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Ali recalled as fighter for justice and in ring

Muhammad Ali is welcomed by a cheering crowd in Kinshasa, Zaire, before his world heavyweight championship fight against titleholder US George Foreman on October 30, 1974/AFP

Muhammad Ali is welcomed by a cheering crowd in Kinshasa, Zaire, before his world heavyweight championship fight against titleholder US George Foreman on October 30, 1974/AFP

SAN FRANCISCO, United States, Jun 4 – Muhammad Ali was remembered in tributes worldwide for his iconic fight for social justice as well as his legendary boxing battles following his death Friday at age 74.

“We lost a giant,” Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao said. “Boxing benefitted from Muhammad Ali’s talents but not as much as mankind benefitted from his humanity.”

George Foreman, Ali’s most famous knockout victim from the Rumble in the Jungle, noted Ali’s other main rival, Joe Frazier, in tweeting: “Ali, Frazier and Foreman we were 1 guy. A part of me slipped away, The greatest piece.”

The front page headline on Ali’s hometown newspaper, the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, simply said, “The Greatest” with a legendary 1965 photo of Ali standing over a flattened Sonny Liston.

Ali spoke out for African-American civil rights in the 1960s, carrying on his fight against injustice and sacrificing the prime years of his own career in the process.

“When people saw what he had done for what he believed in, threw away 3 1/2 years of his career and he remained steadfast, he came through all of that bigger and more important than ever before,” boxing promoter Bob Arum said.

Retired NBA all-time scoring leader Kareem Abdul-Jabbar praised Ali’s courage in fighting discrimination.

“At a time when blacks who spoke up about injustice were labelled uppity and often arrested, Muhammad willingly sacrificed the best years of his career to stand tall and fight for what he believed was right,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “In doing so, he made all Americans, black and white, stand taller. I may be 7-feet-2 but I never felt taller than when standing in his shadow.”

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