Muhammad Ali Jnr: 'I hope Parkinsons takes my Dad sooner rather than later'

[Guest Len B'stard]

Muhammad Ali’s son fears there is ‘no chance’ his famous father will live longer than a year

Muhammad Ali Jnr said he hopes his father's Parkinson's disease takes his dad "sooner, rather than later"

ookMuhammad Ali’s son fears there is ‘no chance’ his famous father will live to his next birthday.

Muhammad Ali Jnr is now destitute and surviving on food stamps and a charity centre in Chicago despite his dad amassing a £60million fortune.

The 41-year-old has opened up about his troubled relationship with his dad, who turned 73 earlier this month, who suffers with Parkinson’s disease.

Mr Ali, a dad-of-two said: “I just want, hope and pray to God that, that awful disease takes my dad sooner, rather than later.

“Takes him away from all the suffering he’s in.

“It’d be really sad to see him go, but everything is for the best, and I will see him again in heaven.” He is adamant he has no regrets in life apart from one.

Mr Ali said: “I regret not being able to call him on his birthday and wish him happy birthday, tell my daddy I love him.

“It may be his last birthday, and this is when you should be with your father the most. I love you, Daddy.”

If he was given the chance to see his dad again, Mr Ali Jnr: “If I saw my father right now, I’d say, ‘I love you, I miss you, and I want you to see your grandkids’.

“I wished before my dad got really sick, I could have had that father-son relationship, but that’s impossible now. I used to see him all the time when I was a child.

“He made sure he was there. I was proud of my daddy. Fame and fortune meant nothing, I just saw him as my daddy.

“If I was rich, I’d find a cure for Parkinson’s. Next thing, I’d get a big house with my father and kids and I’d take care of him.”

Living with his wife Shaakira and his two children Ameera, six, and Shakera, five, in a two-bedroom house he fears that his dad’s disease has made him forget his son.

Ali Snr’s fourth wife, Lonnie, is being accused by Mr Ali Jnr and the champion boxer’s brother, Rahman, of not being able to see him and have highlighted treatment they have been receiving.

Mr Ali Jnr said: “He slipped out my life the moment he got married to Lonnie. The trips to see me stopped immediately.

“She once said that they couldn’t afford to come and see me. How can a man who’s well respected in the world, bigger than Elvis, with all the money he’s made, not afford to travel?”

Lonnie, who has power of attorney, has made it clear Ali Jr. is not welcome, he says.

When he called his father on his father’s birthday, January 17, no one answered the phone.

“My life now is crap. I live in a s**t area, a house I don’t own. I survive off handouts and food stamps. I’ve tried for a job, but there’s no hiring.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/muhammad-ali-legendary-boxers-son-3064627#.UulABT1_v5s

[Facekicker]

Sounds like he's blaming his old man for his own failure in life.

Common with kids of rich parents.

[shades]

It's hard to watch what this terrible disease has done to the greatest fighter that ever lived.

Maybe Ali - Frazier IV is being promoted for that great ring in the sky

[DieselDaisy]

He is such an incredible bloke, Ali. I can listen to Ali talk all day. Even when he is speaking a bunch of bollocks like this anti mixed race marriage policy which he stated on Parkinson, I cannot help but like the guy. And there is a great heroism in his career. His legs were not as good after the ban so he mixed things up a bit and went to the rope a dope rather than danced.

[Guest Len B'stard]

Even when he is speaking a bunch of bollocks like this anti mixed race marriage policy

From his perspective, i can see where he was coming from. In the 1960s (although that interview was 70s) in America the way shit was, I can see why a black person could very easily be of the mentality that he was describing.

[DieselDaisy]

No, he was speaking bollocks. Martin Luther King was saying very different things at a similar time. The Nation of Islan were bizare. They had this crackpot theory of white people being bred as a nation of devils by a mad scientist called Yakub. Complete wacky extremist fringe stuff. Apparently Malcom X used to refuse to shake white people's hands; he would just look at them if they extended a hand, with a look of hatred.

And Ali believed all of this, the 'prophet Elijha Muhammad' he always says.

