Obama leads tributes to 'greatest' Muhammad Ali

US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have led tributes to boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who has died at the age of 74.

“Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time,” Obama said in a statement issued on Saturday.

“Muhammad Ali was the greatest. Period,” the statement added. "If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He’d tell you he was double the greatest; that he’d ‘handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail.’”

Ali, the three-time world heavyweight champion, died on Friday evening, following respiratory problems exacerbated by his longstanding battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Generally referred to as one of the greatest boxing heavyweights of all time, Ali was known for his highly unusual fighting style which involved dazzling speed, lightning-fast reflexes and constant movement around his opponents.

Ali was equally powerful outside the ring as well, becoming a civil rights icon of 20th-century American history. He was also a vociferous critic of the Vietnam War.

Obama praised Ali’s “wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit” and said that “he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right.”

“A man who fought for us. He stood with [Martin Luther] King and [Nelson] Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t,” he added.

“Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace,” Obama said.

Ali refuses to fight in Vietnam

In 1967, Ali refused to be inducted into the US military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. He was immediately stripped of his heavyweight title.

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?” Ali asked.

“No, I am not going ten thousand 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,” he added.

“But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality,” he continued.

‘Ali made you love him’

George Foreman, who was beaten by Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire, said, "Muhammad Ali made you love him."

The two-time world champion said, "Muhammad Ali was what I call beautiful. He has been something special.”

"The man was the greatest. Forget about boxing, he was one of the greatest men to appear on television, in the media," he stated.

Ali defined my generation: Biden

US Vice President Joe Biden also praised Ali for fighting for “something greater than any title or claim to fame.”

“He fought for the basic belief that everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity,” Biden wrote in a Facebook post.

“Rich, poor. Black, white. Any race, religion, or creed. Everyone. I came to know him a little, and we all came to know him as the man who defined my generation and defined what it means to be an American,” he added.

“He challenged orthodoxy and challenged the abuse of power in any form -- and the arrogance that flows from it -- empowering others to do the same,” he continued.

“Because he led by the power of words, action, and example, we are a better country and world,” Biden wrote. “He was the greatest; a gift, a measure of who we are at our best as Americans -- a life of purpose, faith, and possibility. We will feel his loss profoundly.”

‘Ali will never die’

Former US President Bill Clinton, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, musician Sir Paul McCartney, boxers Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather and golfer Tiger Woods also paid tributes to the boxing legend.

“Muhammad Ali is dead at 74! A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all!” wrote Trump, known for his controversial comments about Muslims. 

The Clintons released a statement mourning the death of the legend.

“We watched him grow from the brash self-confidence of youth and success into a manhood full of religious and political convictions that led him to make tough choices and live with the consequences,” the statement read.

“Along the way we saw him courageous in the ring, inspiring to the young, compassionate to those in need, and strong and good-humored in bearing the burden of his own health challenges,” it added.

Sanders’ campaign issued a statement reading, “Muhammad Ali was the greatest, not only an extraordinary athlete but a man of great courage and humanity.”

“I’ve been all over this country and I’m talking to Muslim people who say, ‘You know, Bernie, our kids are now afraid,’” Sanders said during a press conference in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday.

“I say to those people, one of the great American heroes in modern American history was Muhammad Ali, a very proud Muslim," he added. 

“Don’t tell me how much you love Muhammad Ali and yet you’re going to be prejudiced against Muslims in this country," he said, possibly referring to his Republican rival Trump, who has praised Ali but made disparaging remarks against Muslims. 

“The reason that Ali struck a chord in the heart of so many Americans was not just his great boxing skill,” he said. "It was his incredible courage. At a time when it was not popular to do so, Ali stood up and said, ‘I am opposed to the war in Vietnam and I’m not going to fight in that war.'

“And that incredibly courageous decision cost him three and a half years of his prime fighting life. But he chose to stand by his ideals, his views. What a hero. What a great man," he stated. 

"Ali will never die,” said Don King, who was a promoter of many of the boxing legend's fights, including the Rumble in the Jungle.

"Like Martin Luther King, his spirit will live on. He stood for the world."

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