Arum: Muhammad Ali Was Right on War Stance, I Was Wrong

Thomson ReutersU.S. boxing great Muhammad Ali poses at the World Economic Forum in DavosMuhammad Ali’s funeral will be held at a 20,000-seater stadium in his home city Louisville, Kentucky on Friday, June 10.

The boxing legend died aged 74 in hospital from septic shock “due to unspecified natural causes”, the family’s spokesman, Bob Gunnell, said.

He fought for too long and took too many punches, which likely contributed to the Parkinson’s disease with which he increasingly struggled for more than three decades. “And I think that anywhere you go in the world, people not only recognize him but also love him because of the man that he is”.

Laila Ali said her personal grief over the loss of her father, boxing legend and social icon Muhammad Ali, has been eased by the global outpouring of love and support.

Muhammad Ali’s memorial service in his hometown of Louisville, Ky., on Friday will be open to all faiths. The mayor also said that Ali’s hearse will be driven through the streets of Louisville before a private burial at Cave Hill, the city’s largest cemetery.

Ali’s widow, Lonnie, plans to eulogize him, along with former president Bill Clinton, actor/comedian Billy Crystal and Bryant Gumbel. “There was nobody on this Earth more famous than Muhammad Ali, he was known in every country”, he told the BBC.

The public memorial will be held at the Yum Center, where Ali began his amateur boxing career as a 12-year-old.

Dr. Abe Lieberman who treated Muhammad Ali said that the family never considered donating his brain for research purposes. His popularity plunged in the U.S and many vilified him.

Laila Ali compared her father to Nelson Mandela, the former South African president who, like the boxer, sacrificed freedom to stand up for his beliefs. Said Dorothy Poynter, who grew up with Ali in the neighborhood, “We were all so proud of him”.

They say the “Great One” was a great inspiration not only as an athlete, but as an ambassador for the religion.

Don King promoted that watershed bout in Kinshasa, Zaire, in 1974, in which Ali used his “Rope a Dope” strategy to best Foreman and become just the second fighter ever to regain the heavyweight world title.

But Muhammad Ali was much more than that.

Ali’s efforts led to research that has improved patients’ quality of life, including an understanding of how exercise started soon after diagnosis can help reduce symptoms, said Dr. Holly Shill, the director of the Arizona centre.