[Guest Len B'stard]

No, he was speaking bollocks.

I agree but see the reason i agree is cuz i been through the same education system and enlightened age as you where knowledge is some shit you find tapping letters on a keyboard on to a screen, where we have freedom and liberty and equality and all this stuff, we didn't come here on slave ships, get beaten, tortured, killed, slaughtered, we don't come from people that were forced into captivity and servility and dehumanised and degraded. We didn't like as second class citizens, weren't robbed of our heritage, exploited and humiliated. If i was a black American in the 1950s and 60s I could see how I would believe that. There's a part in Malcolm X's autobiography where he honestly thought of every white person he ever met and couldn't think of one that was not negative for him.

I think the thing that is amazing is that so many black folks of that era share that in America. All in all, they were crooked too and they sure as fuck to a blind man weren't right and nor is racial supremacy whatever colour you are but they didn't just appear out of nowhere. Same with the Panthers and them, we're talking about, even in the 60s, lynchings burnings dogs sicced on you and hoses, not everyones reactions gonna be passive resistance. It's commendable and everything but that don't mean you condemn defending yourself. As far as the racial aspect, well thats fucking rich really isn't it?

Edited January 29, 2014 by sugaraylen

[Carne_asaDA]

Perhap he has Pops in his Dead Pool?

[Johnny Drama]

Sounds like he's blaming his old man for his own failure in life.

Common with kids of rich parents.

When your old man is worth a shitload and with all due respect, didn't have to "work hard" for it, and you're on fuckin food stamps, yeah it is your old man's problem.

[Guest Len B'stard]

Man if Muhammad Ali didnt work hard then I dunno who did.

[dalsh327]

Here's more about the father/son/brother/evil stepmother story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275938/Dying-Ali-fearsome-fourth-wife-savage-family-feud-30m-fortune.htm

This happened with Sinatra, Barry White, currently happening with Casey Kasem, where the "mother" tries to control the situation under lawyer advisement, and she's worried the kids are just there to either fight among each other, or have their hand out for money. The guy was married four times and had 9 kids, he left boxing 30 years ago.

I would have just gone to college for a decade and worked here and there if my dad had that kind of money, told the stepmom to write me out of the will, but have me involved in the business - the licensing and archives, on a small salary. Become indispensable to where you're needed and look out for your dad's welfare, and earn trust on managing things, but also have your own thing going on.

Obviously some kids are on the "good side" like Laila.

His son could have changed his name and moved if it was a curse.

[shades]

That's a sad story I almost wish I hadn't read.

I suppose there's a reason why the good die young.

With age and life's inevitable chaos a persons "legacy", especially a larger than life personna / era hero is bound to be a tainted version of themself at the end.

I personally think his wife Lonnie is doing the right thing, sounds like she is the only one that cares about his welfare, and from the onset she knew he was sick.

I hardly think she waited 30 years to mooch his money when he was gone. and she is and has been with him full time, from stories I have read over the years she has never been out spending and jet setting.

I will miss Ali.

and

Ali Jr. sounds like a loser

[Nobodys_Fault]

Sounds like he's blaming his old man for his own failure in life.

Common with kids of rich parents.

When your old man is worth a shitload and with all due respect, didn't have to "work hard" for it, and you're on fuckin food stamps, yeah it is your old man's problem.

Not sure what you do for a living but getting repeatedly punched in the face until you develop brain damage doesn't sound like easy work to me.

[DieselDaisy]

Especially the way he, came back, after the draft business - and his legs had gone a bit. A lot of men would have thought 'fuck it, fuck the WBC and WBA', or not been, together enough either mentally or physically, enough to reclaim the title again from a fight as powerful as Foreman. Nobody rated Ali's chances in Zaire as Ali had been defeated in the Fight of the Century and Foreman had destroyed Smoking Joe. You could also praise his re-match with Spinks. Only man to have been three times HW champion? Is that correct?

[Guest Len B'stard]

Only man to have been three times HW champion? Is that correct?

No, a couple of em have done it actually, Holyfield is one example.