KARACHI: As soon as the news broke early on Saturday, boxers in Lyari and Old Golimar were mourning the passing of the legendary three-time world heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali.

The solemn-faced seven young boxers, including a female pugilist, at the Trans-Lyari Boxing Club at Gutter Baghicha climbed into the ring soon after warm up to listen to their coach speak about the ‘King of the Ring’. “You know, Ali just happened to wander into a boxing gym while looking for his stolen bicycle. The bicycle he never found but in its place he earned so much respect that thinking about it makes our heads spin,” coach Abdul Majeed Brohi narrated the late boxer’s story.

In their hands, they held their hero’s pictures — Ali with his punching bag, Ali in the ring, Ali with his manager ... “We have grown up with these pictures. They have inspired us throughout these years and will carry on inspiring us for the years to come,” said the coach with a lump forming in his throat.

“Coach called us all this morning to share the sad news about our champion’s passing to ask us to come early to the gym for a memorial meeting for our hero. May he rest in peace,” said Maimoona Khan, who comes to practise at the club from Nawabshah once a month. “Coach has told us so many stories about Muhammad Ali and his daughter Laila Ali, too, which I find specially inspiring,” she said.

Another of Brohi’s students, Mohammad Daud, who boxes for Pakistan Navy and has several medals under his belt, said he was in love with Ali’s style while describing several of his thrilling bouts, the most memorable of which happen to be with Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Daud said his particular favourite was the historical 1974 ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight in the African Congo, where Ali knocked out Foreman in the eighth round.

“He had it in him to finish off Foreman very early in the fight but he was an entertainer as well. So he danced around in the ring keeping his guard up and letting his opponent have his fun while also tiring him before finishing up the job in round eight,” Daud described the fight excitedly.

Meanwhile, gloomy-looking boxers practised with heavy hearts at Muslim Azad Boxing Club at Kakri Ground in Lyari. Wali Mohammad Kambrani, the third generation owner of the club, also had a picture of Ali photographed in Lahore with two of his father’s students when Ali had visited there in 1988. With it he had his late brother’s photo as well. “Both are gone. The memory of both will continue to inspire us here,” he said, adding that he had several video tapes of Ali’s fights with him, which he was slowly converting into DVDs for his students.

“Muhammad Ali may have been American but after he converted to Islam, he had a huge following in the Muslim world, too. The man could speak his mind without caring about what others thought of it. He was truly a world champion, in the ring and outside of it as well. He called himself ‘Black Superman’ but for us he was the only Superman,” Kambrani said before turning away to hide the tears forming in his eyes.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2016