MUHAMMAD ALI ON HIS FATHER

 

'For some strange reason, at least two biographers have written that my father never came to see me fight until I turned professional, which is totally untrue. My father's loud and dramatic encouragement spurred me on. He attended almost every fight I had in Louisville, only missing the ones that were out of town because we couldn't afford the travel expense. One writer of a picture book on my life even said my father beat me throughout my childhood, a claim that had all the Clays in Louisville laughing. My father raised his children like my grandfather had raised him. We were not to be struck by anyone inside the house or outside.'

- Muhammad Ali