Former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali Dies at 74
Former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, who took the boxing world by storm with his record-setting boxing career, and even proclaimed all over the world as “The Greatest”, died at 74, Friday, as reports said.
In a report by NBC News, Ali died at a hospital in Phoenix where he spent a few days treated for respiratory complications as confirmed by the family spokesman, Bob Gunell.
“After a 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening,” said Gunell as quoted by NBC News.
According to the report, The Greatest endured three decades from Parkinson’s Disease, which really slowed him down in terms of physical movements and verbal capability.
The report added that the funeral service would be in his hometown in Louisville, Kentucky.
Fellow boxing icon Roy Jones Jr. expressed his grief on the Ali’s loss.
“My heart is deeply saddened yet both appreciative and relieved that the greatest is now resting in the greatest place,” said Jones Jr. on Twitter.
Ali even proclaimed himself as “the boldest, the prettiest, the most superior, most scientific, most skillfullest,” as quoted in Reuters.
During the 1960s, Ali became the first person to ever become the three-time heavyweight champion in the world. It is also noted that he stood boldly against racism and the Vietnam War as well.
Ali’s real name was Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. but, he changed his name after converting to Islam. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky on Jan. 17, 1942 and started boxing at the age of 12.
He even won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome as a light heavyweight.
Ali is survived by his wife Yolanda “Lonnie” Williams together with his nine children which one of them, Laila, became a boxer.