talking about, howard? quarry?
i'm free.
supreme court set me free.
hook's comin'. lean back, man! move back! work legs!
is exhausted. labored breathing. the crowd cheering frazier.
shut up! i lost. get outta here.
where's belinda?
my hands was in sand, angie. my feet in water.
woulda, shoulda, coulda.  after three-and-a-half years, this. from how far back. comeback is.
i lost. you lose, you don't shoot yourself. the world goes on.
oh, how wrong he is.
i ain't dead, baby! c'mon.
i can move my jaw with my tongue. he got me.
ain't stoppin' nothin'! nothin' stoppin'!
foreman call me one time after he won the olympics.
so.
you think i still got the tools?
well, you better sharpen 'em up. 'cause we goin' to africa.
it's time to be heavyweight champion of the world again.
man, you crazy.
what are they saying, man?!!! why they saying that?
what's that mean?! i don't understand!
what?!
ali, boma ye!
ali, boma ye!
fast. six left jabs flash from his chest and shoulder, followed by a right hook and left and right uppercuts.
back up, maaan.  . you fast!
ali, boma ye george foreman!
you out, sucker! curious, ali runs behind the green signs from where the kids came.
looks at the backs of the signs. he and we realize the signs' purpose: to hide the makeshift plastic walls and rooms made from cardboard containers and oil drums from the foreigners traveling the road to kinshasa. one teenager with a withered arm and a big smile runs up.
foreman? i kill him!
looks at individual faces. a grinning older man with a blue transistor radio . a smiling kid. a girl with no shoes. a teenage kid jumping up and down. all looking at him. ali makes four pieces of rope appear. he rubs them together.
shazaam!!!
even if i die here. if it kill me, no matter what. i gotta win.
howard! how many you ugly sportswriters in there got me over foreman? don't lie.
what's the odds?
this'll be the biggest upset since sonny liston. i want all of you to write it down! this fight is no contest!
george foreman is a big mummy. i've officially named him "the mummy."
george punches are like "look out, here come the left." whomp! here come the right! whomp! like a mummy. but "the mummy" can't hit what it can't see. i'm fast! gonna dance. be all over george. george is gonna feel he surrounded. and i done somethin' new for this fight; i done rassled with an alligator. anticipatory laughter. they've had twelve years' experience of ali's stand-up and know when a new routine's starting.
that's right! i have rassled with an alligator. i done tussled with a whale. i done handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail. that's bad! only last week i murdered a rock. injured a stone. hospitalized a brick. i'm so mean, i make medicine sick.
howard. i didn't want to talk about this, especially in front of everybody. but i talked to your wife! and she told me you're not the man you used to be. two years ago!
salaam alaikum, brothers! the champ is here!
bottled water. frozen steaks. brought all this stuff like africans don't have steaks.
they eat it.
mobutu eats it.
so? what's that do with any of why we here?
here come "herbert."
money? i do "money-making" whenever i want. money is easy.
don king delivered the first black- promoted championship fight in africa!
'cause clean-cut muslims parading on the south side of chicago don't get this done! i got to put honkeys with connections and bad- ass niggers to it, too.
that what this is? think i gonna lose? puttin' doubt on me?
sure.
truth is. george knocked hisself out.
that's right. he did three rounds. knew he was gonna lose to muhammad ali and knocked hisself out. and i predict that whenever the fight is set, he might not show up!
i'm a bad man!
and you tell the same thing to george.
i been watchin' you! i heard you. i know he's your man. i know you got him picked. but the man's in trouble.
the whole world was gonna know. but, now, he ain't gonna show. that's why he knocked hisself out when he was training.
uh-huh. i want all helicopters guarded! private boats. private jets. i want the airport -- i'm serious -- i want president mobutu and all his paratroopers. mobutu and all his paratroopers. i want all of you "zaireans" to be on guard! watch all strange boats tryin' to slip away! they might be takin' him out.
yeah. watch the bus station. watch everything! elephant caravans. he might sneak out by elephant.
hey!!!
don't talk to angelo like that! don't you talk to him like that ever again!!!
you think you're callin' these shots, don? you're not.
they know! all those ladies out there know.
