Abu Dhabi: The world may have lost one of its most iconic figures late on Friday, June 3, 2016, when Muhammad Ali died at the age of 74, but his legend will live on through a plethora of video clips online.
Gulf News took a delve into the archives and selected 12 videos which encapsulate the legendary life and career of the three-time world heavyweight boxing champion.
1. Ali shot to prominence by winning a light heavyweight gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960. He subsequently lost his medal, however, but at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta he received a replacement in a moving ceremony.
2. In 1964, at the age of 22, he shocked the fearsome Sonny Liston to become the world heavyweight boxing champion for the first time with a seventh-round knockout:
3. In total, Ali recorded 37 knockouts from 61 fights (56 wins and five defeats) until he retired in 1981. Here are 10 of the best:
4. In 1967, he refused to go to the Vietnam War with the US Army, his controversial decision causing him to be stripped of his heavyweight title and boxing licence. He would not fight for three years, but remained unashamedly resolute in his peace-keeping beliefs, which he expounded on here:
5. Such character and charisma made him a television chat-show host's dream. Britain's Michael Parkinson was a regular interviewer of the captivating Ali in the 1970s and early 1980s, producing TV gold galore:
6. Parkinson's fellow British presenter, Reg Gutteridge, was similarly beguiled by this transcendental genius, welcoming Ali to an 'Audience with Muhammad Ali' in the 1970s by calling him “the heavyweight champion of the world and, indeed, of planet Earth”.:
7. Arguably Ali's finest moment in the ring was his eighth-round knockout of the big-punching George Foreman to reclaim the world heavyweight crown in Zaire, Africa, in 1974, which has become immortalised as 'The Rumble in the Jungle':
8. A 1996 documentary-film about the legendary fight, 'When We Were Kings', won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature:
9. Ali developed Parkinson's disease 32 years ago, but never let it quell his insatiable lust for life. Here he speaks about his condition:
10. 'I Am Ali', a film released in 2014, is a brilliant and highly touching tribute to Ali. Watch a trailer here:
11. In 1999, Ali received the BBC Sports Personality of the Century Award and there was hardly a dry eye in the house:
