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Muhammad Ali Dies; Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Speaks about Muhammad Ali's Legacy; Former Boxing Champions Remember Muhammad Ali. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired June 04, 2016 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Christi Paul.

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Joe Johns in for Victor Blackwell.

We want to show you some live pictures right now from Muhammad Ali's hometown, Louisville, Kentucky. The legendary boxer died yesterday in a Scottsdale, Arizona, hospital, much to the surprise of people who knew that he was there for respiratory problems, but had no idea it would come to this.

JOHNS: He has been in the hospital before, and there was some thinking that he would be able to come back home very soon. As it turned, Muhammad Ali dead at the age of 74.

People in Kentucky are getting their first chance to remember him. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is expected to speak shortly there in Louisville, Kentucky.

PAUL: This obviously hits them very hard because they consider him to be obviously their hometown hero of sorts. He has done so much outside the boxing ring when you're talking about civil rights and about humanitarian causes. And people are certainly recognizing that I think even more than they're looking at his success in the boxing ring today.

JOHNS: That's very true. A long history of battles. It has been said that his greatest battle perhaps was the battle against the United States government on the issue of his draft evasion charge that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

But at the end of the day I think most people wills say his greatest battle was against Parkinson's, a battle that he fought for almost 30 years.

PAUL: What you're looking at here is a small memorial that has just started to take shape there in Louisville as everybody is just waking up to this news because he died overnight, surrounded by his families and close friends. We understand that his children obviously were there with him, and that there were a lot of tears, but there was a gentleman who was with them who came on CNN a couple of hours ago and said they have the same spirituality as their father and they are, in a sense, at peace.

JOHNS: The three-time world heavyweight champion leaving behind an incredible legacy, as we've said, not just in the ring but as an outspoken fighter for social justice in the 60s, a man who embraced his faith, and a man who never stopped using his celebrity for good.

Joining us now, CNN -- there we're going to stop because it appears that the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky is now walking up to the microphones. We expect him to give some fairly short remarks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, everyone.

PAUL: Mayor Greg Fischer here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm honored and privileged to be the president and CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center. Today we are here to honor the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali. As you all know, Muhammad was more than a boxer, he was much more than a sportsman. He was a great humanitarian. He was a great ambassador for the city of Louisville and for the world.

Today for many of us is a sad day, but it's also a day to celebrate the life of a great human being. I agree, that's right. So in that regard I'm going to turn the podium over to our great mayor, Greg Fischer, mayor of Louisville, Kentucky. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

MAYOR GREG FISCHER, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: Honor guard, present the colors.

What going on here right now is we're seeing the honor guard presenting the colors. You can only barely see it because we don't have a second camera there at least at this time. There we go. There's a different angle. And after that we'll be hearing from Greg Fischer, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky.

This city has, among other things, enshrined the home of Muhammad Ali as a place for tourists to go and catch up just a bit of his legacy.

[10:05:07] PAUL: We're hoping to hear from the mayor some information, too, about the funeral that will be held and the burial. We know that he will be laid -- Muhammad Ali will be laid to rest there in Louisville and that Mayor Greg Fischer there is ordering flags being flown at half-staff, we understand, on all the metro government buildings and that they will remain at half-staff until Muhammad Ali is laid to rest. But this is just some of the protocol and the reverence that is given. Let's listen to the mayor here.

FISCHER: Muhammad Ali lived a life so big and bold that it hard to believe any one man could do everything he did, to do all the things he became in the course of just one lifetime. This man, this champion, this Louisvillian ended his 74 years yesterday as a United Nations messenger of peace, a humanitarian and champion athlete who earned Amnesty International's lifetime achievement award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, "Sports Illustrated" sportsman of the century. He was co-founder with his beloved wife, Lonnie, of the Muhammad Ali Center, which promotes respect, hope, and understanding here in his hometown in Louisville and around the world. A man of action and principle, he was a conscientious objector to the

Vietnam War and willingly paid the price, taking a stand that forced him out of the ring for over three years during the primetime of his career.

A devout Muslim, an interfaith pioneer, he took the name Muhammad Ali in 1964 and advocated for understanding and peace among people of different faiths.

He was, of course, three-time heavyweight champion of the world, a young, handsome fighter with swagger like the world had never seen. He intimidated opponents outside the ring and dominated them inside the ring. Like when he predicted he would beat Sonny Liston in 1964, made it happen, and shouted "I shook up the world."