they know i'm ready! i see fear in the eyes of his followers! i see fear! this is the fight that muhammad ali was supposed to be ended. the myth of muhammad was supposed to fall! supposed to be my destruction! they miscalculated. they misjudged. they got it. wrong.
say, girl!
c'mere. i know you?
what's your name?
like the sports car.
but with a little something extra. veronica, i know you now. c'mere, sit down.
you with don?
where you from?
well. they all came together real nice.
all them writers in there think foreman gonna. kill me! what you think?
you been to hong kong? taiwan? thailand?
i can't go there. all the ladies out there from indonesia, japan, hawaii, india.  "ali-i-i-e-e-e! ali-e-e-e! oh, muhammad al-i-i-i!" you seen those people from thailand? i was in bangkok -- i couldn't walk. i couldn't. i just couldn't do nothin'. "get me outta this country!" the women were so pretty.
ladies in thailand, their hair comes down to their knees. and they about veronica's complexion. and they bad!
but they ain't nothin' like the "sisters." ain't nothin' like the sisters!
let's go for a ride.
shows the scarf, pushes back his cuffs so that he can't hide anything up his sleeves. his wrists are bare. he shows both sides. now, he takes the scarf and pushes with his right hand and feeds it into the closed fist of his left. he looks up wide-eyed at everybody. then, he opens his fingers and the scarf is not there!
so why you glad we still here?
that's one job. i got two.
gotta whup george!
listen, girl, as a muslim, i am busted out and failed in the eyes of god. i shoulda discovered islam at 50! 'cause i am weak on women. they take my eyes and my heart follow. causing me to be a lovin' husband and a terrible husband! . green eyes and cocoa skin? . okay, rest of me, let's go!!
faster! faster!
why not?
hey! look! look at george foreman's trainer, feelin' me up on purpose! on the side, to see if i'm in shape!
we'll, you ain't gonna find no fat! watch out!!
she's gotta put it on.
"george" buttons is all i got. in my bedroom! all over the bed! everywhere! to remind me. of all of ya'. all of ya'! reminds me of all ya'!
yeah.
when did you get in?
you know what's going on.
i didn't mean for it to come out.
i know that.
i didn't mean for it to be.
i don't want to hurt you. it's wrong. you're a good wife to me.
i respect you. i always respect you.
i follow my heart.
i fight george. i didn't come this far to quit.
thanks to allah.
why?
foreman ain't no mummy. he's knocked out eight out of eleven before the end of the third round. he the most dangerous fighter i ever fought.
and i can't wait!
sheds his robe, now, and throws a blistering array of jabs and hooks. the crowd goes nuts. ali looks ringside and sees.
motherfucker, you 'bout to discover you ain't nothin'.
you been hearin' about me for years. all your life you been hearin' about muhammad ali. now you gotta face me.
you never should have come to africa.
legs heavy. air's heavy. like sand.
turns away. nevertheless, it crashes into his jaw.
that all you got? that it?
there is nothin'.  nothin'! . i cannot take.
thought you was bad!
here come george's "murder" round.
ties up foreman's left in the crook of his elbow, and they stagger, married, awkwardly, into the center of ring. the referee separates them.
george! show me something.
where's your punch, man?!
been here before.
open the door, richard. outta this room.  put on your coat, man. get out.
think my fight's over? that.  . all you got? that the hardest you hit?
c'mon, chump!!!
took somethin' away from him, angie, that round.
they don't know what's happenin'.
you bet the wrong horse! he can't fight no better than you can act!
covers with gloves at his head. elbows at his ribs. when head shots come in, ali slips them the right or left, or turns them into glancing shots, or just leans straight back so that they all fall short by quarter of an inch. the bell.
covering, taking the most powerful hooks foreman's thrown in the fight, one after the other to the body.
take it! terrify him with what you can take.
eight more rounds.  you runnin' outta gas?
can't let you get that second wind which you don't know is out there for you.
want the title. wear the heavyweight crown? jaw broke? nose smashed? face busted? you ready to die? is that you? 'cause you gonna meet a man who will die before he let you win.
hits foreman with a left. foreman launches a short left that ali counters with a big right cross that connects.
now.
right now!
i don't know what's gonna happen. maan, everything is crazy.
you think you got a chance, chump? now you in trouble.
you even dream of beating me? you better wake up and apologize! kid throws a punch. ali collapses to his knees.
He too much for me!