Boxing Legend Muhammad Ali Recovering After Being Hospitalized With Pneumonia

“Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, is being treated by his team of doctors and is in stable condition,” spokesman Bob Gunnell says

Muhammad Ali
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Boxing champ Muhammad Ali is recovering, after being admitted to an undisclosed hospital Saturday with pneumonia, according to his spokesman Bob Gunnell.

“Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, is being treated by his team of doctors and is in stable condition,” Gunnell said in a statement.

“He was admitted earlier this morning and because the pneumonia was caught early, his prognosis is good with a short hospital stay expected,” Gunnell said.

No other details were released about Ali’s condition per his family’s request for privacy, according to Gunnell.

Ali was born Cassius Clay and won an Olympic gold medal as a light-heavyweight at age 18, and he became world heavyweight champion in 1964.

Three years after that, he vacated the title after being drafted into the U.S. military and refusing to report as a Muslim conscientious objector. His stance made him very popular with the anti-Vietnam War movement.

But his boxing license was suspended by the state of New York. On June 20, 1967, Ali was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000 and banned from boxing for three years. In 1971, the Supreme Court overturned his conviction and he began to box again.

Ali won the title a second and third time in 1974 and 1978, and remains the only heavyweight boxer to have held the title on three separate occasions. He beat Joe Frazier and George Foreman to regain his title after returning.

He retired from boxing in 1981 and devoted himself to social causes. Ali lit the Olympic torch to kick off the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.

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