Boxing legend Muhammad Ali is in a Phoenix-area hospital on life support according to multiple reports. The 74-year-old former three-time heavyweight champion had been admitted due to respiratory issues.
Bob Arum, who promoted a multitude of Ali fights, told ESPN?s Michele Steele, ?I know it?s not looking good. He?s a fighter and he?s going to continue to fight.?
Sources close to the Los Angeles Times report that Ali?s situation is ?very grave.?
Ali has been fighting Parkinson?s disease for more than 20 years, which has reportedly exacerbated the situation.
As to the gravity of Ali?s situation, a source to the LA Times said ?it could be hours? before his passing.
In an era when athletes rarely involve themselves in politics, Ali has been seen as a cultural icon for his stance on civil rights and the Vietnam War. On June 20, 1967 Ali was convicted in Houston for refusing to report for induction into the armed forces.
?Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?,? Ali said. ?No I?m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars.?
Ali was stripped of his title for resisting the war due to religious belief. At the height of his peak years, he did not box for another four years. Ali was vilified at the time for the comments, but since most have seen his willingness to make a stand at the potential cost of his boxing career as a mark of integrity.
