Lennox Lewis says he is “beyond words” after being asked to be a pallbearer at the funeral of Muhammad Ali.
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When the request came in, some Ali supporters argued against Trump’s presence at the Louisville, Kentucky, event, said Ali friend Saliha Shakir.
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.
The other pallbearers will be Jerry Ellis – the brother of Jimmy Ellis, Ali’s former sparring partner and fellow world heavyweight champion – and Ali’s cousins John Grady and Jan Wadell, nephew Ibn Ali, former brother-in-law Komawi Ali and family friend John Ramsey.
Lewis reigned as undisputed world heavyweight champion after beating Evander Holyfield in 1999, while Smith was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Ali in the 2001 film of the same name.
Also scheduled to delivered eulogies are Lonnie Ali, his wife of 29 years; his daughter, Maryum Ali; journalist Bryant Gumbel; actor/comedian Billy Crystal; King Abdullah II of Jordan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Tributes have flooded in from the boxing world and beyond since Ali’s death.
The Islamic service on Thursday will take place in the 18 000-seat Freedom Hall that hosted Ali’s last fight in Louisville, in which he beat Willi Besmanoff, in 1961. He said Ali wanted multiple religions at the public service, in an ecumenical event. And he wanted ordinary fans to attend, not just VIPs.
“This is not a political statement, this is not about politics, this is about how Muhammad Ali lived his life”.
“The love and the reverence and the inclusivity that we’re going to experience over the coming days is really a reflection of his message to the people of planet Earth”.
Ali, who died Friday at 74, famously joined the group after converting to Islam in 1964.
Ali, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years, and his family had planned his funeral for a decade.
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“Muhammad shook up the world and he showed everybody he was a world-class fighter and humanitarian, so now let’s welcome the world”. “This guy is a boxer, ‘ so this is what I want to do”, Muhammad said.
