DHAKA: Tributes have poured in for Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight champion boxer who riveted the world with his sporting feats, quick-witted commentary and civil rights activism.

Ali, who died aged 74 late on Friday, had endured a long fight with Parkinson’s disease.

Fellow athletes were quick to offer their condolences.

‘A part of me slipped away,’ tweeted George Foreman, as he called the legendary fellow boxer by his nickname – ‘The Greatest’.

‘God came for his champion. So long great one,’ tweeted boxer Mike Tyson, reports Al Jazeera.

‘RIP to The Greatest Muhammad Ali, you have given something to boxing that will never be forgotten,’ tweeted Floyd Mayweather.

British boxer Amir Khan, meanwhile, offered ‘prayers and thoughts’.

Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino former world champion professional boxer, said in a statement, ‘We lost a giant today. Boxing benefited from Muhammad Ali’s talents but not nearly as much as mankind benefited from his humanity’.

Artists and activists also paid tribute to the late boxer.

Michael Moore, the documentary filmmaker, said, ‘Muhammad Ali, pacifist, Muslim. Convicted as a felon simply because he refused to go to Vietnam’. He quoted Ali’s famous line, ‘No Vietnamese ever called me a n*****’.

BDST: 1314 HRS, JUNE 04, 2016
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**Boxing Legend Muhammad Ali dies at 74