Awww, this is so sad. Former 3 time heavy weight boxing champ, Muhammad Ali , real name Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr, passed away today from complications of Parkinson's Disease. Ali was admitted to a local area hospital in Phoenix with some respiration problems and passed away this afternoon.
He was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief taking his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told him he better learn how to box first.[29] For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954, and he won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union National Title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.[32] Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali claimed in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story has since been disputed and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, have denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
In 2005, President Bush gave Muhammad Ali the Presidential Medal of Freedom, pictured above.
Ali was married 4 times and had 7 daughters and 2 sons (1 biological son and 1 adopted son). He is survived by his 4th wife, Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams, who he married on Nov 19, 1986; the 9 children I previously mentioned and several grand children. Rest in peace Champ.
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