A winner of the Olympic gold medal in Rome, 1960. A graduate of Louisville's Central High School, class of 1960. He was a 12-year-old boy whose red bicycle was stolen in front of a gym about a mile down 4th street and who told police officer Joe Martin that he wanted to whoop whoever took it. And Martin said, "You better learn to box first."

Muhammad Ali was a boy who grew up at 3302 Grand Avenue, about three miles that way. He liked to eat hot dogs and play Clue with his brother Rudy in a house that's now a museum. And before that he was a newborn baby, Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., born January 17th, 1942, to Cassius Sr. in Odessa. Imagine that day, that little boy, eyes wide open, looking around the room at the old Louisville General Hospital, not knowing the life that awaited him, the life he would make, the world he would shake up, and the people who would inspire.

And like you, I am absolutely one of those people. Muhammad Ali belongs to the world, but he only has one hometown.

(APPLAUSE)

FISCHER: The "Louisville lip" spoke to everyone, but we heard him in a way no one else could, as our brother, our uncle, and our inspiration. And I am so grateful that I had the chance to know him and see how he leveraged his fame to share his message of love, peace, and compassion.

What the champ would want us to do right now is to spread that same message, follow his example, and live by the same six core principles that he lived by -- confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, respect, and spirituality.

[10:10:13] I'd like to close with Muhammad's words, which carried just as much grace and power as his fists ever did. This comes from his book "The Soul of a Butterfly, Reflections on Life's Journey," quote, "It doesn't matter whether you're a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. When you believe in God, you should believe that all people are part of one family. If you love God, you can't love only some of his children."

He believed passionately in the need for us all to keep our eyes, our minds, and our hearts open so we can keep learning from each other. As he said, "My soul has grown over the years and some of my views have changed. As long as I'm alive, I will continue to try to understand more, because the work of the heart is never done."

We all remember that incredible moment in 1996 when the champ held that burning torch in his trembling hand and lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta. And now he has passed that torch to us.

While there can only be one Muhammad Ali, his journey from Grand Avenue to global icon serves as reminder that there are young people with the potential for greatness in the houses and neighborhoods all over our city, our nation, and our world. There is no limit to what our kids can do if we help them realize their full human potential.

(APPLAUSE)

FISCHER: And there is no excuse for us to do anything less than our best to help them find that greatness in themselves. That's how we become champions. Muhammad Ali has shown us the way. Today we, his fellow Louisvillians join the billions of lives he touched worldwide in mourning his passing, celebrating his legacy, and saying, thank you, Muhammad, for everything that you've given to your hometown, your country, and your world.

To close our ceremony and honor of life of Muhammad Ali, the Louisville metro police will now present the colors of the United States of America and will lower the flags in tribute to Muhammad Ali. Thank you, everyone.

[10:17:23] PAUL: And now you see that flag flying at half-staff. You really felt the reverence of the moment when you wanted the strong yet meticulous march up to the flagpole. And even -- we would be remiss in not mentioning that little boy with the very colorful hair and his hand at his forehead in salute for the moment.

JOHNS: And the mayor of Louisville, Greg Fischer, summing up the hometown roots of Muhammad Ali, saying in part he graduated from Louisville Central High School, class of 1960, which was, by the way, the same year Ali won the Olympics in Rome, and mentioning also the house on Grand Avenue that they have memorialized. And I think the quote that sort of seals it for me there, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world but he only has one hometown."

PAUL: Yes, very special to the folks that are there, and also how solemn the moment, because you couldn't hear anything in the crowd of the people who were there watching and honoring. It is so quiet and you just take that moment in.

JOHNS: Right. Now, we're going to go to Andrew Young, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations and chairman of the Andrew Young Foundation. He's on the phone. So thank you very much for joining us, ambassador. You knew Muhammad Ali well. Can you tell us how you found out about his passing and give us some sense of what's going through your mind this morning?

ANDREW YOUNG, CHAIRMAN, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS (via telephone): Well, actually I don't think Muhammad Ali will ever leave us. He'll always be with us. I haven't seen him for a few years, but I stayed in touch with his wife, Lonnie. And she is also an unsung hero in this because while the whole world loved Muhammad, nobody took care of him like his wife, Lonnie. And when he came down to Atlanta to light the torch for the Olympic games, we were trying to keep it a secret. And he wanted to get a haircut, and I wanted to bring a barber to the hotel. He insisted on, no, come on, take me to the barber shop.

