Final tribute to 'The Greatest' unfolds in Muhammad Ali's hometown

(Agencies) Updated: 2016-06-11 00:45

The casket with the body of the late boxing champion Muhammad Ali is brought for his jenazah, an Islamic funeral prayer, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. June 9, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

BOYHOOD HOME

After years of restoration to convert his childhood home into a museum, developers finally held a grand opening on May 1.

"They (Ali's family) wanted to bring Muhammad here for one last visit but his health just wasn't permitting it, unfortunately," said co-owner George Bochetto, a former Pennsylvania boxing commissioner.

Visitors this week waited up to 90 minutes to tour the modest pink house, and police estimated 1,500 people lined the small residential street on Friday to see the man known as "The Greatest" come home one last time.

"This is where he started," said former heavyweight boxer and actor Randall "Tex" Cobb. "He didn't start in a gym. He didn't start as Muhammad Ali. He started in this house right here."

Willie B. Palmer, 75, said he graduated high school with Ali, who was training for the Olympics when he graduated Central High School in 1960.

Ali would train by jogging the bus route to the school.

"Sometimes he'd be there before the bus," Palmer said.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who attended a Muslim funeral for Ali on Thursday, cut short his visit to Louisville and was no longer taking part in Friday's event.

Erdogan's office simply said he had left the United States after a dinner to break the day's Ramadan fast late on Thursday.

An official in Erdogan's office denied a report by broadcaster CNN Turk that Erdogan had wanted to lay a cloth on Ali's coffin, and had wanted the head of Turkey's religious affairs directorate to recite from the Koran, but that his wishes had been refused.