Muhammad Ali, who riveted the world as ‘The Greatest,’ dies
He was fast of fist and foot — lip, too — a heavyweight champion who promised to shock the world and did. He floated. He stung. Mostly he thrilled, even after the punches had taken their toll and his voice barely rose above a whisper.
He was The Greatest.
Muhammad Ali died Friday at age 74, according to a statement from the family. He was hospitalized in the Phoenix area with respiratory problems earlier this week, and his children had flown in from around the country.
“It’s a sad day for life, man. I loved Muhammad Ali, he was my friend. Ali will never die,” Don King, who promoted some of Ali’s biggest fights, told The Associated Press early Saturday. “Like Martin Luther King his spirit will live on, he stood for the world.”
A funeral will be held in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The city plans a memorial service Saturday.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer ordered flags lowered to half-staff to honor Ali.
“The values of hard work, conviction and compassion that Muhammad Ali developed while growing up in Louisville helped him become a global icon,” Fischer said. “As a boxer, he became The Greatest, though his most lasting victories happened outside the ring.”
With a wit as sharp as the punches he used to “whup” opponents, Ali dominated sports for two decades before time and Parkinson’s disease, triggered by thousands of blows to the head, ravaged his magnificent body, muted his majestic voice and ended his storied career in 1981.
He won and defended the heavyweight championship in epic fights in exotic locations, spoke loudly on behalf of blacks, and famously refused to be drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War because of his Muslim beliefs.
Despite his debilitating illness, he traveled the world to rapturous receptions even after his once-bellowing voice was quieted and he was left to communicate with a wink or a weak smile.
“He was the greatest fighter of all time but his boxing career is secondary to his contribution to the world,” promoter Bob Arum told the AP early Saturday. “He’s the most transforming figure of my time certainly.”
Revered by millions worldwide and reviled by millions more, Ali cut quite a figure, 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds in his prime. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” his cornermen exhorted, and he did just that in a way no heavyweight had ever fought before.
He fought in three different decades, finished with a record of 56-5 with 37 knockouts — 26 of those bouts promoted by Arum — and was the first man to win heavyweight titles three times.
He whipped the fearsome Sonny Liston twice, toppled the mighty George Foreman with the rope-a-dope in Zaire, and nearly fought to the death with Joe Frazier in the Philippines. Through it all, he was trailed by a colorful entourage who merely added to his growing legend.
“Rumble, young man, rumble,” cornerman Bundini Brown would yell to him.
And rumble Ali did. He fought anyone who meant anything and made millions of dollars with his lightning-quick jab. His fights were so memorable that they had names — “Rumble in the Jungle” and “Thrilla in Manila.”
But it was as much his antics — and his mouth — outside the ring that transformed the man born Cassius Clay into a household name as Muhammad Ali.
“I am the greatest,” Ali thundered again and again.
Few would disagree.
Ali spurned white America when he joined the Black Muslims and changed his name. He defied the draft at the height of the Vietnam war — “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong” — and lost 3 1/2 years from the prime of his career. He entertained world leaders, once telling Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos: “I saw your wife. You’re not as dumb as you look.”
He later embarked on a second career as a missionary for Islam.
“Boxing was my field mission, the first part of my life,” he said in 1990, adding with typical braggadocio, “I will be the greatest evangelist ever.”
Ali couldn’t fulfill that goal because Parkinson’s robbed him of his speech. It took such a toll on his body that the sight of him in his later years — trembling, his face frozen, the man who invented the Ali Shuffle now barely able to walk — shocked and saddened those who remembered him in his prime.
“People naturally are going to be sad to see the effects of his disease,” Hana, one of his daughters, said, when he turned 65. “But if they could really see him in the calm of his everyday life, they would not be sorry for him. He’s at complete peace, and he’s here learning a greater lesson.”
The quiet of Ali’s later life was in contrast to the roar of a career that had breathtaking highs along with terrible lows. He exploded on the public scene with a series of nationally televised fights that gave the public an exciting new champion, and he entertained millions as he sparred verbally with the likes of bombastic sportscaster Howard Cosell.
