Muhammad Ali, who has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for almost 30 years now, maybe counting his last days if sources in the boxing legend’s family are to be believed. The 72-year-old American is critically ill.
Rumours about Ali’s poor health started circulating when he did not attend a Hollywood premiere of a new movie about his life, ‘I am Ali’, last week.
Interestingly, news of Ali struggling for life comes at the same time when two of his strongest rivals, Britain’s Joe Bugner, 64 and Leon Spinks, 61, struggle with serious heart and stomach ailments. Spinks has undergone multiple surgeries recently.
Joe Frazier, one of Ali’s rivals during his boxing days, had once said, “The trouble with him is that he doesn’t know how to die,” at the time Ali refused to retire.
The good part about Ali’s story, however, is that he has managed to outlive most of the 53 opponents he has faced during his career. In fact, many of Ali’s opponents died a brutal death. While Sonny Liston died from a drugs overdose, Argentinian Oscar Bonavena was shot dead outside a brothel in the US state of Nevada.
Ali’s daughter Hana is optimistic that the legendary boxer is going to live.
“I call him in the mornings, every morning, he speaks the best in the mornings. You could actually hear his soft sweet voice,” Hana had recently told the Telegraph.
“He jokes, he kids around about making a comeback even now today. So he would want the world to know that he enjoys being Muhammad Ali.”
