'Ali' is a breakthrough for its director, Michael Mann. The film, based on the life of Muhammad Ali, is Mr. Mann's first movie with feeling; his overwhelming love of its subject will turn audiences into exuberant, thrilled fight crowds.

Muhammad Ali inside the ring and Muhammad Ali outside the ring were totally different men; his abrasive, magnetic daring and infectious self-love outside the ring galvanized the world and distracted many from his sniper's precision. He was a heavyweight with the fluttering gracefulness of a middleweight.

Muhammad Ali is a legend, a hero of mine.

Would it be fun to watch Muhammad Ali box Muhammad Ali? Would it be fun to watch 10 Michael Jordans out on the basketball floor? What we do is part business and part fun, and it's part science and part art. If it becomes pure business and pure science, I don't want to play any more.

Muhammad Ali turns 70, I turn 50. Damn...when he was knocking people's socks off, I was learning to wear them...

I want to be like a Muhammad Ali, like a Julio Cesar Chavez. So when people talk about boxing, they have to remember Canelo.