Lennox Lewis pallbearer?

Ali's brother, Rahman, is nearly in as bad a shape as Ali was before he died. He can barely speak or walk himself. They tried to interview him the other night, you couldn't really understand anything he was saying.

And I don't know where you guys come from, but in the U.S. pallbearers are usually younger guys. As in guys who are in their 20s and 30s.

Why on earth anyone would want a brain damaged 60-year-old Leon Spinks, or a nearly blind 71 year-old Shavers, or an equally old Holmes being pall bearers is beyond me.

His peers want to mourn him. They don't want to be tasked with trying to carry a casket. And I doubt most even could. They are all old beyond their years. And, not to be crass, but I wouldn't trust Leon to carry two pizza boxes from the car to the house.

If Lennox Lewis was asked to be a pall bearer, great. It's quite an honor.

But the guys who were Ali's peers are in no shape and likely have no interest in doing it.

 

Most of the time these days, the casket is carried on a wheeled cart and the pallbearers just sort of put a hand on the coffin and help guide it. Its not like they're carrying a 400 lbs box half a mile down the street with nothing to aid them.. When one of my aunts died, some of the women in the family were pallbearers. But with all that being said, I'm sure Ali's family has young men and women who are more appropriate to take on the job rather than a group of celebrity athletes whom he probably hasn't spoken to in years and may not even have liked to begin with. Its all about adding glamour to the occasion which as I said before shouldn't be a part of a funeral.

 

In a family that big it isn't hard to find people to partake in such ceremonies. I don't know what his relationships with his relatives was like, but even if they were turbulent, its still more appropriate to have THEM participate than celebrities who the guy barely had anything to do with. How many conversations do you think Ali even had with Lennox Lewis in his life? Did he remember any of them? I certainly wouldn't want someone I barely knew carrying my casket, although I'm getting cremated so its kinda moot, but still.

 

I guess his wife Lonnie, who always came across as a kind and loving person ,and his immediate family know what they want ,and what he would have wanted.

 

I should imagine Lewis considers it a great honour to be a pallbearer at Ali's funeral.

I do know that in 1999 when the BBC had their annual Sports Personality of The Year awards. Lewis won it, but he was more than happy, and lead the commendations when Ali upstaged him by being voted SP of the century by the people of Britain. Perhaps they struck up something of a friendship then.

 

Personally I can't see anything inapropriate about a great champion being a pall bearer for another.

 

Its more appropriate when there was an actual relationship there such as in the case of Mickey Ward and Arturo Gatti or Patterson and Ingo.

 

Lennox Lewis represents a clean living recent champ who has shown Ali loads of respect over the years, he is a good example for young people so can see why Ali or the family would pick him. Tyson also seemed fairly close to Ali and he managed to get Ali on his recent series for a short appearance, Ali seemed fond of Tyson but can you imagine him as pall bearer lol. I just hope Ali had some input on it.
Must be a great honour for Lewis and to be honest he deserves it, he don't get talked about much these days for his achievements so its nice to see him get that honour, not his biggest fan but he was a great champ.

 

I'm going to guess and say more than you probably realize. I don't even really know why it's an issue. For all we know they could have been in touch quite regularly, who here was actually monitoring Ali's activities on a daily basis over the last 10 years or so. I know I wasn't.

 

And how exactly do you know what their relationship was like? I'm not saying I do, but then again I'm not the one criticising the decision and making what could be false assumptions. I think Ali and his family have the intellect to determine who should be Ali's pallbearers without us seconding guess the choices.

 

ali spent most of his time over the past decade being removed from the public eye and being mostly incoherent. I doubt he was out playing golf and drinking scotch with Lewis, Shavers, Foreman, Holmes, etc..

 

And that of course is their choice. And to be clear, I don't take issue with all those guys being present at the funeral or even standing up to say a few words. Pallbearer positions however are generally reserved for family and very close friends and if truth be told, if there was no media coverage on this funeral, then that's exactly what it would have been.

 

Either way, why would you care who he and his family chose to be pallbearers?

For all we know maybe Ali and Lewis played chess over the internet together, maybe they skyped. Either way, Lewis must have done something to made a very good impression on Ali and his family.

 

Well you're assuming Lewis wasn't a very close friend, and I'm questioning that assumption because it appears to be wrong.

 

I don't.

Now that's the stuff real relationships are made of.

Yes, like being a celebrity fighter which looks good having in front of the cameras at any event.