USA: BOXING- Fans of Muhammad Ali celebrate the boxer's 65th birthday in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky

He may no longer float like a butterfly or sting like a bee but memories of Muhammad Ali remain vivid more than a quarter-century after his last fight. Holder of the self-proclaimed title, "The Greatest," the former heavyweight champion turned 65 years old on Wednesday (January 17), no longer fleet of foot but still revered by many who witnessed the magic he created in the ring or who knew him closely and loved his charisma. In Louisville, Kentucky, where Ali was born and where he embarked upon his boxing career, a huge poster of him can be seen from across the Ohio River. It reads "Louisville's Ali", claiming him as the city's own. Ali spent his childhood in a clapboard house on 3302 Grand Avenue. The house still exists as does the cedar tree in front of it, which Ali used to spar under. When Ali was just about nine, his neighbour in the adjoining stone house was one Lawrence Montgomery. Montgomery, now 72, still owns the stone house but now lives opposite 3302 Grand Avenue, at 3307 Grand Avenue. He has fond memories of Ali as a child and even after he became a huge success. As Montgomery thumbed through old photographs of Ali and his family with Ali, he recalled how the boxer as a boy was filled with vibrant, can-do energy. "I was working at the post office at night and he would always have me to hold up my hands so he could always spur into my hands, he would always do that every morning. Then he would run to school, he would run besides the bus. He wouldn't get on the bus, he would always want to run. But he told me then that he would be the heavyweight champion one of these days and sure enough he was," Montgomery recalled of the time when Ali was not even a teenager. Montgomery claims that he was Ali's first boss or supervisor. At age nine, ALi and often his brother as well, would babysit Montgomery's children. He remembers Ali as being a responsible child who didn't ask for money for babysitting, but who had free access to Montgomery's refrigerator and all the food inside, as a return favour. Looking back now, Montgomery regrets the fact that Ali's health is deteriorating but hopes that the famous boxer will be able to enjoy a slew of more birthdays in his lifetime. Ali was a remarkably gifted athlete during his years in the ring but Parkinson's disease has supposed to have slowed his gait considerably. Ironically, the most outspoken sports figure of his generation now has trouble talking. But even as Ali's health might be fragile, in Louisville, the memories and memorabilia for Ali, are everywhere. In a low income area of Louisville, a nondescript white building holds a boxing gym for amateurs. "Louisville Legends" is a boxing gym where children as young as 5 and going up to 18 can come and practise boxing and get coached by James Dooley. According to Dooley, there is no charge for training and counselling and the idea is to be able to offer children a safe, alternative way to spend their free time. Dooley also sees the gym as a ploy for keeping a lot of children off street crime. At the gym, the aspiring boxers spoke of how Ali had served as an inspiration to some of them. "Well, I believe that he was a very very great boxer and he never lost confidence in himself and that's a real big inspiration to me because that is one thing you have to have in this boxing world. You have to have a lot of confidence and he was always going around saying - " Yeah, I am the greatest, float like butterfly, sting like bee," said twenty year old Rocco Castellano. For another young boxer, Tim Moten, 14, while Ali is a role model, he wouldn't follow the boxer's techniques. The man who trains the likes of Moten and Castellano at the Louisville Legends gym, Dooley, believes that while Ali is respected by Louisville and while he is indeed special, that the boxer could have done more for the community. Dooley laments the fact that a city like Louisville, which is home to "the greatest of all time" Ali, does not have state sponsored boxing gyms. The man who was a boxer himself in the 1960s says that he thinks Ali could have done more for the general community of Louisville. "If it wasn't for boxing, I don't believe that Ali, maybe he might have been something else, but I don't think he would have been the greatest fighter of all time, if boxing didn't put him in there, didn't shove him in there. And Ali I feel, and a lot of other people in this town feel that - there should be a gym here, a center here for kids with the art of boxing and it hasn't been and I don't think it ever will be," said Dooley. But the man who is able to talk more authoritatively about Ali's current condition and state of mind is forty-something John Ramsey. A former board member of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Ramsey made friends with Ali in the 80s and since then Ramsey has accompanied Ali to numerous events like the 2007 Orange Bowl. Ramsey explained Ali's response to his suffering from Parkinson's disease, saying that the retired boxer approached the dilemma of discontent with a spiritual bent of mind. "Muhammad is so spiritual. He really believes that this is the hand God dealt him and Muhammad believes, you know he will tell me - you know I was saying I'm the greatest, this shows me that God is the greatest, and I don't think he thinks that it was ill intent from God but this was just his destiny. He accepts it, he's never apologetic. If it takes Muhammad a little longer to do something, whether it be unlock a lock, you never hear Muhammad say sorry or anything. He accepts it better than I do," said Ramsey of how Ali is coping with Parkinson's. Ramsey is still keeping some hopes alive that Muhammad will be able to reverse the state of his health and reverse his decline despite Parkinson's. Ali's legacy has included its share of dramatic moments. At the height of his career, Ali refused to serve in the U.S. Army because of his Nation of Islam faith and in 1967, while the Vietnam war was raging, was stripped of his title. The Louisville-born Ali resumed his career in 1970 and recaptured the heavyweight crown. His brutal fights against Joe Frazier and George Foreman remain emblazoned on the minds of boxing fans throughout the world. Ali's career concluded in 1981 with a 56-5 record, including 37 knockouts. Like many boxers, he fought too long, losing three of his last four fights. There is no birthday celebration planned in Louisville, although he remains a hero in the city also known for bourbon, bluegrass and horse racing.

ITN Source | January 18, 2007

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