Boxing icon Muhammad Ali's health is deteriorating, reveals close friend

Ali’s iconic knockout of Sonny Liston

Gene Kilroy, longtime business manager and close friend of “The Greatest”, Muhammad Ali has revealed that the boxing luminary’s health is on a rapid decline. The 73-year-old has been in waning health since he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984, according to eurweb.com

The two met during the 1960 Rome Olympics and became friends. Kilroy, known as “The Facilitator” back then, was the man who organised many of Ali’s major fights, including the “Rumble in the Jungle”, in erstwhile Zaire, 1975.

According to Kilroy, Ali has become “a prisoner in his own body”. Said Kilroy, “ It’s hard seeing him as he is today. He can just about walk and his speech is slurred. It takes huge effort for him to make the simplest communication now, but when he does, every word is worthwhile.”

Kilroy added, “But even now he has no fear. He says, ‘I’ll stay here as long as God wants me to. When my time comes I’ll have no regrets. I have achieved a lot.’”

The former World Heavyweight Champion has been beset with health problems since December last year, when he was treated for pneumonia. A few weeks later, he was found unconscious in bed and once again hospitalised this time for a urinary tract infection.

Ali is one of the most revered sportspersons of the 20th century, and was acknowledged by Sports Illustrated and BBC as “Sportsman of the Century” and “Sports Personality of the Century”.

Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., he first made headlines by winning a gold medal in the light heavyweight category at the 1960 Rome Olympics. At age 22, he became the youngest man to capture a title from a reigning champion when he beat heavy favorite Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship. Mike Tyson has since broken that record.

After converting to Islam shortly thereafter, Ali would enjoy a meteoric rise to stardom, powered by his prodigious skills and augmented by his notorious trash-talking. In 1967, Ali was stripped of his title, boxing license and passport as he refused to be drafted in the army in America’s war in Vietnam. The proceedings on the charges of draft evasion against him would last for four years, robbing him of his prime.

Ali would return to title contention soon and take part in the most famous fights of his career – two against Joe Frazier, the first (Fight Of The Century in 1971) which became Ali’s first professional defeat, and a win that would earn him an ensuing title shot against George Foreman.

Going into the “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974, not even Ali’s closest friends gave the 32-year-old a chance of winning against the powerful Foreman, who had brutalized two men who had beaten Ali recently – Joe Frazier and Ken Norton.

Ali would put on one of the most seminal displays of boxing in an eight-round win over Foreman, tiring the bigger man with his patented ‘Rope-a-dope’ and being acknowledged as having “outthought and outfought” the latter.

A third match in 1975 with Joe Frazier – the “Thrilla in Manilla”, would be, by his own admission, the toughest fight of his career. His 15-round win would be the last of his memorable victories, as age would catch up with Ali and his career would be on the wane after.

By 1980, vocal stutters and trembling hands were evident in Ali and he would soon be diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome. Associated with contact sports where head trauma is common, Ali’s last fight with Larry Holmes is said to have accelerated the onset of Parkinson’s.