So I took him to one of the big barber shops in Atlanta, and I remember him stopping at every chair, taking a picture with every man, woman, and child in the place. It was a barber shop and beauty parlor. And he sort of held court for an hour before he got his hair cut.

[10:20:06] And he was, well, he was magnificent. Even though he was weak then, he held that torch very steady, as he held high the torch of freedom and justice all his life. When he and Martin Luther King actually had the same attorney, and back in 1967, 66, Martin was struggling with his questions on the war in Vietnam. And I think many of us felt we ought to stick with civil rights and not get involved in the war. But I think the fact that Muhammad went ahead and took the plunge also helped Martin Luther King say that this is something that he had to oppose also.

JOHNS: Can we tease that out just a little bit more, Mr. Young? We talk so much about the sports legacy of Muhammad Ali, which is enormous, but there's a civil rights legacy that goes along with it. And you were there. So can you kind of give us a sense of your place of --

YOUNG: It was a human rights legacy. He loved everybody, and I think he was the first one to probably aggressively internationalize boxing. And made Americans -- he made as an American sports hero, he made everybody in the world love America.

And with the "Rumble in the Jungle" and the "Thrilla in Manila," nobody in 1960s, 70s had heard of those places, and yet he focused the world -- he focused America on its world leadership role. So he had a profound political significance in American politics.

Now, I have to go back and say when he was sort of outcast, it was Atlanta that gave him the right to fight again. And it's interesting, but the person you think of, Lester Maddox, as a racist, was the one who worked with Senator Leroy Johnson and Jessie hill to create the boxing commission to allow Muhammad Ali to have his fight against Jerry Quarry in Atlanta, I think it was in 1971.

And so he was all -- we always kind of felt close to him. He was a Muslim and we were Christians, but that never became a conflict. And it was the quote that the mayor from Louisville made that, you know, everybody that's God's child has to love all of God's children. And he was certainly exemplified that. There was no place in the world where he could go where people didn't love him and where he didn't love people. JOHNS: For people who are watching and don't remember or don't know,

we have you as the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but it is also important to point out that you are a well-known former mayor of the city of Atlanta. Were you here back in those days at that time when Muhammad Ali was moving towards the fight with Jerry Quarry, which would bring him back into the ring after the --

YOUNG: I was Martin Luther King's assistant before I was mayor and ambassador. And it was as Martin Luther King's assistant that and with Chauncey Eskridge, who was Martin's lawyer on his tax cases in Alabama, and he was Muhammad's lawyer on his cases with the draft.

I knew them all very well and was involved in those discussions. And far from being anti-American, they were very pro-American. They were for the best that America could be. And America -- we now know and I learned at the United Nations the Vietnamese came to me to stop -- help me stop them from being invaded by China. And I have been to Vietnam, and Americans are very well loved on the Vietnamese peninsula. And there was never a need for a war there.

[10:25:04] And I think that Muhammad Ali realized that out a general humanitarian sense, but Dr. King realized it because he knew the Buddhist monk -- a very much pro Vietnamese Buddhist. He also knew Thomas Merton, the Roman Catholic priest that knew Vietnam very well and felt this was not a good war for us to fight. And he bore a great burden and price.

I think the world would have been so much better if Muhammad Ali had been allowed to continue fighting and been able to be the kind of global ambassador with portfolio from the United States government that he became without any portfolio. He represented God and God's children everywhere in the world, and he loved everybody. And God is love. And yet everybody knew him as an American Olympian and as a world champion, as a citizen of Louisville, but also a citizen of the world.

He's one of my favorite people. And -- but I still think that we should never forget that all the world loved him, but only one person stood by him for the last 40 years, and that was his wife, Lonnie.

PAUL: Lonnie has been mentioned several times this morning by several people, talking about how devoted and loyal she was to him and how he could not have gotten through his last year certainly without her. But he -- we've also been listening to many of his quotes, and one that struck me as I was listening to you talking was when he said "Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter what color does the hating. It's just plain wrong." You had the opportunity to have many personal conversations with him. Did he ever say anything to you that will stay with you as long as you live and that will shape the way that you live your life?

