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LOUISVILLE (Reuters) - He may no longer float like a butterfly or sting like a bee but memories of Muhammad Ali remain vivid more than a quarter-century after his last fight.
Holder of the self-proclaimed title, "The Greatest," the former heavyweight champion turns 65 Wednesday, no longer fleet afoot but still revered by anyone who witnessed the magic he created in the ring.
"What makes him the greatest fighter is that he simply had skills that exceeded anyone's expectations," Sylvester Stallone, who created and starred in the epic "Rocky" films, told Reuters.
Stallone's Rocky character was based on a 1975 opponent of Ali's, journeyman Chuck Wepner, a liquor salesman who lost a technical knockout to the champion in the 15th round.
"He was the fastest, the best, the most positive and they'll never see the likes of him ever again," Stallone said of Ali. "Maybe the greatest athlete of all time."
Ali was a remarkably gifted athlete during his years in the ring but Parkinson's disease has slowed his gait considerably. Ironically, the most outspoken sports figure of his generation now has trouble talking.
"He still kind of echoes in the culture somehow, he's still kind of out there," said Stephen Brunt, award winning columnist for Canada's Globe and Mail who has written several books on boxing including best seller "Facing Ali."
"In a lot of ways, for better or worse you see him in the modern athlete," he said. "He was the first guy to go out there and tout his own horn to the degree that he did and of course now everyone does it, without the wit and the smile with Ali."
What Ali did outside the ring is as memorable, to many, as his career inside of it.
STRIPPED OF TITLE
At the height of his career, Ali refused to serve in the U.S. Army because of his Nation of Islam faith and in 1967, while the Vietnam war was raging, was stripped of his title.
"Well I think Muhammad Ali had the hearts and minds of most of the people in America with some of the issues he got involved in," basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told Reuters.
"Especially the Vietnam war, he went against the grain very early on and in a way that did not make him popular but after a while they realised he was speaking the truth on those issues.
"I have a lot of respect for him for taking the courageous stand that he did."
The Louisville-born Ali resumed his career in 1970 and recaptured the heavyweight crown. His brutal fights against Joe Frazier and George Foreman remain emblazoned on the minds of boxing fans throughout the world.
Bernard Hopkins, 41, regarded by many to be one of the best middleweight fighters of all time, calls Ali an "icon."
"What Ali did was change the thinking of a lot of people back in the 60s," he said.
POET IN RING
"And in the ring he was so much of a poet. He started a new era of being able to speak boldly and loudly and come across cocky and arrogant.
"Here was a nice, tall handsome guy who knew how to talk, how to rhyme. He was first one in sports that came out with the raps and the soundbites."
Ali's career concluded in 1981 with a 56-5 record, including 37 knockouts. Like many boxers, he fought too long, losing three of his last four fights.
But most people remember the glory days.
Hopkins singled out Ali's famed fight with Foreman in Zaire and his three epic clashes with Frazier as highlights of the champion's ring career.
"Those three (Frazier) fights were like 80 fights in terms of the punishment, trauma and spirit," he said.
There is no birthday celebration planned in Louisville, although he remains a hero in the city also known for bourbon, bluegrass and horse racing.
Muhammad Ali has entertained the world for more than 40 years with his legendary one-liners, witticisms and diatribes.
Here BBC Sport rounds up some of the things he has said during his lifetime in and out of the ring.
If we've missed any, make sure you tell us using the 606 link at the bottom of this page (Web users only, WAP phone readers will not see link).
ON BEING THE GREATEST I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round.
It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
Floats like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Before the 1974 fight against George Foreman
I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick. Again, before the 1974 Foreman fight
I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark. Yet more '74 pre-fight build-up ahead of facing Foreman
The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.
Superman don't need no seatbelt.
When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.
I'm the best. I just haven't played yet. On playing golf
ON BOXING Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.
Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
Only the nose knows where the nose goes when the doors close.
I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life. After losing to Ken Norton, 31 March 1973
ON RACE, RELIGION AND LIFE I am America. I am the part you won't recognise. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.
Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name - it means beloved of God - and I insist people use it when people speak to me and of me. Announcing his conversion to the Muslim faith after first Sonny Liston fight
"What's my name, fool? What's my name?" To Ernie Terrell during their 1967 fight - Terrell had refused to call him Muhammad Ali
I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin' hell, but as long as they ain't free, I ain't free.
Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?
I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a 'nigger'.
Nobody has to tell me that this is a serious business. I'm not fighting one man. I'm fighting a lot of men, showing a lot of 'em, here is one man they couldn't defeat, couldn't conquer. My mission is to bring freedom to 30m black people. Before his fight against Jerry Quarry in 1970.
A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
What's really hurting me - the name Islam is involved, and Muslim is involved and causing trouble and starting hate and violence. Islam is not a killer religion, Islam means peace. I couldn't just sit home and watch people label Muslims as the reason for this problem. 21 September 2001, in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks
ALI vs FRAZIER Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wildlife. Ali
It will be a killer, and a chiller, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila Ali, before the "Thrilla in Manila" against Frazier
Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head. Ali
I always bring out the best in men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I'll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I'm gonna tell ya, that's one helluva man, and God bless him. Ali, after the "Thrilla in Manila"
I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him names I shouldn't have called him. I apologise for that. I'm sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight. Ali
The Butterfly and me have been through some ups and downs and there have been lots of emotions, many of them bad. But I have forgiven him. I had to. You cannot hold out for ever. There were bruises in my heart because of the words he used. I spent years dreaming about him and wanting to hurt him. But you have got to throw that stick out of the window. Do not forget that we needed each other, to produce some of the greatest fights of all time. Frazier in reflective mood.
ON OTHER OPPONENTS Hey Floyd - I seen you! Someday I'm gonna whup you! Don't you forget, I am the greatest! To then-world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson during the 1960 Olympic Games.
Why, Chump, I bet you scare yourself to death just starin' in the mirror. You ugly bear! You ain't never fought nobody but tramps and has beens. You call yourself a world champion? You're too old and slow to be champion! To Sonny Liston before their fight on 25 February 1964
I shook up the world! I shook up the world! After beating Liston
That all you got George? To Foreman late in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire on 30 October 1974
-------------------- Learn from the past. Live in the present. Hope for the future. Posts: 1474 | From: in my own paradise | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."
So simple yet so true. It's sad that so many people just waste their life, I mean what are we here for really if not to learn from every day.
Posts: 1879 | From: Going to Graceland | Registered: Nov 2006
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Look at what Ali, himself, had to say in reference to the draft:
"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years."
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