Quotations

«It will be like cutting the hair off a Goliath,»

«It's been like that forever. We got spoiled by Joe Louis, by Rocky Marciano. Muhammad ruined us for everybody. He was great outside [the ring]; he was great inside. We got so accustomed to it we thought we deserved it.»

«Right now, there's nobody out there to turn people on, ... This is the disease of Muhammad Ali ... With Muhammad, every time he did something, it was excitement. It's excitement now, when the guy comes around, walking around with Parkinson's. It's unfair to try to compare anybody to this kid.»

«I think I would have to go so far as to say Russell is Jim Braddock. I'm amazed the way Russell picked up his mannerisms, his smoothness, the legs, the way he slides, that slip, slide, block, slide, jab - boom! Like Jim, he has just about the greatest left hook I've ever seen. He's got the speed, the rhythm, the determination and especially the will. Best of all, he has learned to think like a fighter. One thing about Braddock is that he was a smart fighter, and Russell uses his noodle just like Braddock did. I do think if he wasn't an actor, Russell could have been a great fighter.»

«In all my years in boxing I'd never known such heat.»

«O.K.,»

«This kid deserves anything good that happens to him. He's such a good guy. He's just the nicest human being you want to meet.»

«I just put the reflexes in the proper direction.»

«He would have beat everybody because we'd have found a way to beat him.»