You got 3 things going against you: you're good, you're left-handed, and you're black

Joe Louis is the greatest heavyweight champion of all time. Rocky Marciano is second only to Louis. Where do I rate Ali? Somewhere below me. I beat him, and if I could beat him, no doubt Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano could have beaten him.

I had a job to do in the ring, and the businessmen around me had a job to do outside the ring, I did my job by beating up most of the guys they put in front of me and staying in shape, but the people I trusted didn't do their jobs.

Ali kept calling me ugly, but I never thought of myself as being any uglier than him, I have 11 babies, somebody thought I was cute.

I've achieved 'the American dream.' I feel it's my duty to help others achieve their vision, too - especially the youth.

Since I was a boy of five or six, I had it in my mind I would be a world boxing champion.

Work is the only meanin' I've ever known.