Pro Boxers remember Muhammad Ali at prayer service

LOUISVILE, Ky. (WTVQ) From Muslim, to Jew, to Christian and from Black, to White, to Asian all paused today to pay tribute to Muhammad Ali. The self proclaimed “greatest” has influenced countless boxers who’ve come after him. Among the people in today’s crowd, professional boxer Bernard Hopkins and former two-time Heavy-Weight World Champ Hasim Rahman weigh in on the legacy Ali has left behind.

Thousands from all walks of life pay homage to the greatest at a traditional Islamic Jenazah prayer service.

In the crowd, fans, family, and some of boxing’s superstars, two also devout Muslims following in Ali’s footsteps.

The executioner, Bernard Hopkins and The Rock, Hasim Rahman, believe there will never be any one who can live up to the legend.

Hopkins says, “I’m here to pay homage to a prince. Someone that looked his opponent in the face, not in the ring, his bigger opponent, and said the things he said and lived by it. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.”

Rahman says, “He wasn’t afraid to give up everything, everything for what he believed in. And you just don’t meet men like that.”

A man both admire for his fierce determination and for looking his opponents in the eye.

Hopkins says, “That’s in my spirit. Some don’t and won’t look at you. I’ll look at you and say you know what, I’m still going to beat you, in the ring and out of the ring, and that’s only special, special DNA that Allah gives us. ”

An icon who packs freedom hall and Friday a 15,000 seat area, the KFC Yum! Center, for his final farewell.

Louisville resident Nicole Hayden says, “I’m just so honored and grateful to celebrate the memorial of the great Muhammad Ali.”

Ali’s detailed funeral plans brought together those from all faiths and ethnicities to carry on his legacy.

Hopkins says he hopes people “…take back and be the Ali of their time, be the Ali of their home.”

Rahman says, “On this day of we putting him away we all coming together. It’s like he really got what he wanted.”

Ali’s grand funeral will be held Friday at 2pm at the KFC Yum! Center. But first, starting at 9am a slow procession will carry his body down Muhammad Ali Boulevard, past his childhood home and to Cave Hill Cemetery where the great will be laid to rest.