Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, the most important, complex and polarizing athlete of our time, died Friday night at an Arizona hospital. He was 74. He had suffered for decades from Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological disorder, and was being treated in the hospital in recent days for a respiratory issue.
"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away. . . . The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman, told NBC News.
Ali may not have been the world's greatest athlete, or even the best boxer of all time - though he is certainly in both discussions. What is indisputable, though, is he was the most beautiful athlete we had ever seen, and likely ever will again - beautiful not so much in the common sense of physical attraction, but in the classical sense, the platonic sense.
He was beautiful in motion, the way he danced in the ring - the patented Ali Shuffle - as he circled another victim. And he was beautiful in complete stillness, as in the many iconic photographs of him: standing over Sonny Liston in 1965, his arm cocked in rage; leaning on the rope, glistening with sweat, during a break from training; delivering a devastating right hook to Joe Frazier; clowning with the Beatles; mugging for the camera.
Friday 3 June 2016
Muhammad Ali, 'The Greatest Of All Time', Dies At 74
Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, the most important, complex and polarizing athlete of our time, died Friday night at an Arizona hospital. He was 74. He had suffered for decades from Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological disorder, and was being treated in the hospital in recent days for a respiratory issue.
"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away. . . . The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman, told NBC News.
Ali may not have been the world's greatest athlete, or even the best boxer of all time - though he is certainly in both discussions. What is indisputable, though, is he was the most beautiful athlete we had ever seen, and likely ever will again - beautiful not so much in the common sense of physical attraction, but in the classical sense, the platonic sense.
He was beautiful in motion, the way he danced in the ring - the patented Ali Shuffle - as he circled another victim. And he was beautiful in complete stillness, as in the many iconic photographs of him: standing over Sonny Liston in 1965, his arm cocked in rage; leaning on the rope, glistening with sweat, during a break from training; delivering a devastating right hook to Joe Frazier; clowning with the Beatles; mugging for the camera.
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