Ali once calculated he had taken 29,000 punches to the head and made $57 million in his pro career, but the effect of the punches lingered long after most of the money was gone. That didn’t stop him from traveling tirelessly to promote Islam, meet with world leaders and champion legislation dubbed the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act. While slowed in recent years, he still managed to make numerous appearances, including a trip to the 2012 London Olympics.
Despised by some for his outspoken beliefs and refusal to serve in the U.S. Army in the 1960s, an aging Ali became a poignant figure whose mere presence at a sporting event would draw long standing ovations.
With his hands trembling so uncontrollably that the world held its breath, he lit the Olympic torch for the 1996 Atlanta Games in a performance as riveting as some of his fights.
A few years after that, he sat mute in a committee room in Washington, his mere presence enough to convince lawmakers to pass the boxing reform bill that bore his name.
Members of his inner circle weren’t surprised. They had long known Ali as a humanitarian who once wouldn’t think twice about getting in his car and driving hours to visit a terminally ill child. They saw him as a man who seemed to like everyone he met — even his archrival Frazier.
“I consider myself one of the luckiest guys in the world just to call him my friend,” former business manager Gene Kilroy said. “If I was to die today and go to heaven it would be a step down. My heaven was being with Ali.”
One of his biggest opponents would later become a big fan, too. On the eve of the 35th anniversary of their “Rumble in the Jungle,” Foreman paid tribute to the man who so famously stopped him in the eighth round of their 1974 heavyweight title fight, the first ever held in Africa.
“I don’t call him the best boxer of all time, but he’s the greatest human being I ever met,” Foreman said. “To this day he’s the most exciting person I ever met in my life.”
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay on Jan. 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali began boxing at age 12 after his new bicycle was stolen and he vowed to policeman Joe Martin that he would “whup” the person who took it.
He was only 89 pounds at the time, but Martin began training him at his boxing gym, the beginning of a six-year amateur career that ended with the light heavyweight Olympic gold medal in 1960.
Ali had already encountered racism. On boxing trips, he and his amateur teammates would have to stay in the car while Martin bought them hamburgers. When he returned to Louisville with his gold medal, the Chamber of Commerce presented him a citation but said it didn’t have time to co-sponsor a dinner.
In his autobiography, “The Greatest,” Ali wrote that he tossed the medal into the Ohio River after a fight with a white motorcycle gang, which started when he and a friend were refused service at a Louisville restaurant.
The story may be apocryphal, and Ali later told friends he simply misplaced the medal. Regardless, he had made his point.
After he beat Liston to win the heavyweight title in 1964, Ali shocked the boxing world by announcing he was a member of the Black Muslims — the Nation of Islam — and was rejecting his “slave name.”
As a Baptist youth he spent much of his time outside the ring reading the Bible. From now on, he would be known as Muhammad Ali and his book of choice would be the Koran.
Ali’s affiliation with the Nation of Islam outraged and disturbed many white Americans, but it was his refusal to be inducted into the Army that angered them most.
That happened on April 28, 1967, a month after he knocked out Zora Folley in the seventh round at Madison Square Garden in New York for his eighth title defense.
He was convicted of draft evasion, stripped of his title and banned from boxing.
Ali appealed the conviction on grounds he was a Muslim minister. He married 17-year-old Belinda Boyd, the second of his four wives, a month after his conviction, and had four children with her. He had two more with his third wife, Veronica Porsche, and he and his fourth wife, Lonnie Williams, adopted a son.
During his banishment, Ali spoke at colleges and briefly appeared in a Broadway musical called “Big Time Buck White.” Still facing a prison term, he was allowed to resume boxing three years later, and he came back to stop Jerry Quarry in three rounds on Oct. 26, 1970, in Atlanta despite efforts by Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox to block the bout.
He was still facing a possible prison sentence when he fought Frazier for the first time on March 8, 1971, in what was labeled “The Fight of the Century.”
A few months later the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction on an 8-0 vote.
“I’ve done my celebrating already,” Ali said after being informed of the decision. “I said a prayer to Allah.”
Many in boxing believe Ali was never the same fighter after his lengthy layoff, even though he won the heavyweight championship two more times and fought for another decade.
Perhaps his most memorable fight was the “Rumble in the Jungle,” when he upset a brooding Foreman to become heavyweight champion once again at age 32.
