A very sad loss.
I am reminded of two stories about Ali.
1) A few days after he lit the cauldron at the opening of the 1996 Olympics he visited the Olympic village. Once word got around that he was there the building he was in was filled by the stampede as the greatest athletes of the day all rushed to meet him - even amongst his peers he was revered.

2) There used to be a book shop, called SportPages, specialising in sport books in Charing Cross Road, London.
Ali came there to do a book signing a few years back when he was in poor health.
The queue of people went far beyond Leicester Square. The signing went on until well after dark, many hours longer than planned, as Ali insisted on staying until the last person had been seen and he spent a minute or two with each and every customer having a conversation and connecting with them. The staff said in the whole history of the shop they had great sports people sign books on a regular basis but never did the experience anything like Ali's popularity or his insistence on making everyone feel special.

A true legend has left us.

Adrian B
Green 4/4