Who would have thought When they came to the fight? That they'd witness the launching Of a human satellite. The crowd is going frantic, But radar stations have picked him up Somewhere over the Atlantic. Liston is still rising And the ref wears a frown, For he can't start counting, Till Sonny goes down.

Now Clay lands with a right, What a beautiful swing, And the punch raises the Bear Clean out of the ring. Liston keeps backing But there's not enough room It's a matter of time Till Clay lowers the boom. Clay swings with his left, Clay swings with his right, Look at young Cassius Carry the fight. Round 1: Poem by Ali Clay comes out to meet Liston And Liston starts to retreat If Liston goes back an inch farther He'll end up in a ringside seat. Stop leaving the bloody body of your own work on the audio floor. Besides a nice bio of Obama and your Russia books, what have you done for me lately? Get out there and write something more. Do you not respect yourself or do you not resect Ali? Or did you just let the producers talk you down? And yes Remnick, I know you are the editor of the New Yorker, but really man. This was a 300 page book on Muhammad Ali. I had to read the gaps because you couldn't pay for Dick Hill to read the whole thing or Brilliance Audio thought it was only going to sell if you cut it from 12 hours to 6? Stupid. So, I ended up listening while I did work around the house and at points where it jumped, I'd rn over to the book and read the gaps. It was a 6-hour abridgment which usually translates into cutting 1/3 to 1/2 of this book. Why would you let people abridge the audio version? Your audio choice was just stupid. It is a lazy and cheap way to do an audio-recording and all you end up with is an ugly, deformed homunculus of the original. I also had the Audible/audio version which I debated about listening to because it was abridged and I really hate abridged books (in any format). My edition was a 4th printing, 1st Edition from 1998.

Weight in: I read the hardback version of Remnick's book, which was 306 pages (326 with acknowledgement, sources, and index). And I'm the greatest sleeper of all time.

But the Man and the book will have to wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow I will take on this book and take my piece in three rounds. He was a butterfly that Nabokov couldn't catch or pin. I'm coming with the majesty of Muhammad Ali. I know Remick's words better than his mamma knows him. Of course he wrote it, because the words ran from him. I know the words better than Remnick could hope to ever know it. I beat people up.' - Muhammad Ali Pre-Review Smack Talk: I will review this sucker tomorrow. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand.

King of the world remnick