Muhammad Ali cannot remember winning his third title, daughter says
Boxing great Muhammad Ali cannot remember winning his third world heavyweight title, his daughter has revealed – but he still jokes about making a comeback to win it again.
Ali, who has been fighting bravely against Parkinson’s Disease for 30 years, has no memory of his third world title victory against Leon Spinks in 1978, often telling his daughter Hana that he plans on becoming a three-time champion.
Rumble in the Jungle: Ali took his second title in Zaire, knocking out George Foreman in the eighth round
But the sporting legend still has his wicked sense of humour, Hana says, and after being corrected on his great achievements jokes that he could yet make a comeback aged 72.
Speaking to The Sun, Hana said: ‘A few months ago he was messing with me and telling me he was going to become the three-time champ.
‘I said, “You’re already the three-time champ. If you come back you’ll be the four-time champ”. He said, “No, no – I’m the two-time champ.”
‘He said, “I’m going to look it up.” And then he calls me back and says, “I’m the three-time champ, so I’m going to be the four-time champ.”‘
Ali, then fighting under his birth name Cassius Clay, won his first heavyweight world title in 1964 as a 7-1 underdog when he defeated Sonny Liston.
His famous line that he would ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’ came in the build-up to that fight, after which he declared himself ‘The Greatest’.
He held the belt until 1967, by which time he had converted to Islam and named himself Muhammad Ali, when he was stripped of the title for refusing to fight in Vietnam.
He made a comeback and in 1974knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of the Rumble in the Jungle to become world champion for the second time.
Ali, fighting under his birth name Cassius Clay, won his first title against Sonny Liston in 1964
He held the title for four years before unexpectedly losing to Leon Spinks in 1978, but defeated him in Las Vegas months later – the bout he does not remember.
Hana, 38, and half-sister Maryum, 46, denied rumours that their father is unable to speak, bedridden and close to death.
They added that despite Ali’s Parkinson’s, which can cause tremors, slow movement, problems with speech and memory loss, his fighting spirit remains the same.
‘His personality has not changed. Time changes his body, his physicality – but his spirit doesn’t change.’
Daughters Hana (left) and Maryum say their father (right) still has the same fighting spirit as ever. AFP
A new documentary, called I Am Ali, opens in cinemas tomorrow and is based on 80 hours of tapes of unheard conversations between him and loved ones during the latter stages of his career.
In one, Maryum, then 11, can be heard begging not to fight again.
Despite Ali being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1984, his daughters say he was already showing signs of the disease in 1979 – the year he retired.
‘That was a very stressful time for us. A lot of people wanted him to stop fighting,’ Maryum said.
Hana added: ‘It was hard listening to it, knowing what was to come.’
© Daily Mail, London