Roy Jones Jr., a former champion boxer who grew up during Ali’s prime, also said in a tweet: “My heart is deeply saddened yet both appreciative and relieved that the greatest is now resting in the greatest place”.
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“American Muslims would be well-served to look at the challenges that Muslims such as Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali had to deal with”, said Dawud Walid, executive director of the MI chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Muhammad Ali crafted the plan for his final tribute years ago, long before he died.
A memorial is growing outside Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center for former boxing champion, Muhammad Ali.
“I got on the phone with him and he was quiet for a while, and then he said in a very soft voice, ‘I’m glad you’re in this fight with me, ‘” Fox said.
“I don’t think it helped but I think he developed it slowly over a number of years”, he said.
“There was nobody on this Earth more famous than Muhammad Ali, he was known in every country”, he said.
She calls it a “true testament to the strength of his spirit and will”. Muhammad Ali’s body was returned to his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where he will be laid to rest in a city grieving the loss of its favorite son.
Ali died of septic shock “due to unspecified natural causes”, while being treated in a Phoenix-area hospital. He spoke boldly against racism in the ’60s, as well as the Vietnam War.
Ali, at age 22-when he was still known as Cassius Clay – on the eve of fighting, and defeating the highly favored Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight crown for the first time.
Denver became a small part of his complex, fascinating story just as Ali’s boxing prowess and fame was ascending.
President Barack Obama led tributes from around the world to the iconic fighter, one of the great sports heroes of the 20th century and a colorful civil rights activist.
Many in the United Kingdom will remember Ali’s four appearances on Michael Parkinson’s chat show in the 1970s and 1980s, when the TV interviewer at times struggled to get a word in during the boxer’s bombastic appearances.
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“Muhammad Ali, when I started boxing, was one of my inspirations”, Manny Pacquiao, another of boxing’s all-time greats, told CNN after Ali’s death was announced.
