The Irish Athletic Boxing Association will observe a second minute’s silence in memory of Muhammad Ali at the National Junior Cadet Championships at the National Stadium in Dublin tonight.
The Greatest will be laid to rest in his home city of Louisville,Kentucky in the USA today.
Today’s funeral is the culmination of a two-day farewell to the 1960 Olympic champion and three-time World heavyweight champion.
Tens oftThousands will attend the service which will be broadcast live as the world lays a collective wreath at the final resting place of a man who transcended sport.
Ali died last Friday after a long battle with Parkinson’s.
One minute’s silence, tolled in and out by a ringside bell, was observed the National Stadium last Saturday following the announcement of his passing.
Ali, then called Cassius Clay, beat Polish southpaw Zbigniew Pietrzykowsk, a three-time Olympic medallist, in the 1960 Olympic light-heavyweight final in Rome before going on the captivate the world of pro boxing. Pietrzykowsk passed away in 2014.
The Irish 1960 Olympic team of Adam McLean (Crown), Paddy Kenny (News Boys BC Cork/Coventry Irish), Ando Reddy (Sandymount), Danny O’Brien (Omagh), Bernie Meli (Immaculata), Harry Perry (British Rail), Mick Reid (Crumlin), Eamonn McKeon (Crumlin), Colin McCoy (Kilcullen) and Joe Casey (Arbour Hill) shared a dressing with Clay at the 17th Olympiad in the Eternal City.
May he rest in peace.