– ‘He did not suffer’ –
President Barack Obama led tributes for Ali, issuing an unusually personal statement in which he said he keeps a pair of Ali’s boxing gloves and a photo in his private study.
“Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period,” the US president said, hailing Ali for his integrity and saying he “stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t.”
“His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground,” Obama said.
“And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognise today.”
Obama later called Ali’s widow Lonnie, telling her “how special it was to have witnessed ‘The Champ’ change the arc of history,” deputy White House spokeswoman Jennifer Friedman said.
In a possible preview of Bill Clinton’s eulogy, he and his wife Hillary, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the White House, said Ali was “a blend of beauty and grace, speed and strength that may never be matched again.”
Ali was hospitalised in the Phoenix area early this week, but his condition quickly deteriorated, and his family came to his bedside.
“His final hours were spent with just immediate family,” Gunnell said, noting the official cause of death was septic shock due to unspecified natural causes.
“He did not suffer.”
Ali had been living in the Phoenix area with Lonnie. His fourth marriage, it was officiated in 1986. He was survived by nine children – seven daughters and two sons.
The fighter himself planned much of the memorial events, Gunnell said.
The interfaith service is to be conducted at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Centre in accordance with “Muslim tradition” and in the presence of an imam. Comedian Billy Crystal and sports journalist Bryant Gumbel are also expected to speak.
Ali is to be buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in his native Louisville, where he was born in 1942. His body was to be brought home in the next two days.
Outside the family home in Louisville and the hospital in Scottsdale, fans left flowers, letters and mementos in Ali’s honour.
“He just represents everything that was good about mankind and it’s sad to see him go,” said James Brice.
Fans also gathered in Los Angeles to snap photos and leave flowers at Ali’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Ali had been hospitalised multiple times in recent years.
In 2014, he was treated for a mild case of pneumonia and in 2015 for a urinary tract infection.
His Parkinson’s, thought to be linked to the thousands of punches he took during a career studded by bruising battles inside the ropes, had limited his public speaking, but he continued to make appearances and statements via his entourage.
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