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Video captures emotional moment as Muhammed Ali’s coffin arrived at airport

By Steve Robson, Christopher Bucktin, mirror.co.uk

Muhammad Ali has made his final journey home after his coffin was brought to Louisville where the legend will be buried.

There were emotional scenes on the streets of the boxer’s home town when his coffin touched down shortly after 4.30pm after a three hour flight from Phoenix.

Eleven funeral cars and a hearse pulled onto the tarmac to greet the star’s body along with his family.

The cortege was then given a police escort to a local funeral home where he will be prepared for his burial on Friday.

Ali planned the arrangements for his funeral years ago.

In typically brash style, he wanted a procession to carry his body down an avenue that bears his name, through his boyhood neighborhood and down the same streets where he brought home a gold medal from the 1960 Olympics.

Speaking about the plans, family spokesman Bob Gunnell said they “certainly believe that Muhammad was a citizen of the world … and they know that the world grieves with him.”

Friends revealed tonight Ali’s fighting spirit helped him defy doctors for 20 years as he held up against his crippling Parkinson’s.

As fans from around the world began to gather in his home town of Louisville, Kentucky, pals told how he remained The Greatest to the end.

Determined to continue in his life’s resolution to “make the world a better place”, he battled on despite becoming increasingly frail under the onslaught of the progressive disorder.

Close friend Tim Shanahan told how Ali , who died of septic shock last week aged 74, beat the odds living with disease for more than 30 years after doctors told him in 1986 he might last only 10.

“Muhammad handled any setback with dignity,” he said. “He never felt sorry for himself, never asked why me? He faced these setbacks as challenges.

Read more at http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/emotional-moment-muhammad-ali-makes-8121645

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