YOUNG: It wasn't what he said, it was what he did. We could walk down the streets of Atlanta together. I walked down -- I went to Tokyo with him once when we were trying to buy a Toyota plant for minority dealers -- for a group in the U.S. And anywhere in the world he went, people came up to him. He picked up little children and embraced them. He was friendly, he was outgoing, he was never too busy to share a smile or a hug with anybody anywhere in the world. He had never been to Africa, and he went to Zaire, the Federal Republic of Congo, and he took over the country literally. And he learned the language and he walked down the streets and he cheered with the people. And he was just the quintessential ambassador for peace, love, and the unity of all of God's children, whatever race, creed, color, or religion they may be.

JOHNS: Mayor Andrew Young, also a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, great to talk to you again. Thanks for coming in on the phone this morning.

YOUNG: OK, thank you and God bless you.

PAUL: Thank you, sir. You as well.

Listen, when we come back, we're going to take you back live to Louisville, Kentucky, the home of Muhammad Ali. Ryan Young is there. He's talking to the mayor, who you just heard. We are going to get more information about that and hopefully learn more about funeral and memorial services that are yet to be planned. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:33:10] PAUL: One spot on the map that is really feeling the loss of Muhammad Ali is his hometown, Louisville, Kentucky. You're seeing there what happened just moments ago as they lowered the flags to half-staff. We understand on all Metro government buildings there, they will remain so until Muhammad Ali is laid to rest. And he will be, as we understand, buried there in that city.

But this is one of those moments when you see a little boy, green hair or not, when you see a little boy saluting, holding that hand to his forehead, it just gives you a moment, doesn't it?

JOHNS: Yes. And it shows you a little bit about the way this individual who is larger in life for so many of us who were around also spans the generations. He goes from very old to baby boomers, and even those who were not alive at the time that Muhammad Ali was fighting know him through the history books.

PAUL: And will continue to do so.

JOHNS: Not to mention the fact that, as we've already talked about this morning, Muhammad Ali was a man who seemed to have an incredible connection with children.

PAUL: With children, right. And that's again is part of why I think that picture in that moment was so profound.

We do want to get to CNN's national correspondent Ryan Young who is live in Louisville, Kentucky, with the mayor. Good morning, Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. We're here with the mayor, Greg Fischer. Of course, you were talking to so many people just about what Muhammad Ali meant to the city. Give me just your deep impact for what kind of role he had in the city.

FISCHER: Well, he was a champ that belonged to the world, as I said, but he only had one hometown. So we looked at him as one of us. So we saw his perfections, his imperfections, but what we always saw was this drive and this braggadocio, whether it was inside the ring or to be the greatest humanitarian of all time.

[10:35:08] And I always say about the champ, he loved to do tricks and he loved to do magic. And the greatest pick he ever pulled was he didn't want to be the biggest, baddest athlete. That wasn't his goal. His goal was to be the biggest, baddest humanitarian. But in order to do that he had to be the sportsman of the century. And how do you pull that off? And he did it, and he inspired so many people with his humanitarian ways.

YOUNG: I think the word that stuck out to me is you talked about his swagger. That's a word we know now, but back then it was so different. Speaking about the generations have changed and seeing this multinational group of people come out to celebrate his life, how does that stand out to you?

FISCHER: We're a great global city here and grounded in the value of compassion. This is what we're about, certainly it's what the champ was about as well. He leaves a legacy the ring, there's no question about that. But the real legacy is the values that he represented and how he wants to us live going forward. And I think his passing right now, we hated -- we knew this day was going to come. But for us here in our city of Louisville and around the world, I think the question is what do we do? How do we take up his values, which were about inclusiveness, respect, dignity for everybody, bringing everybody together. That's what the champ stood for.

YOUNG: Talk about that 12-year-old kid who decided he wanted to fight somebody because his bike got stolen and turned himself into a champion, you also used your remarks to talk about the idea that every kid should have a chance to be a champion. So what do you think that center does here in Louisville to help that out?

FISCHER: We have all kinds of things going on with our safe and healthy neighborhoods, My Brother's Keeper program with President Obama. The Ali Center is right in the middle. Rumble Young Man, Rumble, the epicenter for black male achievement here in our city. So we understand that everybody has to have a pathway to success. As we look around the cities all over the country and we see young men and young boys walking around say, "I'm the greatest," we have to say maybe you are. There is greatness inside of everybody. But what the champ always said was I got up earlier and I put in the roadwork, more roadwork than everybody else. So it's one thing to say you're the greatest. It's another to do the work to be greatest. That was central to his message as well, not just swagger, but the hardest working man in athletics.

