The Greatest fight is over
...now battle for Ali’s fortune begins
HE won unmatched fame in the boxing ring before dazzling the world with his rapier wit and explosive personality.
Yet there was a peaceful end for the man who will forever be known as ‘The Greatest’. With his wife and daughters holding his hands praying, Muhammad Ali died yesterday morning in a simple second-storey hospital room in Scottsdale, Arizona, after suffering with Parkinson’s disease and, finally, a respiratory illness.
But even as President Barack Obama led the tributes to the man whose personality transcended his sport, a legal fight over Ali’s estimated $50m fortune had already begun.
The four wives and at least nine children of the 74-year-old are set to be drawn into an unseemly scrap over his money, with other allegedly illegitimate offspring also likely to stake their claim.
‘It will be an unholy fight,’ said a source familiar with Ali’s estate. ‘His fortune will only grow in death.’
Ali’s daughter Hana described her father’s final moments: ‘We all tried to stay strong and whispered in his ear, “You can go now. We will be okay. We love you. Thank you. You can go back to God now.”
‘All of us were around him… holding his hands, chanting the Islamic prayer. All of his organs failed but his heart wouldn’t stop beating. For 30 minutes his heart just kept beating. No-one had ever seen anything like it. It was a true testament to the strength of his spirit and will.’ From his most famous fights – the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ and the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ – to his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War and his conversion to Islam, the man born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, changed the very definition a sporting icon. Ali’s long-time rival, George Foreman, said that to describe him ‘merely’ as a boxer would be an insult. ‘The greatest boxer? Give that to some boxer,’ Foreman said. ‘Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest human beings that I’ve ever met in my life.’
Ali died close to the home he moved to when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 34 years ago. The condition had virtually silenced the voice that delighted the world with pronouncements such as ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’. His last public appearance was in April when fans were shocked to see how frail he was. In recent years he was unable to speak and instead communicated through winks and smiles.
The devastating extent of Ali’s illness became all too apparent in 1996 when he bravely lit the Olympic Torch with badly trembling hands at the Atlanta Games. Doctors say his Parkinson’s was likely caused by the thousands of punches Ali took during a career in which he won 56 of his 61 bouts. His funeral will take place on Thursday in Louisville, followed on Friday by a procession through the city and a public service. Speakers will include former US President Bill Clinton. But lawsuits look sure to follow as Ali’s financial legacy is expected to be contested. He had five daughters and a son with his second and third wives, and an adopted son with fourth wife, Lonnie, whom he married 30 years ago. Ali was known for his infidelity and had daughters Miya and Khalia from extramarital relationships.
In 2013, his son, Muhammad Ali Jr, 43, revealed he was living in poverty after a feud with Lonnie which began when he tried to sell a pair of his father’s boxing gloves.
Ali earned millions during his fighting career. His biggest pay cheque was a reported $8m for his 1980 defeat to Larry Holmes. As Ali battled Parkinson’s, Lonnie took over his finances, fending off hangers-on who allegedly milked millions. Ali clawed back his fortune through endorsement deals.
Tributes poured in last night. President Obama said he kept a pair of Ali’s gloves in his study at the White House, under a photograph of the champion ‘roaring like a lion over fallen Sonny Liston’. Obama said Ali ‘fought for what was right’, stood with Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela ‘when it was hard’, and ‘spoke out when others wouldn’t’.
Closer to home, Ali was recalled as ‘magical’, by veteran commentator Jimmy Magee. Paying tribute to his charisma, Magee told RTÉ’s Marian Finucane, ‘You could have dropped Muhammad Ali on any remote mountaintop and the first shepherd to come along would have known him.’
Former world champion Barry McGuigan told RTÉ 2fm’s Dave Fanning: ‘He was a beautifullooking man, tippy-toeing around the ring, and he could speak. He just proclaimed his brilliance. He was magnificent.’