Muhammad Ali, the civil rights champion who famously proclaimed himself "The Greatest" and afterwards spent a lifetime living up to the billing, is dead.
Ali died Friday 3rd June 2016 at a Phoenix-area hospital, where he had spent some days being treated for respiratory complications. A family spokesman confirmed that he was aged 74.
"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 ," Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman said yesterday.
Ali had suffered for three decades from Parkinson's, a progressive neurological condition that slowly robbed him of both his verbal grace and his physical dexterity. A funeral service is planned to take place at Louisville, Kentucky, his hometown.
His daughter Rasheda said early today that the legend was "no longer suffering," describing him as "daddy, my best friend and hero" as well as "the greatest man that ever lived."
Even as his health declined, Ali did not shy from politics or controversy, releasing a statement in December criticizing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda," he said.
The remark bookended the life of a man who burst into the national consciousness in the early 1960s, when as a young heavyweight champion he converted to Islam and refused to serve in the Vietnam War, and became an emblem of strength, eloquence, conscience and courage. Ali was an anti-establishment showman who transcended borders and barriers, race and religion. His fights against other men became spectacles, but he embodied much greater battles.
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