Floyd Mayweather Jr said; “there will never be another Ali”.
“There will never be another Muhammad Ali. The black community all around the world, black people all around the world, needed him. He was the voice for us.”
United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted his tribute to the boxer, saying: ‘It was a time to be angry.’
Jesse Jackson, the black US civil rights leader, said that Ali’s anger during the 1960s was tied intimately to the racism and discrimination faced by Afro-Americans at the time, writes Patrick Sawer.
“He was angry for a reason. We couldn’t use hotels, motels, parks, libraries, public toilets. The animals in the zoo had places they could go to which we couldn’t. It was a time to be angry,” said Mr Jackson.
He said that the decision by the boxing authorities to strip Ali of his heavyweight title for refusing to fight in Vietnam had taken the boxer’s “crown, but not his dignity”.
Jackson added of Ali’s decision to defy the US Army draft had been an admirable one, born of moral courage. “He said loud and clear, ‘I will defy that law’.
“He could have travelled the world boxing. They took away his visa and his passport so he couldn’t travel around the world, but he was still a champion,” he said.
Former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield has given his reaction to Ali’s death.
“I’m glad to have known Ali because when I was a kid, at eight years old, I was told I would be like Ali. To take it upon yourself and say; ‘I’m the greatest’, you put yourself in a position for people to take pot shots at you. This is what Ali did. It’s amazing him becoming three-time heavyweight champion of the world. At that time people thought, ‘Who could beat three? You have to be stronger to get up from a loss to go on and that’s what Ali proved to be.”
Bob Arum, the boxing promoter, says Ali’s legacy “will be part of our history for all time”.
“His ‘spirit will live on.”
Arum has written about the extent to which Ali transformed American society.
“Muhammad Ali paved the way for Barack Obama to be elected as the first black President of the United States – I really believe that, firmly and sincerely.
“The impact he had and the evolution he brought led people to accept the integration of blacks into American society, so when when history books are read in 50 years’ time, there will be a significant chapter about Muhammad Ali in the history of American civilisation.
“That’s how I see it, as someone in their late 70s who has seen the whole evolution of racial integration happen in the US,” Arum said.
Don King, who promoted some of Ali’s biggest fights, says it’s a “sad day,” he told AP:
“It’s a sad day for life, man. I loved Muhammad Ali, he was my friend. Ali will never die. Like Martin Luther King his spirit will live on, he stood for the world,” said King.
“He’s always been right there, Johnny on the spot, anything he could do for the benefit of mankind. Let us celebrate his life. This is not a time to mourn. This is a time to try to emanate the job he was doing and the burden he leaves behind for us to carry on, to remember that the people are the most important,” King added.
Muhammad Ali was loved and respected all around the world, and tributes to the champion have poured in from sports stars and world leaders.
George Foreman, who lost to Ali in the 1974 world championship fight, The Rumble in the Jungle, said that there was no question that Ali was the greatest.
“He is one of those special people,” Foreman said, adding;. “He was one of those things you see maybe only once in a lifetime. Like a total eclipse.
“You are not going to see anything like that again. Boxing doesn’t do enough to define what he was.
“He was the greatest personality that sports has ever seen, or ever will see. He was the greatest personality ever.” Foreman recalled that along with great admiration, he was also fiercely jealous of his old adversary.
“He had everything – charisma, charm, looks and great athletic ability – and you hated him because the guy was handsome. You thought ‘If I could just mess his face up a little’, but you couldn’t get near him in that ring,” he said.
It was not just Ali’s prowess in the ring that inspired a generation. Barack Obama explained that the fighter’s determination to come back to the top of the sport after four years of exile for his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War was the quality he admired the most.
“I was still in grade school when Ali made his extraordinary comeback after nearly four years of exile and later shocked the world by winning his title back,” the US president said.
“It was this quality of Ali’s that I have always admired the most: his unique ability to summon extraordinary strength and courage in the face of adversity, to navigate the storm and never lose his way.
“This is the quality I’m reminded of when I look at the iconic photo I’ve had hanging on my wall of the young fighter standing over Sonny Liston.
“And in the end, it was this quality that would come to define not just Ali the boxer but Ali the man — the Ali I know who made his most lasting contribution as his physical powers ebbed, becoming a force for reconciliation and peace around the world.”
Former British world heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis, meanwhile, said that Ali had inspired him when he was a young child to go on and become a champion himself.
“Muhammad Ali inspired me to chase my dreams in and out of the ring. He meant a great deal to me. I kind of fashioned my whole career after him. Watching him on television as a youngster really did something to me,” Lewis said.
“I loved his flashiness, I loved what he stood for, like going against America in the Vietnam War. I loved the fact that he always had helpful advice, was a nice man that he was very religious, that he wanted to help people.”
The boxer passed away after being admitted to hospital for a respiratory issue on Thursday. His family had been at his bedside on Friday as his condition worsened.
A statement from the spokesman said the Ali family “would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and support” and asked for privacy.
The funeral will take place in Ali’s home town of Louisville, Kentucky.
Family’s spokesman Bob Gunnell had confirmed that Muhammad Ali has died in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday evening local time.
Among the many awards bestowed on Ali was the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, presented to him by President George W Bush.
The family of boxing great Muhammad Ali, Friday, had gathered at his hospital bedside in Arizona, as the 74-year-old former heavyweight champion battles respiratory problems.
Ali’s respiratory issues have been complicated by the Parkinson’s that he was diagnosed with in the 1980s, sources have said.
The sources, who did not want to be identified because they were not speaking on behalf of the family, described Ali’s condition as being very concerning to family members.
Several of Ali’s daughters reportedly flew to Phoenix late on Thursday and early Friday to be with their father.
His last formal public appearance before that was in October when he appeared at the Sports Illustrated Tribute to Muhammad Ali at The Muhammad Ali Centre in his home town of Louisville, Kentucky, along with former opponents George Foreman and Larry Holmes.
Ali has suffered from Parkinson’s for three decades, most famously trembling badly while lighting the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta. Despite the disease he kept up a busy appearance schedule until recently, though he has not spoken in public for years.
Doctors say the Parkinson’s was probably caused by the thousands of punches Ali took during a career in which he travelled the world for big fights.
An iconic figure who at one point was perhaps the most recognised person in the world, Ali has lived quietly in the Phoenix area with his fourth wife Lonnie, whom he married in 1986.
News of his hospital admission brought well wishes from boxers and others on Twitter, including Sugar Ray Leonard, who modelled his career after Ali’s.
“Prayers & blessings to my idol, my friend, & without question, the Greatest of All Time @MuhammadAli ! #GOAT,” Leonard wrote.
Laila Ali, herself a former boxing champion, posted a picture on Facebook of her father holding her daughter when she was an infant.
“I love this photo of my father and my daughter Sydney when she was a baby!” she wrote. “Thanks for all the love and well wishes. I feel your love and appreciate it!!”
