1.
Aerial view - New York
0.11

2.
CU Muhammad Ali
1.52


TRANSCRIPT: M. ALI: SEQ 2: "The critics are always wrong when they come to predict...I'm the critic, I'm the one in there executing the punches, I'm the expert, not them. They can't be the experts, I'm the expert. These fellows, half of them are old, flatfooted, and never boxed a day in their lives, how is he going to be an expert on me? I'm the predictor when it comes to me. I prove them wrong every time. They said I couldn't come back. No fighter's ever come back". Why, why is it that I don't hear no talk about "He came back, he did it"? You don't hear that Jerry Quarry, he's fast, he went a hard seven with Frazier, I got him in three. What was the excuse after I whipped him in three? Well, he didn't get a test. We don't know if he could go the distance. He probably would have cooled it after seven, eight rounds. He was tired, he was breathing hard. All right, here comes Bonavena. This is his test tonight, can he go 15. You know he talks, can he go 15, this is his test, Ladies and Gentlemen, this fight will see if he can go 15, then he'll be ready for Frazier. Here comes round 11 and 12, I'm looking stronger. He didn't say nothing like "well, it looks like he can go the distance...."Ladies and Gentlemen, he's proving that he's got off of that. And whenever I was beating Bonavena you couldn't hear nothing. And whenever Bonavena got a punch in "look at him, he's never been hit like this before he's in trouble, he's tired, he's not the same Ali, he'll be in trouble if he meets Frazier." That man hasn't landed one good punch, and I'm constantly beating him, without a scratch on my face, but yet I can't beat Frazier. You see, they look real bad when they make these public statements. You see, it's bad to predict against me. All I say to all of my fans out there, and anybody whose been following me! I don't encourage nobody to bet, but please don't put nothing on Joe Frazier."




Initials MF/AH/SGM/0131 AH/GNS/CO/1.27


SPORT: BOXING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Muhammad Ali -- formerly Cassius Clay and world heavyweight boxing champion -- has lashed into the critics who predicts his ring comeback is doomed to ultimate failure. He was speaking in New York on Tuesday (December 22).

Ali, brash and self-confident as ever, even gave the newsmen a hot tip on who would win his forthcoming heavyweight championship encounter with the current champion, Joe Frazier: