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HEART OF A CHAMPION: Boxers, Family & Celebs Pour Out Their Hearts About Muhammad Ali’s Death, Funeral Plans Announced

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After learning of the shocking news that boxing legend Muhammad Ali had passed, celebs are pouring out heartfelt reactions. We’ve rounded up reactions from YBF celebs and the boxer’s family. Check them out inside….

Hearts are heavy after learning that boxing legend Muhammad Ali passed away at the age of 74. The three-time world heavyweight champion heavyweight boxing champion died a day after he was admitted to a Phoenix hospital to treat a respiratory ailment.

Tons of celebs and many of Ali’s family members have offered up tributes online to remember the man who made such an impact on boxing and the world as a tough talking social activist.

As he laid in a hospital bed, Ali was surrounded by all of his family where they were able to wish him their last goodbye. Family spokesman Bob Gunnell said, “It was a beautiful thing to see. Of course there was sorrow. But the champ would have been very proud of them.”

Ali’s daughter Hana Ali (1 of 7 of his kids) reminded us all how much of a fighter he was opening up about his final moments via Twitter.“All of his organs failed but his HEART wouldn’t stop beating,” Hana wrote. “For 30 minutes ... his heart just kept beating. No one had ever seen anything like it.”

 

Incredible!

Hana called her father a “humble mountain” and the love of her life via Instagram:

 

His daughter Rasheda Ali offered up some touching words about her father:

 

Ali’s youngest son Asaad Ali shared with the world all of the life-changing lessons his father taught him:

Ali’s daughter/former boxer Laila Ali has not yet commented on her father’s death publicly, but she did post this picture of her dad and her daughter Sydney hours before the news was made public:

President Barack Obama summed up Muhammad Ali’s legacy simply calling him “The Greatest. Period.” He issued a statement that said:

Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He’d tell you he was the double greatest; that he’d “handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail.”

But what made The Champ the greatest – what truly separated him from everyone else – is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing.

Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time.

In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him – the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was – still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.

“I am America,” he once declared. “I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me – black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.”

That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age – not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.

He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes – maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.

Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace.

Below are reactions from YBF celebs on the passing of the icon:

 

 

 

 

God came for his champion. So long great one. #muhammadali #GOAT #RIP

A photo posted by Mike Tyson (@miketyson) on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a very young child, I remember sitting beside my father on the shag carpet in the family room of our suburban home watching Muhammad Ali in the boxing ring on TV. My father is a slight quiet gentle man, one of the world's early computer geeks. But when Ali had a Rumble in the Jungle and a Thrilla in Manilla, my gentle dad would ball his hands into fighting fists and involuntarily box the air, throwing punches in sync with Ali. Together we chanted "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!" And we cheered as loud as a whole crowd when Ali won. I knew my father thought Ali was important. "He fought the government for his right to object the war and won. They tried to knock him down but you can't knock Ali down," said my military veteran Dad would carefully explain to me. It wasn't until much later that I actually understood what he trying to tell that 4 year old girl on the shag carpet: that Ali was defiantly a proud confident black MAN in a world that wanted a fearful powerless colored boy. That Ali wasn't just fighting in the ring, Ali was fighting in life. And life's prize wasn't a championship belt. The prize was the respect all Black men deserve as human beings walking this planet. Those fights were much harder than any Rumble in the Jungle. Ali was not a hero. (Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!) Ali was a superhero. #ripmuhammadali

A photo posted by Shonda Rhimes (@shondarhimes) on

 

 

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Jamie Foxx paid homage to Ali while hitting up Villa Lounge in West Hollywood last night.

 

 

 

 

I was in the air last night flying from Atlanta to London when I got the text from a close friend that within' a few hours we were going to lose Muhammad. Ali inspired myself and generations around the world to be hungry to achieve, work as hard as you possibly can, to be a great as you possibly can be and make sure that not a day goes by where you don't do your absolute best to make the world smile and feel good. Feel inspired. And feel that no matter how hard times may be, there's always hope for tomorrow. From hanging out with you in New Zealand as this little punk kid, to years later as a WWE rookie when you whispered to me "Can you rumble?" to a few years later when you bestowed upon me "The People's Champ" moniker. I will always be grateful for the impact you've had on me. Thank you and I'll miss you. Much love and strength to the Ali family. Rest in love and light Champ. You'll always be the Greatest of All Time. And pretty.

A photo posted by therock (@therock) on

 

 

 

 

 

Muhammad Ali will be laid to rest in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky on Friday June 10th at the KFC YUM! Center at 2pm. The memorial service will be open to the public and livestreamed at www.alicenter.org.

R.I.P. to the G.O.A.T.!

Photo: Getty


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