YOUNG: What do you think happens to the city when everybody sort of shows up to pay their respects to the champ.

FISCHER: There will be a halo over the city, and this aura I think of love and connectedness. We'll see the light shine inside of everybody just like the champ did. And events like this when they bring people together around connectedness, love, compassion, we see the goodness inside of people. That's who people are. It's not a world of divisiveness, a world of hatred. It's a world of joy and love. We need to celebrate that. We need to talk about that as fellow human beings here in our country and around the world. That's how we're going to get world in this world we live in.

YOUNG: It's a different conversation than what we hear all the time. It's interesting to see that the champ is now centered around that. I want to show the front page of paper this morning and get your thoughts on this that they put "The Greatest" on that. How do you think the paper did this morning with their front page?

FISCHER: That image the of Ali, Cassius Clay, over Sonny Liston right there is my first memory of him, I was six years old at the time. And I was saying who is this guy and the buzz in the community and the buzz with my parents and their friends about our guy, Cassius Clay, who became Ali just a few days later. They couldn't be more proud of him. Who is this guy saying how great he is? But he makes it happen. It's one thing to brag, it's another thing to follow through. So that the iconic image that sticks in many people's minds. And later in his life, him being the kind old soul, gentle soul that he was.

YOUNG: Mayor, I have to thank you for those comments. Thank you for taking the time with us at CNN.

Victor and Christi, you know this picture is in barber shops all across the country. When you walk in, this is something that's very iconic. You hear the mayor talk about bringing people together. That's the idea here and that's what everyone has been talking about. So that's one of the great things we've seen so far, people talking about how he united people. And so now we know that there's a new museum here where you can go to his birth home, and that's just opened up in the last two weeks or so. So people will be able to go down there as well. But obviously people are still trying to process what's happened here with the passing of Ali.

PAUL: Ryan Young, we appreciate it. I was thinking about what the mayor said and one of the quotes from Muhammad Ali is "It's not bragging if you can back it up."

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNS: And he could back it up all the time.

PAUL: He did, didn't he.

JOHNS: Absolutely right, yes.

PAUL: Please stay with us. We have more for your this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:50] PAUL: The greatest there, the three-time world heavyweight champion leaving behind such an incredible legacy, not just in the ring here, as an outspoken fighter for social justice in the 60s as we've been point out, a man who embraced and really evolved in his faith and who never stopped using his celebrity to do some good.

JOHNS: I want to talk a little bit about that. Joining us now, CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill. He's also a professor at Morehouse College. And on the phone is senior political analyst David Gergen who served as presidential adviser for Reagan, Ford, Clinton, and Nixon.

David, correct me if I'm wrong. If you were with the Nixon administration around 1971 or so, you would have passed through the White House about the time Muhammad Ali's issues on draft evasion were getting resolved. Is that true and was there any -- did you come into contact with any of that controversy?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I met him a few times along the way. Of course he was wonderfully respected as a boxer. But life was not all sweetness and light for him. He had many struggles, and he also climbed into the ring not only against boxers like Sonny Liston but he also had to sometimes climb into the ring against the U.S. government. And amazingly he won there, too. The draft was one of those examples. He was essentially convicted, and then had to take it through the courts, as we've heard earlier, and his conviction was overturned.

But as a result of that, Joe, he was out of the ring for basically three years, and those were in many ways his prime years. So he paid a price for it. But I -- he was much more controversial in those days because from changing from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali, not everybody accepted that. The country was somewhat divided over it. Some people didn't recognize the change. And when the draft issue, that got some people angry. He's become a much more iconic figure now as time has passed and people have seen the greatness in the man. He has now become this beloved figure, but life could often be rough for him.

PAUL: Marc Lamont Hill, I want to bring you into this conversation, because David Gergen there talking about the controversy that was, but we are living in a world that is filled with controversy right now. Help us understand the legacy that this man leaves behind. Where do you think his most important work was done?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, his most important work was taking public stands when they were wildly unpopular and not worrying about that, instead realizing that he would be redeemed by history, not by his critics of the day and not by his supporters of the day.

