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'MADE MY PEACE'
The heartbreaking chance meeting between Muhammad Ali and Colin Hart where boxing icon revealed ‘I’m not scared to die’
He had one of Fleet Street’s most decorated careers, but this remains our modest man’s biggest scoop
MUHAMMAD ALI gave legendary Sun boxing writer Colin Hart his biggest ever story in a totally chance and heartbreaking meeting.
In December 1981, a 39-year-old Ali endured the last sickening defeat of his magnificent career, ten long hard-to-watch rounds against Trevor Berbick.
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Ali's health was already under such suspicion before the one-sided beating in the boxing backwater of the Bahamas.
And six years later the tragic news that he was hit with Parkinson's spread around the world.
Our man Harty smelled a very separate scoop out in Las Vegas in 1987, around the same time of the agonising diagnosis.
But when he went to Sin City to seek out the Baddest Man on the Planet he ended up being approached by The Greatest.
And the 89-year-old doyen relived the gut-wrenching yet inspirational moment in a SunSport video.
The revered ringside veteran explained: “Mike Tyson had just won the world title (in November 1986) and I knew he was going to be carrying the spit bucket for his great friend Edwin Rosario for his world title shot against Julio Cesar Chavez (November 1987).
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“I asked my boss to send me because it was already a great fight but I also thought I could get an interview with Mike Tyson.
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“It was a great fight, Tyson did carry the bucket but Rosario was beaten in the 11th.
“But the next morning I'm standing at the news stand, minding my own business and waiting for breakfast outside the Hilton hotel in Vegas.
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“And who should come along but Muhammad Ali. I had been at his last fight in the Bahamas and he came over naturally just to have a chat.
“But it had just been made public that he was suffering from Parkinson’s.
“I told him how sorry I was to hear about it and he just started talking. He said, ‘If I die, I have no regrets.
God gave me Parkinson's to show me I'm just a man
Muhammad Ali to Colin Hart
“‘I have an obligation to keep myself healthy. But the final decision is my maker's.
“‘I've tried to live a good life and do the right thing. But I'm not scared to die, because I have made my peace.
“‘God gave me Parkinson's disease to show me that I am just a man, like everyone else, to show me that I have human frailties like everyone else. Because that is all I am, a man.’”
In typical Sun style, Hart dropped everything - including his appetite - to get his copy over to London ASAP.
And, in one of Fleet Street’s most decorated careers, it remains our modest man’s pinnacle.
He said: “I was absolutely taken back by that and I was 42 years younger so I forgot about breakfast, ran up to my room and wrote it on my type writer.
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“That was the biggest scoop I ever got and it came just out of the blue.”
Ali, who is widely regarded as arguably the greatest sportsmen who ever lived, died in 2016 aged 74.
Muhammad Ali boxing record
MUHAMMAD ALI turned pro in 1960 after winning gold at the Olympics. Here is the rundown of his iconic boxing career.
Fights: 61
Wins: 56
Losses: 5
KOs: 37
Height: 6ft 3in
Reach: 78in
World titles: 3
Olympic gold medals: 1
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