Of boxers, wit and punches more punch, less Shakespeare

Sharm de ALWIS

BOXING: Cassius Clay, alias Mohamed Ali could shoot a bliztering lip just as much as a pulverizing straight left. Apart from him, boxers have generally let their fists do the talking even though there have been a few exceptions like when Jack Dempsey told his wife after he had lost to Gene Tunney. "Honey, I forgot to duck." Ronald Reagan, shamelessly said the same words, infringing copyrights.

"Wait for it, Mr. Walcott," before his return fight with him was about the worst Joe Louis has ever said. Jimmy Carter said something as fancy as his cat-like footwork: "They call me in fighter, they call me come out fighter. But, maan, if you want to know. I am a street fighter, the best you ever saw."

Young Corbett "You can keep the title, Terry, I am satisfied just to be known as the guy who kayoed Terry McGovern."

"First to get up is a sissy," said Clown Prince Max Baer who would have been a great champion had he taken his sport more seriously. That was after a double knock down involving Man Mountain, Primo Carnera. "Three fights in one day? I never get hurt. I love money." Battling Levinsky

"If I die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take". - Tiger Flowers, clutching a bible as he was wheeled into the operating room. He died on the table, aged 32.

Gene tunney about Jack Dempsey who was on a three year lay-off and married to an ex-Hollywood starlet who had sapped him, "Why would anyone want to get up early to be in the same ring with Jack Dempsey?"

"If Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey ever fought in a telephone booth, I'd bet every dime I have that it would be Dempsey who would walk out." - Jack Sharkey who fought both men.

"I guess this was one we couldn't win," said Jack Kearns who threw in the sponge before the start of the 9th round against Max Schmelling who had been heavyweight champ, "Speak for yourself, Doc. You threw in the sponge, not me." - Micky Walker who had worn the welter weight and the middle weight crowns and had fought to a draw the future heavyweight champs, Jack Sharkey.

"I am sure glad that I didn't have to hit John again." Joe Louis when the referee stopped the fight against John Henry Lewis after the fourth knock-down in round I. Dan Parker wrote: "If it is possible for a coloured man to look pale, John Henry Lewis did."

"Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight," Tiger Flowers would repeat the 144th Psalm at the start of every round.

"Not even Dempsey gave me as rough a time as Harry Greb did" Gene Tunney, "Wilde is the greatest little boxer I have ever seen in my life. That's all I can say."

Pete Herman after the Jimmy Wilde fight, "Put a horse shoe in each of his gloves and bet him $2,500, he can't knock me out" Battling Nelson before his light weight title defence against Al Wolgast (Nelson lost the fight).

"Lean over, Joe, so I can feel your muscles. We need muscles like yours to beat Germany." - President Roosevelt to Joe Louis in the White House. "It's nice to know that the man who never rested on canvas now rests on clouds." - Frank Sinatra when Joe Louis died on 12th April, 1981, aged 66 years.

"The other larger-than-life legends of the Dempsey era were Babe Ruth, Al Campone, Rudolf Valentino, Charlie Chaplin and Charles Lindbergh,: - Steve Farhood, "I fought Sugar Ray so often I almost got diabetes." - Jake LaMotta after the sixth outing. "You are the real greatest." Mohamed Ali to Sugar Ray Robinson.

"He can run but he can't hide.- Joe Louis of Billy Conn before the second fight. "It's the same Charles, only more vicious." - Joey Maxim after losing for the fourth time against heavy weight champ, Ezzard Charles.

"The heat didn't beat me, God did." - Sugar Ray Robinson when the ring doctor forbade him to enter the 14th of the 15 round combat with Joey Maxim, the light heavyweight champ, having led right through 10-3, 9-3-1, 7-3-3, 7-3-3 on the judges' cards.

"I made up in 15 rounds what I missed in 16 years." Archie Moore, after winning the light heavyweight title from Joey Maxim.

"He was as authentic to America as jazz Sugar Ray Robinson was an original art form and the best fighter there ever was." Rev. Jesse Jackson on 12th April 1989 when Sugar Ray, 67, died of natural causes seven years after his last fight which career had commenced in 1946.

"I'd like a return, but only if you put a 50 pound weight on each ankle." - Brian London, after being ko'd by Ali, "I knew what was going on; I even helped the referee pick up the count." - Emile Griffith on his knock-down, "In the corner we were saying, "what's keeping him up?" - Carlos Oritz about Flast Elorde. "I hit him with a punch and there was a grin on his face as if he was saying, 'Look, man, you're going to kill me." - George Froeman after scoring a 2nd round ko over Joe Frazier.

Like the fly weight class in Sri Lanka in the '50s when it was crammed with superlative pugilists like Leslie Handunge, K. Edwin, Mahasen Weliwitigoda, Derek Raymond. Gunadasa Fernando and Donald LaBrooy, Sugar Ray's middleweight class was full of great fighters - Bobo Olson, Dick Turpin, Tony Zale, Gene Fulmer, Marcel Cerdan, Carmen Basilio, Tony Graziano the most colourful boxer since Stanley Ketchell and, of course, Paul Pender who doesn't deserve a rating but let Mohamed Ali ala Cassius Clay have the last words: "People say I had a full life, but I ain't dead yet. I am just getting started". And his stand before the Congress hearing about his 'ducking' war service (he had earlier said he had "nothing against them Vietcongs".)

"I am proud of the title World Heavyweight Champion. The holder of it should at all times have the courage of his convictions and carry out those convictions, not only in the ring, but in all phases of his life. It is in light of my personal convictions that take my stand in rejecting the call to be inducted into the armed services I do so with full realization of its implications and possible consequences."

Ali when he was Cassius Clay, because he was not allowed to enter an 'all white' cafeteria, had thrown into the river his gold medal which he had won as an eighteen year old in the light heavy weight division at the Rome Olympics, a medal he had won for America.