PHOENIX—Muhammad Ali, the magnificent heavyweight champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality transcended sports and captivated the world, has died according to a statement released by his family. He was 74.
The 74-year-old boxing great’s respiratory issues had been complicated by the Parkinson’s that he was diagnosed with in the 1980s, two people told The Associated Press a day earlier.
Several of Ali’s daughters had reportedly flown to Phoenix late Thursday.
Laila Ali, herself a former boxing champion, posted a picture Friday afternoon on Facebook of her father holding her daughter when she was an infant.
“I love this photo of my father and my daughter Sydney when she was a baby!” she wrote. “Thanks for all the love and well wishes. I feel your love and appreciate it!”
Ali has been hospitalized several times in recent years, most recently in early 2015 when he was treated for a severe urinary tract infection initially diagnosed as pneumonia.
His last formal public appearance before that was in October when he appeared at the Sports Illustrated Tribute to Muhammad Ali at The Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, along with former opponents George Foreman and Larry Holmes.
Ali has suffered from Parkinson’s for three decades, most famously trembling badly while lighting the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta. Despite the disease he kept up a busy appearance schedule until recently, though he has not spoken in public for years.
Doctors say the Parkinson’s likely was caused by the thousands of punches Ali took during a career in which he traveled the world for big fights.
An iconic figure who at one point was perhaps the most recognized person in the world, Ali has lived quietly in the Phoenix area with his fourth wife, Lonnie, whom he married in 1986.
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