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LOUISVILLE. — The family of the late boxing legend Muhammad Ali and the city of Louisville prepared on Monday for his public funeral later this week, which organisers said “The Greatest” helped plan himself as a “last statement” to the world.

Former president Bill Clinton, comedian Billy Crystal and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are among those due to speak on Friday at the public memorial in a sports arena in the Kentucky hometown of the three-time world heavyweight champion.

The charismatic Ali, a dazzling fighter and outspoken civil rights activist who became one of the 20th century’s towering figures, died last Friday at age 74 after health problems complicated by a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

The actor Will Smith and former boxing world champion Lennox Lewis will serve as pallbearers together with six other people.

The Louisville funeral will be preceded tomorrow by a family funeral and an Islamic prayer service, held in the 18 000-seat Freedom Hall that hosted Ali’s last fight in Louisville, against Willi Besmanoff in 1961. — AFP.