In honor of Muhammad Ali, a stretch of the street near Madison Square Garden in New York City has been renamed “Muhammad Ali Way.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that West 33rd Street would be temporarily renamed after the boxing legend, who passed away last week.
Ali fought at Madison Square Garden eight times with the legendary fight against Joe Frazier taking place at the arena in 1971. The mayor said “Muhammad Ali was a champion, activist and the self-proclaimed Greatest,”and added, “Throughout his life he lived up to that title again and again – and today, we are paying tribute to the man in the heart of this City. Ali never backed down from a fight in or outside the ring.”
Muhammad Ali, Legendary Boxer, Dead at age 74
While his more than 30 year fight with Parkinson’s Disease was both crippling and disheartening, he never let it defeat him and it was befitting that a street near the Garden acknowledged his life and legacy.
“Honoring him with a street renaming in the heart of our city, within sight of Madison Square Garden, is a fitting tribute,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer.
From his time in the ring as a three-time heavyweight champion to his social and civil rights activism, his contributions of charisma and consciousness to the world will be surely missed.
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