Will Smith, Lennox Lewis to be Ali’s pallbearers

Actor Will Smith and former boxing world champion Lennox Lewis will serve as pallbearers together with six other people during Muhammad Ali’s funeral on Friday, a spokesman said.

The charismatic Ali died on Friday at age 74 after health problems complicated by a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Smith, who played the title role in Michael Mann’s film Ali (2001), became close to the boxing legend after the filming.

Lewis, who was born in Britain, is considered one of the greatest boxers of the last 25 years, having won several world titles in the 1990s and 2000s.

The two celebrities will carry Ali’s coffin together with six family members and close family friends, family spokesman Bob Gunnell said.

Ali’s family didn’t consider donating brain Meanwhile, Ali and his family never seriously considered donating the boxing great’s brain for research, according to the doctor who treated him.

“Not really,” was Dr Abe Lieberman’s answer when he was asked on Monday if submitting the brain for research was discussed.

Lieberman was among those who diagnosed Ali in 1984. The doctor said he believes Ali had the disease earlier, when he fought Larry Holmes in 1980. Ali thought the Holmes fight did serious damage.