A photo of Ali, who died Friday at age 74, was shown on the jumbo screen overlooking the Court Philippe Chatrier.
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His family’s spokesman Bob Gunnell confirmed his death and last night said that he died of septic shock due to unspecified natural causes.
Flags in Louisville were lowered in mourning and a makeshift memorial with flowers and tributes cropped up outside the Muhammad Ali Center.
A man who stood for what he believed in, Ali was sentenced to five years in prison for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.
FILE – In this February 25, 1964, file photo, Muhammad Ali, or Cassius Clay at the time, strikes a familiar pose as he shouts “I am the greatest”, as he leaves the ring, arms raised, following his defeat of former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston, in Miami Beach, Fla.
The long-term medical consequences of concussive blows to the head that boxing perhaps causes were only tragically manifest in Ali’s own later development of Parkinson’s disease. It is only appropriate Ali should get a grand sendoff in his hometown Louisville, in Kentucky, later this week.
Ali’s greatest rival – was arguably Smokin’ Joe Frazier. Period. If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He belonged to the arts, because he had poetry – he had it all, “Foreman said”.
The funeral will be led by a Muslim imam, but his family said it will be an “interfaith” service with clerics from a number of religions, The BBC reported.
No athlete of any time or era has occupied a larger cultural presence, consumed more attention, stirred larger controversies, evoked more hate, become a larger symbol of love and peace than Muhammad Ali.
“He was the first icon, the GOAT – the greatest of all time – and it as zero to do with his accomplishments inside the ring”, says basketball star LeBron James.
“When I started growing into my teens and becoming more conscious, I really started to realize his impact outside of the ring; how his swag and dominance weren’t a playbook, they were his conviction on sport, life, spirituality, politics and culture”, the rapper, who called himself the “microphone Muhammad Ali” on 1999’s “It’s a Must”, says.
But one of my happiest memories is having my Mom wake me up to tell me that not only had Ali beaten George Foreman, but that he’d knocked him out.
Andrew Hale, right, holds his daughter Chloe, 3, both of Louisville, as he explains to her who Muhammad Ali was as they visit a makeshift memorial to him at the Muhammad Ali Center, Saturday, June 4, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. “And I wouldn’t even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was”.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, Ali changed his name in 1964 when he converted to Islam. We just serve him in different ways.
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Ali, an author, spoke of her father’s courageous spirit, even after his children encouraged him to let go.
