I could understand if Larry Holmes, Ernie Shavers, Joe Bugner or Leon Spinks was a pallbearer for Muhammad Ali at his funeral. BUT Lennox Lewis ?? hmmm i wonder if it is because Lewis donated $1 million to the Muhammad Ali Foundation?.. Lennox Lewis is known for "Stealing other fighters thunder" Lewis turned up in the ring in Germany, when Tyson Fury defeated Wladimir Klitschko. just one of the many times Lewis has gotton in on the picture, when he is not wanted. Now he has managed to gatecrash the funeral of Muhammad Ali ... Why? Lewis has zero affiliation to the career of Muhammad Ali.
I'm not going to second-guess the arrangements made by Ali's family. I would like to think perhaps, over the years, he had some input in many of the arrangements himself. I don't really watch TV or read the newspapers so I'm unlikely to catch any of this funeral stuff, but I suspect POLITICIANS will attach themselves to this event, inevitably, which I feel is far less palatable than whether or not Lennox Lewis is there. But then I don't like politicians and their opportunistic ways, yet even so, again I'm not going to second-guess the arrangements made by the people who matter.
In my experience, the honor of being someone's pallbearer is generally reserved for family members and very close friends.
I was going to open a similar thread tbh. I don't claim to be in the know but I don't think Lewis was particularly close to Ali. I'm surprised Mike Tyson or Larry Holmes didn't get called up tbh, Mike was besotted by Ali and Holmes and him go back a long way. Lewis isn't a bad man by all means but he seems false to me and insincere.
I read Ali soured with age and lost most of his friends. I agree with you in general that Pallbearers usually reserved for family members and very close friends. But Smith aside from playing Ali has his mouth and angry like politics too. Smith has made some terrible racy statements regarding the Oscar nominations and was in rage when offered the lead in a Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained movie. Jamie Fox took the role instead. File this one under did you know? Ali was named after Cassius Clay, a Kentucky-based politician who was an abolitionist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassius_Marcellus_Clay_(politician)
That's the thing, did Ali really sour or did his wife do the talking and thinking for him? Nobody knows how coherent he actually was.
I've just noticed his brother won't be a pallbearer too, what the hell is going on here? I know they likely had their differences but come on, they were very close throughout his career.
The man had a big family though. I'm sure there were plenty of relatives who could have stepped up to the plate. Selecting a bunch of fellow super star boxers who in all likelihood he rarely spoke with to carry his casket is only designed to ad glamour to the affair, which funerals shouldn't be about.
Ali could be warm and playful despite his Parkinson's. I read he soured and lost many friends. I guess you can't blame him, he was aging and uncomfortable.
The mans been suffering like a dog for god knows how many years. I bet he wish he could have gone out and met all his old friends but that horrible condition messed those plans up.
I think Ali had 4 wives and 9 children. He wasn't a devoted husband type, he stood for a cause, and I guess Will Smith fits the cause better some family members. With Ali gone, Foreman, Holmes and Chavalo are the voice of the times. I was glad to see Holmes say something nice. Too bad the media didn't give him the same notice as the other fighters.