{"id":31,"date":"2016-06-06T13:57:55","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T13:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wherehopelives\/?p=31"},"modified":"2016-06-10T12:55:16","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T12:55:16","slug":"a-farewell-to-the-greatest-muhammad-ali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2016\/06\/a-farewell-to-the-greatest-muhammad-ali.html","title":{"rendered":"A Farewell to the Greatest Boxer of All Time, Muhammad Ali"},"content":{"rendered":"

Muhammad Ali, famed boxer, conscientious objector, and crowd-pleasing champion, has passed away at the age of 74. After being diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s syndrome in 1984, Ali\u2019s health slowly declined, although he would go on to remain active for decades after his diagnosis. He was hospitalized for a respiratory illness on June 2nd<\/sup>, 2016, and soon went into septic shock\u2014a serious condition, even for a healthy patient. Dr. Natalie, Azar, medical contributor at NBC News, states that, while Parkinson\u2019s doesn\u2019t affect the immune system, \u201cany chronic illness like that makes you less able to deal with a huge insult like an infection.\u201d Ali succumbed, and passed on June 3, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona.<\/p>\n

Ali was known for his strength\u2014both of body and personality. Beginning his training at 12, and going on to win the world heavyweight boxing championship at the mere age of 22, Ali would go on to become one of the biggest personalities to ever grace the history of boxing, famous for taunting his opponents with creative lyrics during his matches, and for proclaiming his greatness after his wins. Ring Magazine<\/em> names Ali the number 1 greatest heavyweight boxing champion from all eras. Ali’s record reflects this; he retired in 1981 with a record of 56 wins and just 5 losses.<\/p>\n

Ali\u2019s interest in boxing began with a stolen bike at age 12, when he was told by police officer and boxing trainer, Joe Martin, that if he wanted to make good on the threats he made against the thief, he was going to have to \u201clearn something about fighting.\u201d\u00a0Ali\u2019s propensity\u00a0for beating those who took advantage of him didn\u2019t end there, however.\u00a0Ali famously refused the draft, asking, \u201cWhy should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?” Ali went on to be cleared of charges, his conscientious objector status verified, and the prison sentence that hung over his head for refusing the draft, lifted. His actions and bravery, as someone very much in the spotlight at the time, inspired others through his pride in his ethnic heritage, and his refusal to bow down to oppression.<\/p>\n

On his death, one of Ali\u2019s daughters, Hana Ali, wrote on her Twitter account that \u201cOur hearts are literally hurting. But we are so happy daddy is free now. We all tried to stay strong and whispered in his ear, \u2018You can go now. We will be okay. We love love. Thank you. You can go back to God now.\u2019 All of us were around him hugging and kissing him and holding his hands, chanting the Islamic prayer. All of his organs failed, but his HEART wouldn\u2019t stop beating. For 30 minutes\u2026his heart just kept beating. No one had ever seen anything like it. A true testament to the strength of his Spirit and Will!\u201d<\/p>\n

Even to the end, Muhammad Ali had the heart of a champion, and his legacy as not only the greatest boxer of all time, but of a courageous fighter in the war for equality, will live on in his place.<\/p>\n

Muhammad Ali is survived by his nine children and his fourth wife, Lonnie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muhammad Ali, famed boxer, conscientious objector, and crowd-pleasing champion, has passed away at the age of 74. After being diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s syndrome in 1984, Ali\u2019s health slowly declined, although he would go on to remain active for decades after his diagnosis. He was hospitalized for a respiratory illness on June 2nd, 2016, and soon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,9,8,10],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cassius-clay","tag-death","tag-muhammad-ali","tag-the-greatest"],"yoast_head":"\nA Farewell to the Greatest Boxer of All Time, Muhammad Ali<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, has passed away on June 3rd, 2016.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Farewell to the Greatest Boxer of All Time, Muhammad Ali\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, has passed away on June 3rd, 2016.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2016\/06\/a-farewell-to-the-greatest-muhammad-ali.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Where Hope Lives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-06T13:57:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-10T12:55:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wesley Baines\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Farewell to the Greatest Boxer of All Time, Muhammad Ali","description":"The greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, has passed away on June 3rd, 2016.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Farewell to the Greatest Boxer of All Time, Muhammad Ali","og_description":"The greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, has passed away on June 3rd, 2016.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2016\/06\/a-farewell-to-the-greatest-muhammad-ali.html","og_site_name":"Where Hope Lives","article_published_time":"2016-06-06T13:57:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-06-10T12:55:16+00:00","author":"Wesley Baines","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2016\/06\/a-farewell-to-the-greatest-muhammad-ali.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2016\/06\/a-farewell-to-the-greatest-muhammad-ali.html","name":"A Farewell to the Greatest Boxer of All Time, Muhammad Ali","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-06-06T13:57:55+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-10T12:55:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#\/schema\/person\/a73d65fbed41cccc5f85a830c49fe296"},"description":"The greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, has passed away on June 3rd, 2016.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2016\/06\/a-farewell-to-the-greatest-muhammad-ali.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2016\/06\/a-farewell-to-the-greatest-muhammad-ali.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2016\/06\/a-farewell-to-the-greatest-muhammad-ali.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Farewell to the Greatest Boxer of All Time, Muhammad Ali"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/","name":"Where Hope Lives","description":"Beliefnet Voices - 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