Respect for Muhammad Ali

Bob Dylan released a statement following the boxer’s death. Dylan responded to the news that the 74-year-old legend passed away by referencing the man’s self-proclaimed title, “the greatest”:

If the measure of greatness is to gladden the heart of every human being on the face of the earth, then he truly was the greatest. In every way he was the bravest, the kindest and the most excellent of men.

Paul Simon also mourned Ali’s passing during a performance of his song “The Boxer” at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, where he broke the news to an audibly affected crowd. Watch the clip after the jump.

https://youtu.be/vRdrtcUtyUM&w=580

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Liz Wood is a writer and critic living in Cape Cod. She was a 2022 National Book Critics Circle Emerging Critics Fellow and a member of the NBCC 2023 and 2024 Greg Barrios Book in Translation Prize. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Words Without Borders, Electric Literature, and elsewhere.

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