His daughter Laila Ali, who also became a boxing champion, told the Today Show, “Well, we’re sad”.
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The sporting great and three-time boxing world heavyweight champion died last Friday aged 74 following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Boxer Lennox Lewis and six other friends and family members will serve as the other pallbearers alongside Smith – including John Grady, Ibn Ali, Komawi Ali, Jerry Ellis, Jan Wadell, and John Ramsey.
The memorials and funeral service in which the world will say goodbye to Muhammad Ali were all his idea.
“Everything that we’re doing here was blessed by Muhammad Ali and requested”, Gunnell said Monday at a news conference.
Jenazah prayer program: Imam Zaid Shakir will lead a Muslim prayer service Thursday at the Louisville’s Freedom Hall, where Ali fought his last Louisville fight in 1961.
Center and also on the Muhammad Ali Center’s website.
The service is set for Friday, June 10, at KFC Yum! “When we think about the legacy of Muhammad Ali, what he did in the ring is not what we think about”.
The Dalai Lama was invited, but sent regrets that he will be unable to attend.
An American boxing legend who transcended the sport, Ali was both beloved and controversial.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer called Ali “a supernatural figure who crossed all kinds of boundaries, from athletics to arts, to humanitarian activities, from black to white, from Christians to Islam, and he belongs to the world”.
“I realized that no matter how famous you are, no matter how big a TV star you are – or whatever flimsy kinds of fame I had – you’re invisible when you’re with Muhammad Ali”, he said.
In addition to the two public services, a private service for Ali’s family and closer friends is scheduled for Friday morning, before the funeral procession. Center – a 22,000-seat basketball arena in Louisville.
Former US President Bill Clinton, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and comedian Billy Crystal were among those previously announced as participating in public events as the world grieves the loss of the boxer, showman and antiwar activist who captivated global attention in the 1960s and 1970s.
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“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?” he famously asked.
