“The last week has been particularly tough”, said Abraham Lieberman, who was with Ali only hours before he died.
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“I’m really sad, but I’m also happy for him because he’s free from his body, ” she added.
A private memorial service for the fighter is set to be held in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday (09Jun16), while a public funeral will take place at the KFC YUM!
Ali passed away Friday night after being hospitalized with respiratory issues.
Ali died in Phoenix, Arizona, where he had recently lived.
It says a lot about him that many sporting icons look up to Ali in much the same way as his hordes of “ordinary” fans. What she remembers now is his big smile and big laugh.
“That’s how we become champions”, he said.
To Nashaat Nashed, a 55-year-old boxing coach who is also a member of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, Ali was an inspiration. The man dubbed as “The Greatest” battled Parkinson’s disease for 32 years. “Muhammad and [his wife] Lonnie could have put the museum anywhere”, says Donald Lassiere, its CEO since 2012.
It appears the bees themselves may have heard him.
As the nation continues to reflect on the life and legacy of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, his family continues to show extraordinary strength by giving fans and supporters an intimate glimpse into his final moments and into how they are all coping with the tremendous loss.
Former president Bill Clinton and comedian Billy Crystal will give eulogies at the ceremony, which will be led by an imam in line with Muslim tradition – after Ali converted to Islam in the 1960s.
“Everything that we’re doing here was blessed by Muhammad Ali, and was requested”, said family spokesman Bob Gunnell.
Those mourning Muhammad Ali’s death at an interfaith gathering never mentioned the name Donald Trump. In many ways, it is change he helped create.
In their little pink house in Louisville’s west end, the brothers liked to wrestle and play cards and shoot hoops. There was little of the brutality that played out in the Deep South of that era, but there was nearly complete segregation.
In his old neighborhood, people recalled early Ali lore. He told anybody that would listen that he was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. They talked about how Ali drank water laced with garlic.
There were more flowers and balloons around a historical marker outside the two-bedroom home where Ali grew up.
Ali won that legendary fight with a knock out in the eighth round. She said she would not have been anywhere else.
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McKinney said he knew what he was dealing with when he got the call Sunday morning. He was a brilliant boxer, and when “Our ‘Enery” almost won, I was still in the Clay camp. They left boxing gloves, butterflies and handwritten letters.