Many worried that Ali could be seriously hurt by the powerful Foreman, who had knocked Frazier down six times in a second round TKO.
But while his peak fighting days may have been over, he was still in fine form verbally. He promoted the fight relentlessly, as only he could.
“You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned,” he said. “Wait till I whup George Foreman’s behind.”
Ali won over a country before he won the fight, mingling with people as he trained and displaying the kind of playful charm the rest of the world had already seen. On the plane into the former Congo he asked what the citizens of Zaire disliked most. He was told it was Belgians because they had once colonized the country.
“George Foreman is a Belgian,” Ali cried out to the huge crowd that greeted him at the airport. By the time the fight finally went off in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 1974, Zaire was his.
“Ali booma-ya (Ali kill him),” many of the 60,000 fans screamed as the fight began in Kinshasa.
Ali pulled out a huge upset to win the heavyweight title for a second time, allowing Foreman to punch himself out. He used what he would later call the “rope-a-dope” strategy — something even trainer Angelo Dundee knew nothing about.
Finally, he knocked out an exhausted Foreman in the eighth round, touching off wild celebrations among his African fans.
“I told you I was the greatest,” Ali said.
That might have been argued by followers of Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano or Sugar Ray Robinson, but there was no doubt that Ali was just what boxing needed in the early 1960s.
He spouted poetry and brash predictions. After the sullen and frightening Liston, he was a fresh and entertaining face in a sport that struggled for respectability.
At the weigh-in before his Feb. 25, 1964, fight with Liston, Ali carried on so much that some observers thought he was scared stiff and suggested the fight in Miami Beach be called off.
“The crowd did not dream when they lay down their money that they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny,” Ali said.
Ali went on to punch Liston’s face lumpy and became champion for the first time when Liston quit on his stool after the sixth round.
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” became Ali’s rallying cry.
His talent for talking earned him the nickname “The Louisville Lip,” but he had a new name of his own in mind: Muhammad Ali.
“I don’t have to be what you want me to be,” he told reporters the morning after beating Liston. “I’m free to be who I want.”
Frazier refused to call Ali by his new name, insisting he was still Cassius Clay. So did Ernie Terrell in their Feb. 6, 1967, fight, a mistake he would come to regret through 15 long rounds.
“What’s my name?” Ali demanded as he repeatedly punched Terrell in the face. “What’s my name?”
By the time Ali was able to return to the ring following his forced layoff, he was bigger than ever. Soon he was in the ring for his first of three epic fights against Frazier, with each fighter guaranteed $2.5 million.
Before the fight, Ali called Frazier an “Uncle Tom” and said he was “too ugly to be the champ.” His gamesmanship could have a cruel edge, especially when it was directed toward Frazier.
In the first fight, though, Frazier had the upper hand. He relentlessly wore Ali down, flooring him with a crushing left hook in the 15th round and winning a decision.
It was the first defeat for Ali, but the boxing world had not seen the last of him and Frazier in the ring. Ali won a second fight, and then came the “Thrilla in Manila” on Oct. 1, 1975, in the Philippines, a brutal bout that Ali said afterward was “the closest thing to dying” he had experienced.
Ali won that third fight but took a terrific beating from the relentless Frazier before trainer Eddie Futch kept Frazier from answering the bell for the 15th round.
“They told me Joe Frazier was through,” Ali told Frazier at one point during the fight.
“They lied,” Frazier said, before hitting Ali with a left hook.
The fight — which most in boxing agree was Ali’s last great performance — was part of a 16-month period on the mid-1970s when Ali took his show on the road, fighting Foreman in Zaire, Frazier in the Philippines, Joe Bugner in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Jean Pierre Coopman in Puerto Rico.
The world got a taste of Ali in splendid form with both his fists and his mouth.
In Malaysia, a member of the commission in charge of the gloves the fighters would wear told Ali they would be held in a prison for safekeeping before the fight.
“My gloves are going to jail,” shouted a wide-eyed Ali. “They ain’t done nothing — yet!”
