When We Were King Page #2

---

one after another

in less than three rounds?

It's hard for me

to conjure with that.

You always say "Muhammad, you're not

the same man you were 10 years ago."

I asked your wife

and she told me you're not the same

man you was two years ago!

After this fight

I suspect Ali will retire.

And through all of the years

my own memories of him

will be as a fighter,

and as the strange and curious

and gregarious and engaging

and sometimes cruel,

and sometimes family man that he is.

I'm gonna let everybody know

that that thing on your head

is a phoney

and it comes from the tail of a pony.

A stolen bicycle.

He had a bicycle

and he went to Columbia Gym.

There was something going on up there

and he left his bike parked outside.

So when he came out

someone had stolen it

and he went inside and he was crying

and he told the policeman there,

his name was Joe Martin,

that someone stole his bike.

And Joe Martin, he also taught the

little boys how to box in the evening

so he asked would he be interested

in learning how to box

and he told him yes, because if he

ever found out who stole his bike

he wanted to know how to fight

so he could beat them up.

An overhand right

sends Sonny to the canvas!

Referee Jersey Joe Walcott is trying

to get Ali to a neutral corner.

Ali yelling at Liston to get up...

- Anchor punch.

- Which fight?

I call it the anchor punch.

- The one Stepin Fetchit helped with?

- Yeah, man.

People couldn't see it,

it was so fast Sports Illustrated

got a slow-motion camera,

they clocked the punch and the punch

flew at 4/100ths of a second.

You can break a second

down to 100 pieces.

When people win a ski race

they say one and 16/100ths,

one and 32/100ths of a second,

so you break a second into 100 pieces

so, you know...that's quick,

they got a machine that goes,

like, fr-r-t, real quick, fr-r-t,

and it counts real quick, real quick.

And by the time that thing

hit four that's how quick,

from the time the punch started

to where it landed

was 4/100ths of a second,

an eye blink, like a camera flash.

That's 4/100ths of a second.

When I hit Sonny Liston

all those people blinked,

so they didn't see it.

- I swear!

If you watch the film close,

keep your eyes real close...

- Keep looking.

I'm getting ready to hit him.

You got to hold your eyes and wait

or you won't see it, man!

Ali was a beautiful...specimen,

a fighting machine.

He was handsome,

he was articulate, he was funny,

charismatic.

And was whuppin' ass too.

'Deposed champion

Cassius Clay, at court in Houston,

'is found guilty of violating

Selective Service laws

'by refusing to be inducted.

'He is sentenced to five years

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes