Md. Taqi Yasir
Muhammad Ali is considered as the greatest boxing legend, the world has ever experienced. His rivals and friends in the ring, who faced him, has never ever forgotten the tragic times they passed in that. The three timer heavyweight champion of the world and universal icon whose alluring charm and anti-establishment philosophy made him someone Hollywood found incredible to resist, has died day before yesterday, at the age of 74.
Ali, named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated in 1999, breathed his last in a hospital in Phoenix, told by a family spokesman. In 1984, the boxer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome, a disease thought to be brought on by head shock and spent his last years increasingly shaky, immobile and in trauma.On Thursday, Ali was hospitalized for a respiratory problem as a precaution and by Friday, those were stern enough to draw family associates to his bedside. “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. The statement also reads, “Muhammad Ali’s funeral will take place in his hometown of Louisville, KY. The Ali family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and support and asks for privacy at this time.” Will Smith acknowledged an Oscar nomination for depicting the champ in Michael Mann’s Ali (2001), and the fighter played himself in The Greatest, a 1977 Columbia film adapted from his memoirs. Ali showcased as a slave turned U.S. senator opposite Kris Kristofferson in the 1979 NBC telefilm Freedom Road, based on a true story, and he ignited the torch to kick off the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.