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Ali is and forever will be 'the greatest'

Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) won the heavyweight title for the first time in a fight with Sonny Liston in 1964 (Wikimedia Commons)
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4th June, 2016
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This is the news not just boxing fans, but sports fans all around the world have been dreading for the past two days – the champ is no more.

The silver-tongued boxer and civil rights champion who famously proclaimed himself ‘The Greatest’ and then spent a lifetime living up to the billing, passed away yesterday, surrounded by family at a Phoenix-area hospital.

Ali spent his final few days being treated for respiratory complications.

“After a 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening,” Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman said.

Even as his health deteriorated at the hands of Parkinson’s, Ali did not shy from politics or controversy.

In December, the great one took on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

“We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda,” he said.

And it’s that controversy that saw Ali transcend sports and become one of the first global sporting superstars.

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His cockiness and swagger in the boxing ring was something unseen.

At the time, his quote of “I am the greatest” was one of the most self-aggrandising statements ever made by a sportsman.

Amazing how tame that statement looks compared to some of the dunderheaded things that come out of some sportspeople’s mouths nowadays.

But at the time, it was something never before seen, a true trash talker who did not hold back when discussing his foes.

Ali is the man that said Joe Frazier was “too dumb to be champion”, that he would whip Sonny Liston “like his Daddy did”, that Ernie Terrell was an “Uncle Tom”, that Floyd Patterson was a “rabbit”. The list goes on and on.

One writer who covered Ali claimed the way the champ played to Sonny Liston’s anger was: “the most brilliant fight strategy in boxing history was devised by a teenager who had graduated 376 in a class of 391.”

He captivated the world and got a whole generation into boxing. Even now, there are few people who do not know the great one’s name.

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You want to know how important this man is, look at his peers outpouring of praise in the past few hours.

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Every modern boxer owes a great deal to Ali, and they all know it.

There’s only one way to summarise the champ. I apologise to famous wrestler Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, but there is no doubt Ali is “the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be.”

RIP to the great one.

You can find Mat on twitter at twitter.com/mnlangdon

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