Ali would go on to lose the title to Leon Spinks, then come back to win it a third time on Sept. 15, 1978, when he scored a decision over Spinks in a rematch before 70,000 people at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Ali retired, only to come back and try to win the title for a fourth time against Larry Holmes on Oct. 2, 1980, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Ali grew a mustache, pronounced himself “Dark Gable” and got down to a svelte 217 1/2 pounds to beat Father Time. But Holmes, his former sparring partner, mercifully toyed with him until Dundee refused to let Ali answer the bell for the 11th round.
“He was like a little baby after the first round,” Holmes said. “I was throwing punches and missing just for the hell of it. I kept saying, ‘Ali, why are you taking this?’
“He said, ‘Shut up and fight, I’m going to knock you out.'”
When the fight was over, Holmes and his wife went upstairs to pay their respects to Ali. In a darkened room, Holmes told Ali that he loved him.
“Then why did you whip my ass like that?” Ali replied.
A few years later, Ali said he would not have fought Holmes if he didn’t think he could have won.
“If I had known Holmes was going to whip me and damage my brain, I would not have fought him,” Ali said. “But losing to Holmes and being sick are not important in God’s world.”
It was that world that Ali retreated to, fighting just once more, losing a 10-round decision to Trevor Berbick in the Bahamas.
With his fourth wife, Lonnie, at his side, Ali traveled the world for Islam and other causes. In 1990, he went to Iraq on his own initiative to meet with Saddam Hussein and returned to the United States with 15 Americans who had been held hostage.
One of the hostages recounted meeting Ali in Thomas Hauser’s 1990 biography “Muhammad Ali — His Life and Times.”
“I’ve always known that Muhammad Ali was a super sportsman; but during those hours that we were together, inside that enormous body I saw an angel,” hostage Harry Brill-Edwards said.
For his part, Ali didn’t complain about the price he had paid in the ring.
“What I suffered physically was worth what I’ve accomplished in life,” he said in 1984. “A man who is not courageous enough to take risks will never accomplish anything in life.”
In this photo taken Thursday, June 2, 2016, the United States team poses for a team photo before their international friendly soccer match against the Japan in Commerce City, Colo. A federal judge said Friday, June 3,2016, the world champion U.S. women’s soccer team currently does not have the right to strike to seek improved conditions and wages before the summer Olympics. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey, File)
FILE – In this Sept. 27, 2014, file photo, Muhammad Ali is shown before the Ali Humanitarian Awards ceremony in Louisville, Ky. A spokesman for boxing great Muhammad Ali says the former heavyweight champion is being treated in a hospital for a respiratory issue. Spokesman Bob Gunnell said Thursday, June 2, 2016, that Ali is being treated by doctors as a precaution. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
FILE – In this Feb. 22, 2012, file photo, Muhammad Ali, center, with the support of sister in-law Marilyn Williams, left, and wife Lonnie, walks through the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s in Phoenix. Mohammed Ali is in the hospital with respiratory problems, and while officials haven’t given details about his condition, the boxing greatÂ’s health in general is complicated by advanced ParkinsonÂ’s _ a degenerative disease heÂ’s lived with for three decades. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, David Kadlubowski) MARICOPA COUNTY OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES
A trio of U.S. boxers wear gold medals at the Olympic village in Rome, September 6, 1960. From the left are: Wilbert McClure of Toledo, Ohio, light middleweight; Cassius Clay of Louisville, KY, light heavyweight; and Edward Crook of Fort Campbell, KY, middleweight. (AP Photo)
The Beatles, from right to left, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr pretent to be knocked out by a fake blow from Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), lying on the floor of the ring, while visiting the heavyweight contender at his training camp in Miami Beach, Florida, USA, Feb. 18,1964. (AP Photo)
Young heavyweight fighter Cassius Clay is seen at City Parks Gym in New York, Feb. 8, 1962. (AP Photo/Dan Grossi)
Cassius Clay, in white trunks, is shown in his professional boxing debut, October 29, 1960, in Louisville’s Freedom Hall, against Tunney Hunsaker – a part-time fighter and the full-time police chief of Fayetteville, West Virginia. Six thousand partisan fans saw Clay win a six round decision. (AP Photo)
Young heavyweight fighter Cassius Clay is seen with his trainer Angelo Dundee at City Parks Gym in New York, Feb. 8, 1962. (AP Photo/Dan Grossi)
