Muhammad Ali: Final, haunting images of The Greatest

THE extraordinary final images taken of the Muhammad Ali just three months ago clearly show the devastating effect fighting Parkinson’s for more than three decades had on The Greatest.

2 min read

June 6, 2016 - 7:16PM

THESE are the extraordinary final pictures taken of the legendary Muhammad Ali.

Taken just three months ago by British photographer Zenon Texeira at Ali’s home in Phoenix, Arizona, the images clearly show the devastating effect fighting Parkinson’s for more than three decades had on The Greatest, who died on Friday night aged 74.

But his legendary bravado is also apparent, as he stares proudly into the lens and raises his fists in one picture with the hint of that famous smile playing across his face.

A champion to the last / Picture: Zenon Texeira/Fameflynet

And although the heavyweight champ was unrecognisable from his heyday, Texeira said there was still something special about Ali.

“I felt his aura,” the photographer said.

“It was an absolute pleasure and privilege to photograph one of the biggest icons this planet has ever seen.

“Muhammad was a delight to photograph, I feel blessed to have met my all-time sporting hero. To capture his majesty with such intimacy fulfils a dream.”

The pictures emerged as Muhammad Ali’s younger brother Rahman wept at a memorial service for the late boxing legend, and an aircraft carrying Ali’s body touched down in his hometown of Louisville on Sunday.

Rahman put his hand to his face, overcome with emotion, as the King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church in Louisville’s west end marked its most famous son’s passing.

During the two-hour service, assistant pastor Charles Elliott III asked the congregation to stand to honour Ali, saying “there is no great man that has done more for this city than Muhammad Ali”.

Picture: Zenon Texeira/Fameflynet

He also recalled the champ’s comical side. Mr Elliott said his grandmother was a nanny to Ali’s family.

He visited as a young boy, he said, and recalled the house had an elevator and a parrot who called out: “Here comes the champ, here comes the champ.”

His father, the Reverend Charles Elliott Jr, knew Ali for decades and remembered his generosity.

He recalled when he was raising money in the 1960s to maintain a program to feed the city’s hungry, and Ali wrote him a cheque.

At the time, the program offered food twice a week, he said. “He came in and he said, ‘Reverend, let’s feed ’em every day. I’ll give you a cheque.’â€Š’’

It was one of several emotional remembrances across Louisville on Sunday. Later this week, politicians, celebrities and fans from around the globe are expected for a Friday service that Ali planned himself with the intention of making it open to all.

Picture: Zenon Texeira/Fameflynet

At services across Louisville, they recited Ali’s words on religion. “Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans all have different names, but they all contain water,” Ali once said. “So do religions have different names, and they all contain truth.”

At a Sunday memorial at the Louisville Islamic Centre, speakers — Muslims, Christians, Catholics, Jews — lamented that Ali’s death came at a time when political rhetoric was more divisive.

Ali converted to Islam and refused to fight in the Vietnam War, though it cost him years of his boxing career.

He insisted throughout his life that people of all faiths and colours should come together in peace.