So he's saying, 'I'm going to get back in shape. I'm going to take him on.' And I said, 'Rocky, don't do that. You retired the undefeated champion of the world. You never lost a fight. You're going to have a beautiful life now, you never have to fight again.' Rocky said, 'Well, I don't like this guy. He breaks all the rules and he is just unethical.' I talked to Rocky for an hour. I said, 'Don't you dare try to get back in shape for this guy. Can you imagine losing after winning all those fights and retiring with an unbeaten record? You'd have to whip yourself into some shape to beat this kid. This kid is great.' And I meant that, because I thought and still think Ali was wonderful, both in and out of the ring.
'Get the hell outta here,' Rocky said, 'I can beat this kid.' And he told me how strong he still was, because Rocky was an immensely strong fighter - he didn't have a lot of finesse, but my goodness this guy was strong and could punch. So again I said, 'You're doing the wrong thing. You have a great life. You have free time to spend with your family and lots of endorsements. Forget the whole thing.' So I leave the room and I go out for a while, and when I get back Rocky isn't there. So I go up to the exercise solarium which they had on the roof to look for him, and they had this sandbag which was fastened to the wall, which was kinda like a heavy punch bag. Anyway it wasn't there anymore, the bolts had come loose and the sandbag was about ten feet away on the floor, and there was dust on the floor and everything.
Two of Rocky's friends were up there and I said, "What the hell happened? Where is Rocky?' They both shrugged and said, 'I don't know. He came up here real mad about an hour ago and punched that thing and broke the wall.' I guess Rocky was mad because he knew he could never fight Clay. Which was perhaps as well, at that time, because I loved 'The Rock' but I think he didn't need it and I'm not sure he would have won that fight.
(by Tony Bennett - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Bennett )
(via Matt Hamilton)