Cassius Clay weighs in at 204 pounds for his 12-round heavyweight fight in Los Angeles, California, November 15, 1962, against Archie Moore, left, who came in at 197 pounds. Adjusting the scales is Clayton Frye, secretary of the California Athletic Commission. (AP Photo)
Heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali (center) the Olympic champ turned pro, visited Tennessee A&I State University at Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 1961 for a reunion with fellow Olympic Ralph Boston and Wilma Rudolph, both track stars. The Louisville boxer says he?s ready to most champion Floyd Patterson. He will seek his 10th straight pro win on December 13 at Louisville against Willi Besmanoff. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) misses with a left as Charley Powell ducks in the first round of their scheduled 10-round heavyweight fight. Ali knocked out Powell in the third round at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on Jan. 25, 1963. (AP Photo)
World heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay runs alongside a horse-drawn carriage, in Queen’s Mews, Knightsbridge, London, May 11, 1966. Clay is in training for his fight against British challenger Henry Cooper on May 21. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
Muhammad Ali blows out the candles on a cake baked for his 25th birthday today, Jan. 17, 1967. The cake, weighing 578 1/2 pounds, was presented to Ali as he started the day’s training in Houston. Fifteen hundred eggs, 150 pounds each of flour, sugar and butter were used in the making of the cake. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky)
Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, holds the “Muhammad Speaks” newspaper with his picture as he and followers of the Muslim sect leave the Las Vegas convention center, after weigh-in ceremonies. Ali, who weighed in at 210 pounds, defends his title against challenger Floyd Patterson, November 22, 1965, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Sal Veder)
Perspiration beads the face of world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali shown in training for his May 25, 1965 fight with Sonny Liston at Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo)
Basketball star Wilt Chamberlain extends a long left in the direction of world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali as they met at an ABC television studio in New York, March 10, 1967. Chamberlain stands 7 feet, 1 inch tall, and Ali is 6 feet, 2 inches tall. Chamberlain’s reach is over 90 inches, Ali’s is 79 inches. Their proposed fight, in all seriousness, never came off. (AP Photo)
Keith Green, nine-year-old fourth grader from P.S. 175 in Manhattan, is shown striking a victorious pose after “flooring” heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden in New York, March 14, 1967, as Ali trained for his March 22 bout with Zora Folley. Keith was among 300 children from P.S. 175 who visited Ali. (AP Photo/John Lindsay)
Muhammad Ali gets a rub down as he uses his hands for a demonstration during a dressing room chat with newsmen after a light workout in Houston, Feb. 2, 1967. Ali is training for the Feb. 6 heavyweight title fight with WBA champion Ernie Terrell. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky)
World Heavyweight Champion Cassius Clay, left, and Ernie Terrell stand face to face during a weigh-in for the title fight tonight in Houston, Texas, on Feb. 6, 1967. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali falls through the ropes while working out with sparring partner Jimmy Ellis in Houston, Tex., Feb. 2, 1967, a few days before his heavyweight match with Ernie Terrell. (AP Photo)
Boxing champion Muhammad Ali, his father Cassius Clay, Sr., and his brother Rahaman Ali, are shown at his training camp in Miami Beach, Florida, February 9, 1971. (AP Photostf)
Muhammad Ali, in a jovial mood as his March 8 bout with Joe Frazier draws near, is seen speaking on the phone and wearing a king’s crown, March 6, 1971, in Miami Beach. Ali and Frazier will meet on the 8th in New York’s Madison Square Garden. (AP Photo/Joe Migon)
Muhammad Ali gets a bear-hug in the ring from Sammy Davis Jr. moments after taking a 12-round decision from England?s Joe Bugner in a 12-rounder at Las Vegas, Nev., on Feb. 14, 1973. Davis gave President Richard Nixon a similar hug at the Republican convention last summer. (AP Photo)
A battered Muhammad Ali walks back to his corner as a triumphant Joe Frazier, background, celebrates his title defense after the 15th round of their title bout in New York, March 8, 1971. After the bout, Ali was taken to have his injured jaw X-rayed. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali hits Ron Lyle with a hard right to the chin during fifth round action of the title bout in Las Vegas, May 16, 1975. Ali won with a TKO in the 11th round. (AP Photo)
