Phewwwww, looks like the champ is ok! There were rumors yesterday that Muhammad Ali was near death and many thought it was true because it was coming from a family member. Apparently, Ali’s brother isn’t with him and Ali’s daughter set the record straight.
Report & pic after the jump…
According to the Associated Press:
Muhammad Ali’s daughter knocked down rumors of her father being near death Sunday, saying he was at home watching the Super Bowl.
May May Ali said she talked to her father Sunday morning on the phone and he was fine. She said he was watching the Super Bowl at home in Arizona, wearing a Baltimore Ravens jersey.
“He’s fine, in fact he was talking well this morning,” she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “These rumors pop up every once in a while but there’s nothing to them.”
The family later posted a photo on Twitter of Ali sitting in a chair wearing a Ray Lewis T-shirt. *FULL PHOTO ABOVE IN GALLERY*
The rumors were started by a report in The Sun, a British tabloid, quoting Ali’s brother, Rahman, as saying the former heavyweight champion was near death. Rahman, though, said he hadn’t seen his brother since last summer and had no contact with the family.
The report was widely repeated on the Internet, drawing expressions of condolences on Twitter and on Facebook.
Ali suffers from Parkinson’s disease. He celebrated his 71st birthday last month.
