Muhammad Ali Lost the Ability to Speak and Health Declining ‘Rapidly,’ Says Report

Other recent reports say he's fine and talks to daughters every day

FILE - This is a Oct. 30, 1974 file photo perspiration flies from the head of George Foreman as he takes a right from challenger Muhammad Ali in the seventh round in the match dubbed Rumble in the Jungle in Kinshasa, Zaire. Foreman was knocked out in the eighth round. It was 40 years ago that two men met just before dawn on Oct. 30, 1974, to earn $5 million in the Rumble in the Jungle. In one of boxing's most memorable moments, Muhammad Ali stopped the fearsome George Foreman to recapture the heavyweight title in the impoverished African nation of Zaire. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky, File)

Muhammad Ali, the former heavyweight boxing great, has reportedly lost the ability to speak due to his battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer, which should always be taken with a grain of salt, reported that Ali is having more severe health problems in recent months.

“His lips quivered, but no words came out,” an unnamed friend told the publication, via RadarOnline. “It was like he had been struck dumb.”

The friend added: “At times his lips would twitch as he stared straight ahead. At times his head went limp and just hung there. It was all so, so sad.”

However, his daughters said two weeks ago that his condition isn’t that bad.

“My uncle Rahman, who doesn’t see my father often and who is not well informed about Parkinson’s disease, misspoke about my father’s health,” daughter Maryum Ali told USA Today.

“He doesn’t mind the press talking about him dying,” she added. “Sometimes he looks at me and he‘ll go, ’I’m not dying.'”

Maryum told the paper that she calls him every morning and talks to him two to three times per week, adding that his overall health has been good.

“The last time I talked to my Dad, he was joking again about making a comeback,” said Hana Ali.

She added: “He said, ‘I’m going to take my title back for the fourth time.’ Whenever I hear him joking like that, it makes me feel good. He’s still in there.