** FILE **Heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali makes a point during a news conference that he conducts from inside the ring in Atlanta, Ga., in this Oct. 24, 1970, file photo. A new book, “Ali Rap: Muhammad Ali the First Heavyweight Champion of Rap,” proclaims Ali’s verbal barrage was more than self-promotion, but sowed the seeds of hip-hop, which came into being in the `70s. (AP Photo/FILE)
Title fight announced – Sports promoter Don King stands between Muhammad Ali, left, the heavyweight champion, and Joe Frazier in New York, Thursday, July 17, 1975, after it was announced that Ali and Frazier will meet in a title bout dot. The Ali – Frazier fight will be their third match-up. Each has won once. (AP-Photo)
Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali connects with a left to the face of Jimmy Young during their championship bout at Landover, Md., April 30, 1976. Ali won a unanimous decision in fifteen rounds. (AP Photo)
World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali points to a photo of scantily-clad challenger Ken Norton, Sept. 23, 1976, as Ali and supporters picket outside Norton’s training headquarters in Grossinger, N.Y. Signs carried by Ali and his friends claim that Norton has made X-rated movies. Actually, Norton has had featured roles in the films “Mandingo,” and “Drum,” which are R-rated. (AP Photo/Dave Pickoff)
Pop artist Andy Warhol, left, is shown photographing Muhammad Ali, his infant daughter, Hanna, and wife, Veronica, Thursday, August 18, 1977, at Ali’s training camp in Deer Lake, Pa. (AP Photo)
Soccer player Pele, right, embraces boxer Muhammad Ali during a ceremony honoring the Brazilian soccer star of the New York Cosmos at Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J., October 1, 1977. Cosmos won 2-1 over Santos of Brazil in the final game of Pele’s career, in which he played on both sides, one each half. (AP Photo)
Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali and his bride, Veronica Porsche, pose for photographers, June 19, 1977, following their wedding in Los Angeles. It was the third marriage for Ali. (AP Photo/stf)
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali, left, signs a replica of his star for the Hollywood Walk of Fame as Johnny Grant, honorary mayor of Hollywood, holds it up Friday, Jan. 11, 2002, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Challenger Muhammad Ali is pictured grimacing after champion Leon Spinks landed a left during their heavyweight title bout at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, September 16, 1978. Ali regained the title with a 15 round unanimous decision. (AP Photo/stf)
Boxing champion Muhammad Ali and Martha Louis Barrow, the wife of ex-heavyweight champion Joe Louis, talk at a dinner in Washington, D.C. on May 13, 1978. The dinner is honoring Ali as fighter of the decade and Louis as fighter of the century. The awards were presented to Ali and Mrs. Louis on behalf of her husband by the Omnibus House Group, a Washington based media organization. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)
Muhammad Ali, left, Liberace, center, and Hulk Hogan get together at Madison Square Garden in preparation for their upcoming wrestling event, March 29, 1985, in New York. Ali will be guest referee and Liberace time keeper when Hulk Hogan and Mr. T, of A-Team fame, are pitted against Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul (Mr. Wonderful) Orndorff. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler)
Muhammad Ali, former world heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medal winner, carries the Olympic torch for a kilometer in Louisville, Ky., May 27, 1984. (AP Photo/T. Palmer)
Cassius Clay faces newsmen in the dressing room at Madison Square Garden, in New York, night of March 13, 1963 after winning unanimous decision over Doug Jones in 10-round bout. (AP Photo)
Former boxer Muhammad Ali, left, hugs former U.S. President Bill Clinton as he walks onstage at the grand opening gala celebration for the Muhammad Ali Center, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2005, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)
FILE – In this Nov. 15, 1962, file photo, young heavyweight boxer Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, points to a sign he wrote on a chalk board in his dressing room before his fight against Archie Moore in Los Angeles, predicting he’d knock Moore out in the fourth round, which he went on to do. The sign also predicts Clay will be the next champ via a knockout over Sonny Liston in eight rounds. He did it in seven rounds. Ali turns 70 on Jan. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Harold P. Matosian, File)
Muhammad Ali at wheel of car on April 2, 1963. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) the windy young heavyweight from Louisville, Ky., shadow boxes on Nov. 13, 1962 in the final stages of his preparations to fight Archie Moore in the Los Angeles Sports Arena November 15. A superb physical specimen, the undefeated Clay says ?That old man will never catch me.? (AP Photo/Don Brinn)
