Boxing legend and social activist Muhammad Ali has passed away after being admitted to hospital with respiratory problems, a statement from his family has confirmed.
An true global icon, Ali is an Olympic Gold Medalist, the only three-time heavyweight champion in history, and a life-long activist for religious freedom and social justice.
Born as Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, he would win his first heavyweight world championship in 1964 at 22 years old, with a stunning upset over the then champ, Sonny Liston. Shortly after the bout, Clay would convert to Islam, changing his name to Muhammad Ali.
Three years after winning the heavyweight title Ali refused to be conscripted into the US military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. He was eventually arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges and stripped of his boxing title. He did not fight again for nearly four years.
Nicknamed “The Greatest”, Ali was involved in several historic boxing matches, most notably his three with rival Joe Frazier, and “The Rumble in the Jungle” with George Foreman, in which he regained thtitles he had been stripped of seven years earlier.
Unfortunately, in his later years, the boxer suffered from Parkinson’s disease and often checked into hospitals for severe urinary tract infections and pneumonia since 2014.