Boxing legend Muhammad Ali dies at 74

Muhammad Ali, the record-setting world heavyweight champion whose personality transcended sports, has died at the age of 74.

Muhammad Ali, the record-setting world heavyweight champion whose personality transcended sports, has died at the age of 74.

Ali’s death was confirmed in a statement issued by family spokesman Bob Gunnell late on Friday evening, a day after he was admitted to a Phoenix-area hospital with a respiratory ailment.

Ali had long suffered from Parkinson’s syndrome, which impaired his speech and made the once-graceful athlete almost a prisoner in his own body.

During and after his championship reign, Ali met scores of world leaders, travelled to promote Islam and for a time he was considered the most recognisable person on earth, known even in remote villages far from the US

“A part of me slipped away, the greatest piece,” George Foreman, a former heavyweight boxer and one of Ali’s most formidable opponents in the ring, said on Twitter after the news of Ali’s death.

The cause of death or the name of the hospital where he died were not immediately disclosed.