Former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali remained in
fair condition on Friday while hospitalized for a respiratory issue, a
newspaper quoted a spokesman as saying, as speculation swirled about his
health.
The family spokesman, Bob Gunnell, told the Louisville
Courier-Journal that Ali’s stay in a Phoenix-area hospital was expected
to be brief.
With an online report saying the 74-year-old ex-boxer was
on life support, Gunnell said that every time Ali was in the hospital
it triggered a “media frenzy,” the Courier-Journal reported.
Gunnell had disclosed on Thursday that Ali was in a
hospital, which has not been identified, in fair condition. He did not
return repeated requests for comment.
Ali has suffered from Parkinson’s disease for more than three decades and has kept a low profile in recent years.
The New York Post and the International Business Times
cited a report on the Radar Online website that said Ali had been placed
on life support.
Radar Online quoted “an insider” as saying, “Doctors are telling the family that it likely won’t be long until he passes away.”
Britain’s Mirror reported that four of his nine children had rushed to the former champion’s side.
The Associated Press cited two people familiar with his
condition as saying that Ali was facing more serious health problems
than in his previous hospital stays because of his Parkinson’s disease.
Ali’s last public appearance was in April at the
“Celebrity Fight Night” gala in Arizona, a charity that benefits the
Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center.
At the height of his career, Ali was known for his
dancing feet and quick fists and his ability, as he put it, to float
like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
Ali, who lives in Phoenix, was admitted to hospital in December 2014 with what was believed to be a mild case of pneumonia.
Doctors determined he had suffered a severe urinary tract infection, for which he received further treatment in January 2015.
Nicknamed “The Greatest,” he retired from boxing in 1981
with a 56-5 record. Ali’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s came about three
years after he retired.
Ali, born in Louisville, Kentucky, as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., changed his name in 1964 after his conversion to Islam.
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