Muhammad Ali Quotes

When a man goes into the ring, he's going to war.

They say actually every time I enter the ring, in a way, I'm going to the war. They say to me daily, you are a prized fighter, what's the difference? And I like to say to those critics of the press and the others that there is one hell of a lot of difference in fighting in a ring and going to war in Vietnam.

Boxing is not for killing each other.

War is the only sport which is genuinely amusing. And it is the only sport which has any intelligible use.

I never fought in my life outside of a ring.

Boxing is sort of an inevitability. We know they are going to be pounding each other.

For sure, I would love to fight in Houston.

Ground and pound is my thing, everyone knows that.

Football and boxing helped me immensely. Those sports helped me become dangerous.

I remembered watching the first UFC. You couldn't get it on TV. They were doing it bare knuckles. No gloves. I wanted to do that.

We got four-ounce gloves here. It's not hard to knock someone out.

Yes, I started off as a bare-knuckle boxer.

There is one hell of a difference between fighting in the ring and going to war in Vietnam.

People often say, 'Ah, ultimate fighting is so violent,' but it's rooted in martial arts. Martial arts incarnate respect. You can't walk into a dojo and say to your sensei, 'Hey, salut tabarnac!' After every one of my fights I go and shake the hand of my opponent. I don't need to hate the other fighter to fight him well. It's a sport.

Sport begets tumultuous strife and wrath, and wrath begets fierce quarrels and war to the death.

War only in the ring. Peace on earth

I was a wrestler. I played football, lacrosse. After high school, I got into jujitsu. I boxed my whole adult life.

I thought boxing was stupid.

Every time I kill someone, he can't plant an I.E.D. You don't think twice about it.

I grew up in Westlake Villiage, a suburb of L.A. There was a guy there who was a fighter and was like, 'I'll teach you to box.' I started a little bit of boxing, then it crossed over into jiu-jitsu. I was into it for a little while, but then I started doing basketball, baseball, team sports.

I don't like any sport except boxing and bull fighting.

Boxing has become America's tragic theater.

Really, if you get in the ring and box with someone for real, I don't think it is a sport. As far as professional fighters, you are literally putting your life on the line.

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.

There aren't a lot of opportunities for that rite of passage that makes you a man. War is one of them, and violent sports are another.