Boxing legend and international icon Muhammad Ali will be laid to rest with a star-studded cast of mourners that will include journalists, actors, politicians and even two presidents and a king.
According to Fox Sports, Ali’s funeral service will be held on June 10 in Louisville, Kentucky, where not only the speaker’s list will be filled with the famous but so will the audience. Along with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the speaking list will also include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Will Smith, who played Ali in a biopic, and Lennox Lewis, who twice held the lineal heavyweight championship thrice owned by Ali, will serve as pallbearers.
Fox further notes that the list of speakers will feature Ali’s wife and daughter, comedian Billy Crystal, and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel. The speakers will range across several religions, too, as the interfaith service includes a Protestant minister, two Rabbis, and a Mormon U.S. Senator.
The service is set to kick off with a 30-minute-long Islamic prayer at Freedom Hall at noon. A public procession will lead then to the KFC Yum! Center for the memorial service.
The Ali family has announced that up to 33,500 seats are reserved for mourners at Freedom Hall. The tickets will be given out free on a first come, first served basis at the Hall box office. But only four tickets per person will be allowed.
As to the KFC Yum! Center, only 15.500 tickets will be available to the public for that segment of the services. These are also limited to four per person and will be available on a first come basis at the stadium’s box office.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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