Zenon Texeira, a British photographer, knocked on the door of Ali’s home in March 2016. Unbeknownst to him, he was taking the last photographs of this living sports legend.
He had carefully arranged the meeting, knowing that the former champion had been away from the cameras for years. What he found left him speechless: “I saw his aura, but his face was unrecognizable”.
Three decades of Parkinson’s had transformed the man who once floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee in the ring. But in his eyes, his spirit remained just as strong.
Two months later, on June 4, 2016, Ali died at the age of 74 in a Phoenix clinic. When The Sun and Daily Mail published that photo on their front pages, social media went wild.
One of the most iconic images in sports, Muhammad Ali’s farewell.