Reuters
Louisville (USA), June 10: Muhammad Ali made his final journey through his hometown Friday in a funeral procession for ‘The Greatest’ as thousands of mourners lined the streets where the future heavyweight champion of the world once chased school buses in hiking boots to train for his fights.
Ali’s cherry-red casket, draped in an Islamic shroud, was loaded into a hearse as a group of pallbearers that included former boxers Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and actor Will Smith who left the funeral home in a double file. Ali’s nine children, his wife, two of his ex-wives and other family members joined the motorcade.
The 17-car motorcade set out for a Louisville cemetery on a 19-mile route that took Ali’s body past his boyhood home, the gym where he first learned to box and the museum that bears his name, by way of ‘Muhammad Ali Boulevard’.
Fans tossed flowers at the hearse and scattered rose petals along its path. Some chanted, ‘Ali!’ Others were quiet and reverent as the champ’s lifeless body went by.
Ali is to be laid to be rest around midday — his headstone inscribed simply ‘Ali’ — in a private ceremony.
