Public Funeral To Hold For Greatest Boxer ‘Mohammad Ali’
MEP: A public procession and funeral will be held for the greatest boxer Muhammad Ali on Friday to “allow anyone express their condolences and to say goodbye”, a family spokesman said.
The legend boxer died of septic shock after spending five days at an Arizona hospital for what started out as respiratory problems and gradually worsened, succumbing only after his wife and children arrived at his bedside.
Ali’s funeral will be held in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, the family said, and be preceded by a public procession. Former president Bill Clinton, Billy Crystan and Bryant Gumbel will deliver eulogies.
A private family service will be held on Thursday.
In preparation, Louisville lowered flags in mourning on Saturday as it looked toward Ali’s final homecoming.
Outside the Muhammad Ali Center, locals created an impromptu memorial, leaving flowers and written tributes.
A few blocks away at Louisville Metro Hall, Mayor Greg Fischer marveled at the many outsize roles Ali embodied: sports champion, civil rights icon, humanitarian and “interfaith pioneer.”
Barack Obama led tributes to Ali from around the world, saying that Ali’s battle against Parkinson’s “ravaged his body but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes. Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it.”
The three-time world heavyweight champion, and one of the world’s greatest sporting figures, died in Phoenix, Arizona, and his body will be flown to Kentucky in the next two days.
He will be buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, the city of his birth in 1942.
The fighter had been suffering from a respiratory illness, a condition that was complicated by Parkinson’s disease.
