World to bid Muhammad Ali farewell on Friday in hometown

Muhammad Ali crafted the plan for his final tribute years ago, long before he died. On Friday, his family will honour him just like he planned, with a global celebration in his hometown.

A procession will carry his body down an avenue in Louisville that bears his name, through his boyhood neighbourhood and down Broadway, the scene of the parade that honoured the brash young man — then known as Cassius Clay — for his gold medal at the 1960 Olympics.

A day after Ali died at age 74 from complications of Parkinson’s disease, a family spokesman outlined plans for Ali’s funeral as people from Manila to Louisville to his adopted home of Arizona mourned the boxing great’s passing.