Arnold Schwarzenegger remembers his idol Muhammad Ali

It was a long and emotional day.

Crystal then spoke about the 42-year friendship he had with Ali that began when he was hired to perform at an event honoring the boxing legend more than four decades ago.

Tyson was a late addition as a pallbearer at Muhammad Ali’s burial, joining a group that included Smith and another former heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis.

“He was the only one that floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee”.

Ali’s family and friends in the motorcade rolled down their windows to greet the crowds lining the streets near the house where he was born.

WOMAN: His impact transcends across the world. “We all just told the stories and our memories”.

“I’ve been crying all week”, said Mike Stallings, of Louisville, who brought his two young sons to bid farewell to the sports legend who grew up as Cassius Clay.

The procession arrived at Cave Hill Cemetery after its journey through Louisville, where people lined the streets, chanted “Ali, Ali”, and three flowers on the hearse. “Before James Brown said, ‘I’m black and I’m proud, ‘ Muhammad Ali said, ‘I’m black and I’m pretty'”.

Ali, a three-time world heavyweight champion, also paved the way for black athletes to express themselves with flair and confidence, and gave US Muslims a hero they could share with mainstream America.

They ranged from Jesse Jackson to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, whom Ali befriended in the 1980s and who spoke at the service. He discovered something new, that the world really wasn’t black and white at all. He was our most basic freedoms: “religion, speech, spirit”.

“Here’s the most famous Muslim man in the world, honoring his Jewish friend”, he said.

Whether or not Crystal’s closing remark was intended as a rebuke to Trump, the comedian delivered an equally touching and hilarious eulogy for Ali. When the actor saw him for the first time in person Crystal admitted: “I couldn’t stop looking at him…He was amusing, he was handsome…”

BILLY CRYSTAL: He was amusing.

“He wanted us to remind people who are suffering that he had seen the face of injustice… but he never became embittered enough to quit or engage in violence”, she said. The real estate mogul-turned-politician has also called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S. We were way too arrogant. “It was selfish for us to think that we could hold on to him forever”.

Maryum Ali, Ali’s Daughter echoed the sentiment: “We will forever cherish the 74 years you graced this earth”.

It was reported Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was expected to attend the memorial, cut short his visit to Louisville amid claims of a rift with the ceremony’s organisers.

“I think he decided before he could have possibly worked it all out and before fate and time could work their will on him, he decided he would never be disempowered, he decided not his grace nor his place nor the expectations of others would strip from him the power to write his own story…”