The king of boxing is dead. Long live the king! There is no doubt that the 'Greatest' hit the world not only with his sublime skills in the ring and braggadocio out of it, but also with his homespun philosophy on the meaning of life, totally unexpected of an unlettered supposedly dumb jock.

As to his skill in his profession, my favourite story concerns his "Rumble in the Jungle" against George Foreman in what was then called Zaire now the Republic of the Congo. Foreman was the hardest hitter in boxing with a 40-0 record including 39 KOs. There were many sportswriters and boxing experts of the day who feared for Ali. Foreman himself told Yahoo Sports in 2014 that he thought he was "just going to go there and go boom, boom, boom and get him out of there and go home.