Cassius Clay’s handlers hold him back as he reacts after he is announced the new heavyweight champion of the world on a seventh round technical knockout against Sonny Liston at Convention Hall in Miami Beach, Fla., on Feb. 25, 1964. (AP Photo)
Heavyweight challenger Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) lets out a howl as he steps to the box office Feb. 22, 1964 in Miami Beach, Fla. Ali and Sonny Liston will fight Tuesday night. (AP Photo)
World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali ?Cassius Clay? poses wearing the 24-carat gold-plated championship belt presented to him in New York on Sept. 17, 1964. Clay predicted a long reign on the boxing throne for himself and eventual retirement as ?the undefeated, untarnished, and still the prettiest? heavyweight champion of them all. The belt was presented by ring magazine in whose offices the ceremony took place. (AP Photo)
FILE – In this Feb. 18, 1964, file photo, The Beatles, from left, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, take a fake blow from Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, while visiting the heavyweight contender at his training camp in Miami Beach, Fla. Ali turns 70 on Jan. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/File)
Muhammad Ali demonstrates his ability to land punches in any situation during his bout with Ernie Terrell in Houston, Feb. 6, 1967. (AP Photo)
Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) at left stands by after he landed a right to the head of challenger Cleveland Williams which knocked him down for the fourth time in their title bout in Houston?s domed stadium on Nov. 15, 1966. The punch was landed in the third round and moment?s later referee Harry Kessler put a stop to the mismatch, awarding Ali a technical knockout. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali gets his gloves laced outside a boxing ring in Houston, Texas in February 1967. Ali is training for a Feb. 6 championship title fight with Ernie Terrell. (AP Photo)
Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali, surrounded by neighborhood youngsters, was very bitter about his reclassification to 1-A by his Louisville, Ky. draft board, Feb. 18, 1966 in Miami, Fla. Ali held a press conference at his Miami home after learning of the change. (AP Photo/Toby Massey)
Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali is momentarily displeased after weigh-in ceremony, May 25, 1965 in Lewiston, Maine, arena. Challenger Sonny Liston will be the object of Ali?s more potent attentions in 15-round title bout tonight. Liston weighed 215 ¼ and Clay 206. (AP Photo)
Referee John LoBianco directs champion Muhammad Ali to a neutral corner before he started the knockout count over prostrate challenger Zora Folley in seventh round of heavyweight little fight. Ali was declared victor on a knockout at 1:48 of the round in fight in New York’s Madison Square Garden, March 22, 1967. (AP Photo)
World heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali sits in his room on his arrival in Houston, Feb. 20, 1967. The champ was silent on his thoughts about his draft status referring all questions to his New York attorney. The Houston Selective Service appeals board refused his appeal for a deferment. He was trying for a deferment on grounds that he is a Muslim minister. Ali starts training tomorrow for his title defense against Zora Folley on March 22 in New York. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky)
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), the deposed world heavyweight boxing champion, told an anti-war rally at the University of Chicago on May 11, 1967 that there is a difference between fighting in the ring and fighting in Vietnam. (AP Photo/Charles Harrity)
Muhammad Ali, former world heavyweight boxing champion, toys with the finely combed hair of television sports commentators Howard Cosell before the start of the Olympic boxing trials, Aug. 7, 1972, in West Point, NY. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali, right, winces as Ken Norton hits him with a left to the head in their scheduled 12-round re-match, Sept. 10, 1973 at the Forum in Inglewood, California. (AP Photo)
With compressed lips, Muhammad Ali punches bag on Jan. 10, 1974 in his Deer Lake, Pa., training camp where he is preparing for his January 28 rematch with Joe Frazier. Ali still broods about his defeat by Frazier back in March 1971 but says he is going to win this time. (AP Photo/ Rusty Kennedy)
Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali displays the Hickory Award he received in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 1975 honoring him as the professional athlete of the year for 1974. Ali picked up 49 first-peace votes and 249 points in nationwide balloting among sports writers and sports casters. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler)
Muhammad Ali puts on a show at the New York State Athletic Commission?s office in New York City on Jan. 23, 1974 as he tries to force his way into the room where Joe Frazier was getting his pre-fight physical. Ali and Frazier meet on January 28 in evening in Madison Square Garden in a heavyweight boxing match. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler )
