1.
SV Photographers surrounding Ali seated at table.
0.05

2.
SCU Photographers taking pictures as Ali begins talking (This last shot is intercut with shots of newsmen listening to Ali make his comments.)
1.28


DILLON: "We were wondering about your attitude toward fighting the Russian amateur heavyweight champion Igor Vysotsky?"



MOHAMMAD ALI: "Well if they think he's got a chance, if they think that the Russian amateur champion..you see there's a big difference in a Russian amateur champion and the greatest world professional champion of all time. There's a big gap between the best amateur in his country fighting the best professional in the history of the world. I don't represent no country. I am the world's greatest fighter so I don't know where they're going to...I don't see how they can favour his chances."



DILLON: "Will you consider meeting a man like this in Moscow?"



ALI: "Well that's where I would rather have it. See, too many people are against Russians, and Russia and America don't get along, and I want to say that I have all my fans in America behind me. Here's a little helpless fella, where will he be without his country, without his teeth and his army challenging me in my country, and the decision would be...well they'd give it to me and people would think, well he's got it. I want to go...I want odds, I want to be with the odds against me. I want to be in his country, around his people, in his land whipping him. That's better than whipping him over here. I want to ship him in Russia, show him what a soul whipping is like in Russia."




Initials MV/1725 -/1730


SPORT: BOXING.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: World heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali has said that if Soviet amateur champion Igor Vysotsky thinks he has a chance, he would like to take him on in the Soviet Union and show him "what a soul whipping was like."
Ali made the remarks to newsmen after he had finished autographing copies of his new book, extolling himself as the greatest, in the Rockefeller Centre, New york, on Tuesday (11 November).

Vysotsky is in the United States at the moment with the Soviet amateur team who are preparing for their match against the United States amateur team on Friday (14 November).

The film includes Ali's remarks to NBC reporter Len Dillon about the possible fight against the Soviet champion. A transcript of the interview appears below.