Tributes to 'The Greatest'

Former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield told MSNBC: "I'm glad to have known Ali because when I was a kid, at eight years old, I was told I would be like Ali.

"To take it upon yourself and say; 'I'm the greatest', you put yourself in a position for people to take pot shots at you. This is what Ali did. It's amazing him becoming three-time heavyweight champion of the world. At that time people thought, 'Who could beat three?

"You have to be stronger to get up from a loss to go on and that's what Ali proved to be."

Former England footballer Gary Lineker tweeted: "The greatest has fought his final round. Muhammad Ali was the most magnificent athlete who transcended his sport."

Argentinian boxer Marcos Maidana, a two-weight former world champion, tweeted: "Muhammad Ali the all-time greatest has left us. Thanks for everything. Go with God."

Musician Wyclef Jean wrote: "I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was. Rest in peace to the greatest @MuhammadAli #MuhammedAli we lost another legend."

British boxer Amir Khan tweeted: "Our Prayers and thoughts are with @MuhammadAli and his family #AliBomaye."

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson tweeted: "God came for his champion. So long great one. @MuhammadAli #TheGreatest #RIP."

Ali's former promoter Don King told CNN: "He's always been right there, Johnny on the spot, anything he could do for the benefit of mankind.

"Let us celebrate his life. This is not a time to mourn. This is a time to try to emanate the job he was doing and the burden he leaves behind for us to carry on, to remember that the people are the most important."

Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr told Fox News: "There will never be another Muhammad Ali. The black community all around the world, black people all around the world, needed him. He was the voice for us. He's the voice for me to be where I'm at today.

"I just want to thank Muhammad Ali and his family for being such strong people. You will always be missed. My prayers go out to Ali and his family."

George Foreman, Ali's friend and rival from the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" fight, told the BBC: "We were like one guy - part of me is gone."

"Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest human beings I have ever met. No doubt he was one of the best people to have lived in this day and age.

"To put him as a boxer is an injustice."

He also spoke of Ali's love for the UK and the way he was treated in the country.

"He loved London. If he had been born and raised in London he never would have changed his name," he said.

Former boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya tweeted: "RIP @muhammadali, a legend who transcended sport and was a true champion for all. #thegreatest #MuhammadAli."

Boxing promoter Kellie Maloney told the BBC that Ali was an "icon".

She said: "He took boxing from the back pages, he made it a national sport. He made it well known to the world."

She told BBC 5 Live: "You either loved him or hated him, but what you did was respect him.

"He transcended boxing, took it to a new level. He was the first real superstar, not just in boxing but in sport.

"If you asked my daughters who the favourite sportsman in the world is, they'd say Muhammad Ali. He didn't just win battles in the ring, he won battles outside of the ring."

Maloney met Ali while at a function with her former fighter, Lennox Lewis, and added: "He could hold a room. Even when he wasn't well, people were in awe of him."

Tributes also came from figures outside the world of boxing.

Ringo Starr, who met the boxer along with the other members of The Beatles in 1964, tweeted: "God bless Muhammad Ali peace and love to all his family."

Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "Muhammad Ali was not just a champion in the ring - he was a champion of civil rights, and a role model for so many people."

Fellow boxers also spoke of their respect for the man considered the greatest of their, perhaps any, sport.

WBC world champion Tony Bellew called Ali "the greatest sporting icon of all time" and said he "transcended boxing an(d) put our sport on the map", while Ricky Hatton tweeted: "No more suffering for you now champ. RIP. It was an honour to of met you."

IBF super-middleweight champion James DeGale added: "A very sad day for my sport. There are few real heroes left in this world. Today we lost 'The Greatest of All Time'."

Former England rugby star Matt Dawson said: "My sporting hero leaving us all. I met you in 1999 and will never forget the life in your eyes."

Rev Jesse Jackson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "He became a champion inside the ring and a hero outside. Champion because he won the boxing matches, hero because he stood up against the war in Vietnam."

Michael Parkinson, who had a series of famously explosive interviews with the boxer, told Today: "It's one thing to be abused by a film star but to be abused by a man weighing 17 stone who is the heavyweight champion of the world, who would kill you with one blow, your options are a bit limited."

The broadcaster said "if you believed he was serious" about his views on white people then "he was actually guilty of what he accused others of being, racist".

"We mustn't deify him at all from that point of view, he was a man of many flaws, but he was a man of great genius, great charm, great humour and he was, in his quiet moments, fascinating."

David Beckham posted a photograph of himself meeting Ali and called him "the greatest there will ever be ... the biggest and the best".

He also posted a quote from Ali on Instagram: "Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it.

"Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."

Former heavyweight world champion Lennox Lewis said Ali was "a giant among men", adding: "Ali displayed a greatness in talent, courage and conviction that most of us will ever be able to truly comprehend."

And Frank Bruno added: "Inspiration, mentor, my friend, an Earthly god of humanity, simply the greatest."

Nicola Adams, the world's first female boxing champion, added: "Prayers go out to boxing's greatest of all time and an inspiration to me and so many people."

Joe Calzaghe, the British former two-weight world champion, told the BBC: "People loved him, he was someone completely different, backed it up in the ring and everybody wanted to tune in and watch him fight.

"He was a superstar. There'll never be another Muhammad Ali, in a thousand years' time people will look back and say he was the greatest.

"He was my inspiration, I tried to copy some of his moves and it is a truly sad day. But I'm proud that my sport of boxing has probably the greatest all-round sportsman of all time."

Former Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan called Ali the "greatest sportsman of all times", saying: "What set Ali apart from other great sportsmen and what I most admired him for was his refusal to compromise on his belief and value system.

"Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight title and lost millions in earnings because he refused to fight in Vietnam but he stood resolute."

Amir Khan later said it was "extremely sad" to witness the "passing of boxing's greatest fighter and icon Muhammad Ali".

Khan said: "I would like to send my deepest condolences and thoughts to his family at this time. No fighter or sportsman will ever reach the level of Muhammad Ali, whose name will continue to echo through the ages. Inspiring, charismatic, a true legend - Ali will never be forgotten.

"Having the chance to meet the great man will be a memory and privilege I will always hold dear to me - an incredible human being, fighter and role model. Thank you Muhammad for inspiring us all."