Sept. 17, 1964 | Muhammad Ali Speaks Out

Sept. 17, 1964 - Muhammad Ali brashly declared today he could have knocked out Jack Dempsey in the second round had he fought the Manassa Mauler at his peak.
Muhammad made his Dempsey brag while receiving the Ring Magazine’s world championship belt in a ceremony at the magazine’s headquarters in Madison Square Garden.
Ring publisher Nat Fleischer proclaimed Ali “still world heavyweight champion” despite the fact that the World Boxing Association had stripped young Muhammad of his title last Monday.
When Dempsey was informed of Ali’s remark, Jack diplomatically commented: “You’ve got to expect statements like that from young fighters. Every young champion thinks he could lick any man that ever lived.”
But Mickey Walker, former welterweight and middleweight champion, was less polite as he later sat across the table from Jack in Dempsey’s restaurant.
Said Mickey: “Jack could flatten that Clay bum right now. He can’t fight. Why, with two weeks of training, I could flatten him too.”
Ali announced he would not sue the WBA for declaring his title vacant because of his signing on Monday for a return championship fight with ex-champ Sonny Liston at Boston on Nov. 16.
“Nobody’s paying any attention to the WBA,” explained the fast-talking Ali. “Everybody knows titles are won and lost in the ring.”
Ali’s brag about Dempsey came after the belt presentation, when Muhammad was looking over the wall-hung pictures of 77 former fighters who have been elected to boxing’s Hall of Fame.
As he pointed to various pictures, he asked modestly if this one or that one could have done the “the things I have done so young” and if there was any among them who was as big an attraction he is now — or could have given him a fight.
One of the reporters asked, “What about Jack Dempsey?”“Dempsey,” said Muhammad. “Didn’t he used to fight like this?” Ali imited the Dempsey bob-weave. Then he flashed a right uppercut at the imaginary Dempsey and announced: “In two rounds I’d have taken him out.”
Muhammad grinned and half-apologized by saying:“Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. After all, Jack’s a nice fellow — and sometime I might want to go into his restaurant.”

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