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6 Incredible Facts About Muhammad Ali



SportBible gave six facts about the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali.


1. Ali was jailed and served up food to shocked death-row inmates


Imagine you're stuck in a prison cell and then Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi - pick your GOAT of choice - casually walks in to deliver you your daily spaghetti.

This basically happened for real in 1967 when Ali, by far the world's most famous athlete, was given a 10-day jail sentence for trumped-up driving offences in Florida. The heavyweight icon was assigned to the prison cafe for work duty and took food to people on death row.


"I'll be goddamned! They got the world heavyweight champion serving me dinner," was the stunned response from one inmate. "The world must be coming to an end!"


2. He saved a suicidal man's life by talking him down off a ledge


Proof that Ali was an IRL superhero. When a close friend phoned him in 1981 to tell Ali that Los Angeles police were in a tense standoff with a distressed man threatening to jump off a building, the boxer rushed to the scene


Heading straight to the ninth storey, Ali opened a window next to the would-be jumper. "It's really you?!" asked the baffled man.


After 20 minutes of talks, Ali persuaded the 21-year-old to climb down, then gave him a lift to the police station in his Rolls-Royce. "No doubt about it, Ali saved that man's life," said a police spokesperson.


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