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" Sugar Ray Leonard was as close as anyone came after Ali to being Ali, but he wasn't Ali. "

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" I worked with Rocky Graziano and Rocky was certainly a character. "

" I was also in love with the English language. "

English Language

" I got to know Sugar Ray but I certainly would not say we were good friends. "

" I began learning the sportswriting business very early in life. "

" It's kind of ironic that the two sports with the greatest characters, boxing and horse racing, have both been on the decline. In both cases it's for the lack of a suitable hero. "

" Also, I am driven by a wonderful muse called alimony. "

" Some people who love boxing might love Mike Tyson, but people outside of the sport are generally repulsed by him and therefore, repulsed by the sport. "

" My top three were Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain and Bo Jackson. "

" I just can't believe all the things I did that decade. "

" In fifty years of covering the sport, of course Muhammad Ali is by far the dominant figure. "

" Cliches and adjectives permeated my prose. "

" I came up with new leads for game stories by being observant and clever, by using the many gifts of the English language to intrigue and hook a reader. "

" All of journalism is a shrinking art. So much of it is hype. The O.J. Simpson story is a landmark in the decline of journalism. "

" Sportswriters have changed more than sportswriting. "

" Today, it's money. There's no question about that. Unless you endorse a grill that cooks hamburgers and steaks, where else can you make the kind of money that you can make in the ring if you're good? "

" Sugar Ray and talked about doing some articles together or writing a book together but dealing with Sugar Ray was a lot like fighting him. He would fake you in and then he'd drop you. "

" If I got paid, it was no more than five dollars a column, and I still think I was overpaid. "

" I think my mistakes were kind of common - leaning on cliches and adjectives in the place of clear, vivid writing. But at least I knew how to spell, which seems to be a rarity these days. "

" I wanted to be a sportswriter because I loved sports and I could not hit the curve ball, the jump shot, or the opposing ball carrier. "

" I think on balance, Don King has been bad for boxing. I think he's done some very good things and I think he did a heck of a job of promoting Ali but I think I could have promoted Ali. "

" My writing improved the more I wrote - and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down. "

" I did not choose necessarily on the basis of significance. If you have a vote for the most significant athlete, then you have Ali, then you have Babe Ruth, then you have Michael Jordan. "