AP
Boxing great Muhammad Ali looks down from a balcony at friends while attending a celebration for his 70th birthday at the Muhammad Ali Center on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, in Louisville, Ky. Ali turns 70 Tuesday. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
At 70, Muhammad Ali is “still the greatest” to friends and admirers worldwide.
The boxing champ basked in chants of “Ali! Ali!” as hundreds of supporters cheered him on Saturday night with a hearty rendering of “Happy Birthday” during his 70th birthday celebration in his Kentucky home town. (Ali actually turns 70 today.)
The private party in his home town was the first of five planned over the next few months.
As partygoers mingled in a lobby of the Muhammad Ali Center before the festivities, Ali walked slowly to a second-floor balcony overlooking them. The crowd immediately began to clap, then broke into effusive chants and singing.
The three-time world heavyweight champion, who is battling Parkinson’s disease, leaned against a rail and raised his right hand to wave to the crowd. Then he joined his party out of view of the public and the press.
Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis said his boyhood idol was “still the greatest.”
“I feel so proud and honoured that we’re able to show our feelings and our support for him,” Lewis said.
The guest list numbered 350 for the private party, which doubled as a $1 000-per-person (R8 100) fundraiser for the Ali Center, a six-year-old cultural and education complex designed as a legacy to his social activism. The six-storey centre also retraces Ali’s career, including his bouts against Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Sonny Liston.
The guest list included Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee and three American hikers who were imprisoned in Iran. Ali, perhaps the most prominent US Muslim, lobbied for their release. Rocker John Mellencamp headlined the entertainment.
Dundee, who travelled from Clearwater, Florida, for the celebration, said he heard from Ali about once a month.
“We’re like family,” Dundee said. “We’ve always been family and we’re always going to be family. He’ll say, ‘Angie, I want to come and train. That’s what I miss the most. Being in the gym. Working up a sweat’.”
Guests paid tribute to Ali before filling a banquet hall for a party closed to the public.
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay jr on January 17, 1942, Ali took up boxing at age 12, when his bike was stolen and he wanted to find and beat up the culprit. The young boy was introduced to Joe Martin, a police officer who coached boxing at a local gym.
Ali flourished in the ring, becoming a top amateur and Olympic gold medalist. He made his professional debut in Louisville and arranged for a local children’s hospital to receive proceeds from the fight.
Ali won the heavyweight title in 1964, defeating the favoured Sonny Liston.
While in his prime, Ali was stripped of his heavyweight crown in 1967 for refusing to be drafted for military service during the Vietnam War.
His decision alienated Ali from many across the US and resulted in a draft-evasion conviction. Ali found himself embroiled in a long legal fight that ended in 1971, when the US Supreme Court ruled in his favour.
Ali lost his first attempt to regain the heavyweight crown when Frazier knocked him down and took a decision in the “Fight of the Century” at Madison Square Garden in 1971. Ali regained the heavyweight title in 1974, defeating Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle”. A year later, he outlasted Frazier in the epic “Thrilla in Manila” bout.
Last year, a frail Ali rose from his seat and clapped for his deceased rival at Frazier’s funeral.