In 1967 when he opposes the war in Vietnam, when he says I will not enter this war, this war is not for me, and those people over there in Vietnam aren't my enemy, people called him a coward. People said he was taking the easy way out. Of course we know that was not true. He wasn't going to be holding a gun or being on the front line. Muhammad Ali was going to be doing boxing expeditions similar to what Joe Louis had done. It would have been an easy job, it would have been a cake job, and it would have been a job that would have made him even more popular and more wealthy. But he said on principle based on his training and based on the

teachings of the honorable Elijah Muhammad, and based on his own sense internally of what's moral and ethical, he said no. What that means when you fast forward to 1996 when he's holding up that Olympic torch is that Muhammad Ali didn't change. The nation changed. The world changed. Muhammad Ali held to his principles and the world realized that he was right.

So the lesson today to athletes is, hey, you might be unpopular in the moment. The lesson to athletes or politicians for that matter, is you may do something that's unpopular now, but history will redeem you if you are in fact operating out of principle. So hold on to your principles. There are not a lot of Muhammad Alis or Jim Browns or Kareem Abdul Jabbars anymore. But we need to hold on to those people because those are the people who resist at all costs. And when the costs are high most people run and hide. Muhammad Ali never did, and that's why he's a legend.

JOHNS: Thank you so much for that, Marc Lamont Hill and David Gergen. We'll talk to both of you soon.

PAUL: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Muhammad Ali's legacy is being credited with knocking down barriers for some of the world's greatest boxers past and present.

PAUL: To them he was a man who defied all odds. He pushed all the limits and became more than just a fighter. He was a hero. Here's what champions from around the world had to say to CNN this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVANDER HOLYFIELD, FIVE-TIME HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD: When you look at Ali, he stood up. And to be the first person to stand up and face the world, you know, he was all around the world about what he believed.

[10:50:00] And it's a lot different than you -- than if you come behind him. Ali was the first person to do that and the skin color that he was, and to stand up. It's amazing to be the one that everybody is looking at.

LARRY HOLMES, FORMER HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: He always treated me good. I'd say, listen, when I first went to Ali, I went up there with no equipment because I had no equipment. He gave me my boxing shoes, boxing gloves, boxing trunks, he gave me hand wraps. He said now you got your equipment. And that's how we became friends.

And then we went down to Reading, Pennsylvania, and we put on a boxing exhibition. He gave me a black eye, and trying to get ice. Ali said, "Put ice on it, put ice on it!" And I said, no, I'm not going to put ice on it, I'm going to show this one off.

(LAUGHTER) HOLMES: No one believed that I was working with Muhammad Ali.

CHRIS EUBANK, FORMER BRITISH PROFESSIONAL BOXER: He used his platform, which was boxing, to be the humanitarian that he was, and that spirit is still vibrant. Mandela in his inaugural speech, he said the world cannot be served by you playing small. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so others around you won't feel insecure. We were born to make manifest the glory of God which is within us. And when we let our own line shine, we unconsciously allow others to do the same. And in liberating ourselves from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others. So hear the man embodying the spirit of a Mandela, the great man. And as was said before, in order to see further and be better, we have to stand on the shoulders of giants, which is what these men were.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: We'll be right back with much more live coverage of the death of Muhammad Ali, the greatest of all time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: For all the fancy footwork, I think one of the most interesting things about Muhammad Ali was that his words were almost more colorful than his athletic ability.

PAUL: In that regard, no doubt about it. And so because of that, we want to share with you some of Ali's best lines in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MUHAMMAD ALI, FORMER HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING CHAMPION: I don't like fighters who talk too much.

[10:55:00] I must be the greatest. I told the world.

Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Rumble, young man, rumble.

And this may shock and amaze you, but I will destroy Joe Frazier.

I'm so bad, you know what I've been doing? Last week I went out to the jungle. I wrestled with an alligator. I tussled with a whale. I handcuff lightning, thrown thunder in jail. I'm bad, man.

Can I dance? Is the Pope a Catholic?

The man to beat me hasn't been born yet.

I'm the greatest. If you get too small, I'll knock you out.

Last week I murdered a rock into a stone, hospitalized a brick. I'm so mean, I make medicine sick.

(LAUGHTER)

ALI: Look at me know. Don't tell me that ain't a perfect specimen of a man.

(LAUGHTER)

ALI: Look at that body, slim, trim, and on my toes.

I don't just hit. I'm the fastest thing on two feet, man. Are you crazy? I'm tired of fighting.

I'm not only a poet. I'm a poet. I'm a prophet. I'm the resurrecter. I'm the savior of the boxing world. If it wasn't for me, the game would be dead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: He was something else.

JOHNS: Thanks for watching.

PAUL: Yes, thank you so much for spending some time with us this morning as we honor him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)