World renowned former world heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali, died at the age of 74 in a US hospital. The 74-year-old former heavyweight world champion was hospitalized for his respiratory trouble that has complicated by his Parkinson's disease. The former world heavyweight boxing champion, one of the world's best-known sportsmen, died at a hospital in the US city of Phoenix in Arizona state.
The funeral will take place in Ali's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, his family said in a statement. “After a 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening,” family spokesperson Bob Gunnell said in a statement.
"I don't get it yet. I don't think it's hit me yet," Khalilah Camacho-Ali, one of Ali's ex-wives, told USA TODAY Sports. Camacho-Ali had four children with Ali, with whom she was married for 10 years. "The only thing I'm worried about right now is my children. I wish I was there with them (in Scottsdale) to support them because I know they're taking this very hard."
Born as Cassius Marcellus Clay, Ali shot to fame by winning light-heavyweight gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Nicknamed "The Greatest", the American beat Sonny Liston in 1964 to win his first world title and became the first boxer to capture a world heavyweight title on three separate occasions. He eventually retired in 1981, having won 56 of his 61 fights. After his retirement, he concentrated on philanthropy and social activism.
Crowned "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated and "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC, Ali was noted for his pre and post-fight talk and bold fight predictions just as much as his boxing skills inside the ring.
He was also a civil rights campaigner and poet who transcended the bounds of sport, race and nationality.
Muhammad Ali once said: "As a man who never sold out his people. But if that's too much, then just a good boxer. I won't even mind if you don't mention how pretty I was."
Ali's death is “sad, and yet, here was a person who probably did more to transform what people thought about race and religion and about peace, both in the United States and the world," Bob Arum, who promoted Ali in the 1960s and 1970s, told USA TODAY Sports. "I really believe that he even had more of an impact, because he had been this great boxer, and because he had made this tremendous sacrifice, giving up his career for what he believed in for 3½ years, that he had more of an impact than even Martin Luther King. I really believe that.”
By Premji
