The ‘greatest fighter of all time,” three-time world champion heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali, died Friday at 74.
Family spokesperson Bob Gunnell confirmed Ali’s passing. He lived in Phoenix and was admitted to the hospital with “respiratory problems” hours before he died.
The famed boxer, born Cassius Clay and raised as a Baptist but in 1964 announced he was a member of the Nation of Islam, was afflicted with Parkinson’s disease for more than 30 years.
Ali’s Islamic stance moderated over the years; by 1975, he had mellowed considerably, converting again, this time to Sunni Islam. Ali’s daughter Khaliah married a Jew – attorney Spencer Wertheimer – and the couple named their son Jacob. The family reportedly attended Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.