Quotes to inspire and reflect

He was the greatest fighter of all time but his boxing career is secondary to his contribution to the world. He's the most transforming figure of my time certainly. He did more to change race relations and the views of people than even Martin Luther King.

Ali, the G-O-A-T [Greatest Of All Time]. A giant, an inspiration, a man of peace, a warrior for the cure. Thank you.

Manny Pacquiao

We lost a giant today. Boxing benefitted from Muhammad Ali's talents but not as much as mankind benefitted from his humanity.

There will never be another Muhammad Ali. The black community all around the world, black people all around the world, needed him. He was the voice for us. He's the voice for me to be where I'm at today.

Floyd Mayweather

At a time when blacks who spoke up about injustice were labelled uppity and often arrested under one pretext or another, Muhammad willingly sacrificed the best years of his career to stand tall and fight for what he believed was right. In doing so, he made all Americans, black and white, stand taller. I may be 7ft 2in but I never felt taller than when standing in his shadow.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.

Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest human beings I have ever met. No doubt he was one of the best people to have lived in this day and age.

Muhammad Ali was not just a champion in the ring - he was a champion of civil rights, and a role model for so many people.

David Cameron

Barack Obama.

To put him as a boxer is an injustice.

Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it

Holly Holm

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’.

Dick Schaap

In fifty years of covering the sport, of course Muhammad Ali is by far the dominant figure.

Muhammad Ali is a true hero, and the fact there's something wrong with him is his badge of valour. He's a great man.

Muhammad Ali - he was a magnificent fighter and he was an icon... Every head must bow, every knee must bend, every tongue must confess, thou art the greatest, the greatest of all time, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali was a god, an idol and an icon. He was boxing. Any kid that had the opportunity to talk to Ali, to get advice from Muhammad Ali, was privileged. He's always given me time to ask questions, although I was so in awe that I didn't ask questions.

You get these moments in the ring that live forever. That's what Muhammad Ali accomplished, and I hope that I have, too.

Sugar Ray Leonard

If you're a person struggling to eat and stay healthy, you might have heard about Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali, but you'll never have heard of Bill Gates.

Gerry Cooney

Hunter S. Thompson

Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh.

George Foreman

That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn't entirely conquer - he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.

In boxing, I had a lot of fear. Fear was good. But, for the first time, in the bout with Muhammad Ali, I didn't have any fear. I thought, 'This is easy. This is what I've been waiting for'. No fear at all. No nervousness. And I lost.

Norman Mailer

The world’s greatest athlete is in danger of being our most beautiful man. Women draw an audible breath. Men look down…for he is the Prince of Heaven.

To Joe Frazier

I saw your wife. You’re not as dumb as you look.

Ali taunts Ernie Terrell, who had refused to acknowledge Ali's change of name before their bout in 1967

What's my name, fool? What's my name?

Ali taunts Liston during their second fight in 1965

He’s (Sonny Liston) too ugly to be the world champ. The world champ should be pretty like me.

Get up sucker and fight. Get up and fight.

That all you got, George?

Ali taunts George Foreman, in the rope-a-dope fight in Zaire in 1974.

You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned? Wait till I whup George Foreman's behind.

Ali's got a left, Ali's got a right - when he knocks you down, you'll sleep for the night; and when you lie on the floor and the ref counts to ten, hope and pray that you never meet me again.

Joe Frazier is the greatest of all time, next to me.

It will be a killer, and a chiller, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila.

Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the U.S. Bureau of Wild Life.

Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.