Muhammad Ali is ‘home, well, happy’

Muhammad Ali is home and doing as well as can be expected after he was hospitalized in Arizona, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
The newspaper spoke with longtime Ali friend and Louisville radio personality John Ramsey, after Ramsey was quoted in the Star magazine saying the boxing legend had been hospitalized "after slipping out of consciousness at his Phoenix-area home."
Ramsey said he spoke by telephone with Ali's wife, Lonnie, last night and was told Ali is "home and well, for a person who has had Parkison's since the 1980s. He may not be going in the direction you or I like, but no one is on alert. That's the truth."
Ramsey said the Alis still plan to be in Louisville in mid-January for a celebration of the three-time heavyweight champion's 70th birthday, Jan. 19.
Ramsey said he didn't have any details of Ali's hospital treatment but that he believed, "I don't think he stayed very long," Ramsey said.

The Star reported that it had been told by multiple sources that Ali was rushed from the couple's home in Paradise Valley to the Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center on Nov. 19. The Star also said it confirmed a 911 call from the residence, and that Ali was unconscious at the time.
The Star quoted Alan Laitsich, a spokesperson for Paradise Valley Police, saying: "The victim started to pass out in the car and when they got him into the house he fell unconscious."
The magazine said it didn't have details of Ali's treatment or his length of stay at the hospital.
The Nov. 19 rush to the hospital came just five days after Ali attended the funeral of his greatest rival, Joe Frazier. Another boxer who fought Ali for the heavyweight title, Ron Lyle, died Saturday at the age of 70.
 I gotta a lot of respect for Ali. A true role model and cultural icon. A real life super hero the likes shall never be seen again.

 Former world heavyweight champions Muhammad Ali, left, and Joe Frazier, second from right, chat during a dinner at a New York hotel on April 13, 1981, as Ali''s wife Veronica, right, and legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell, second from right, listen in. The dinner celebrated the 20th anniversary of ABC''s "Wide World of Sports."

 The first and third fights beween Muhammad Ali, left, and Joe Frazier are more noteworthy, but the second fight, which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York on Jan. 28, 1974, gave Ali his first victory over Frazier, a 12-round unanimous decision. Frazier fell to 30-2 with the loss.

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