Three-Time World Heavyweight Champion Boxer & the “Greatest” of All Time Muhammad Ali Dies at Age 74

Muhammad Ali dead at age 74 …

The “Greatest” boxing icon of all-time, Muhammad Ali, has dies at the age of 74. The former 3-time heavy weight champion of the world died Friday at a Phoenix-area hospital, where he had spent the past few days being treated for respiratory complications. The once silver tongued boxer, who brought the art of the verbal jab and trash talking to his opponents inside and onside the ring has battled with Parkinson’s for the past three decades. As great as a boxer that Ali was in a time in which boxing was actually relevant, I can’t say that I agreed with all of his verbal tactics, but he was entertaining for the sport. Who could ever forget the “Thrilla in Manilla” with Ali and Smoking Joe Frazier.

Mohammed Ali, Rest in Peace.

Muhammad Ali, the silver-tongued boxer and civil rights champion who famously proclaimed himself “The Greatest” and then spent a lifetime living up to the billing, is dead.

Ali died Friday at a Phoenix-area hospital, where he had spent the past few days being treated for respiratory complications, a family spokesman confirmed to NBC News. He was 74.

“After a 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening,” Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman, told NBC News.

Ali had suffered for three decades from Parkinson’s, a progressive neurological condition that slowly robbed him of both his verbal grace and his physical dexterity. A funeral service is planned in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

More on the Life of Mohammed Ali … “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

He was b orn Cassius Marcellus Clay on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, to middle-class parents. He started boxing when he was 12, winning Golden Gloves titles before heading to the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where he won a gold medal as a light heavyweight. He would change his name to Muhammad Ali and the rest is history.

Muhammad Ali vs Sonny Liston from Lewiston, Maine