Defiant Muhammad Ali was pictured
enjoying the Super Bowl this morning after his daughter was forced to
deny reports that her legendary father 'could die within days'.
Fears
were raised over the ill-health of the iconic former world heavyweight
boxing champion after his brother Rahman claimed that the 71-year-old,
who has suffered from Parkinson's disease since 1984, was close to
death.
But an image of
Ali emerged in the early hours, holding his fists up in defiance and
wearing a Baltimore Ravens jersey at his family home in Phoenix, where
he watched the Ravens' 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers with
his wife Lonnie.
'He look great,' Ali's family spokesman Bob Gunnell told The Courrier-Journal. 'He's having a Super Bowl Party'.
Ali's daughter May May also insisted her father was fighting fit following a conversation with him on the telephone.
'He's fine, in fact he was talking well this morning,' she told Associated Press.
'These rumours pop up every once in a while but there's nothing to them.'
His brother Rahman said the former heavyweight champion cannot speak and no longer recognises him. More pictures after the cut......
He told The Sun on Sunday: 'It could be months, it could be days. I don’t know if he’ll last the summer. He’s in God’s hands.'
Ali's most recent public health scare was December, 2011, when the champion was taken to hospital after falling unconscious.
Emergency services were called days after Ali made a frail appearance at the funeral of fellow boxing great Joe Frazier.
He was treated for dehydration after collapsing at his 6,000 sq ft estate in Arizona.
But in the early hours of Monday
morning, Ali delivered a defiant response with two pictures posted on his
personal Twitter account 'real_ALIme' - one of him wearing a Ray Lewis shirt.
It added the message: 'The Greatest is
ready for the Super Bowl! Go @Ravens!'
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