Muhammad Ali and his assistant trainer and friend Bondini Brown sing a song in the ring after Ali weighed in at 215 pounds for his bout at Madison Square Garden in New York with heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, March 8, 1971. (AP Photo)
Japanese pro wrestler Antonio Inoki kicks the back of Muhammad Ali’s leg in an attempt to trip him down on the mat during their boxing wrestling bout on June 26, 1976 at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo. Inoki challenged the World Heavyweight boxing champion in a 15-round fight billed as “World Martial Arts championship.” But the fight ended in a draw before the 14,000 spectators who paid from 17 to 1,000 U.S. dollars for their seat. Ali was to receive 6.1 million dollars and Inoki up to 4 million. (AP Photo/MC)
FILE – In this June 3, 1976, file photo, Muhammad Ali, left, and Ken Norton stand in the infield at New York’s Yankee Stadium to promote their title fight that was held in September of that year. Yuri Foreman, the junior middleweight champion, is scheduled to face Miguel Cotto at the new Yankee Stadium on Saturday, June 5, in the first boxing match the Yankees have hosted since the 1976 bout. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, File)
President Ferdinand Marcos, left, of the Philippines, presents the President’s Trophy to heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, second from right, after Ali defeated Joe Frazier in their “Thrilla in Manila” fight at the Coliseum in Manila, Oct. 1, 1975. Posing from left are, President Marcos; promoter Don King; Ali’s brother, Rahman; Ali, and his father Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., right. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali, left, heavyweight champ hams it up with challenger Chuck Wepner during weigh-in at Cleveland Coliseum on Sunday, March 23, 1975 at Richfield, Ohio. Wepner meets Ali in a scheduled 15-round title bout Monday Center is TV commentator Howard Cosell. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali is seen prior to the first round of his title fight against heavyweight contender Ken Norton, shouting “Norton must fall” at Yankee Stadium in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1976. Days later on Friday, Oct. 1, in Istanbul, Ali told a crowd of reporters and photographers that “as of now, I am quitting boxing and will devote all my energy to the propagation of the Muslim faith.” (AP Photo)
Boxing great Muhammad Ali pleads with Kristal Yates, 6, of New Haven, for a kiss as he toured the Newington Children?s Hospital in Newington, Mass., Aug. 24, 1979. The little girl refused to give him one, but did get his autograph. (AP Photo/Bob Child)
Host David Frost roars with delight at a remark by former heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali, July 5, 1978. The two were talking during broadcast of Frost?s “Headliners” show on NBC. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)
Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali on his twelve day visit to the Soviet Union, Russia in June 1978. (AP Photo)
Boxer Muhammad Ali doing his roadwork past St. Basil’s and Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow in June 1978. (AP Photo)
One left to the head that Muhammad Ali isn?t even trying to dodge. The hand is that of his 13-month-old daughter, Hana, who is clambering over Ali on Sunday, Sept. 26, 1977 in the New York hotel room to which he returned after working out for his impending title defense. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali poses with Dream Team members from left: Scottie Pippen, Hakeem Olajuwon, Reggie Miller, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone and Gary Payton after receiving the gold medal, which replaces the 1960 gold medal he lost, during half time ceremonies at the gold medal game of basketball competition at the Centennial Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta Saturday, August 3, 1996. IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch presented the medal to Ali. (AP Photo/Eric Draper)
Zaire dancer with spear moves ahead of Muhammad Ali through welcoming crowded at Kinshasa airport, September 10, 1974. Ali arrived in a chartered Air Zaire plane from Paris for the world championship fight with George Foreman. AP Photo/ Horst Faas)
President Bush presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005, to boxer Muhammad Ali in the East Room of the White House. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Muhammad Ali, right, is shown with Black Muslim Leader, Malcolm X, outside the Trans-Lux Newsreel Theater on Broadway at 49th Street, New York City, March 1, 1964. They had just watched a screening of films on Ali’s title fight with Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Feb. 25. (AP Photo)