Los Angeles (California): An old video recorded in 1981 has gone viral on the internet as it captured a priceless moment of boxing legend Muhammad Ali saving a man from committing suicide, a truly heroic action from a real-life hero.
In the video recorded by CBS News, Ali volunteered to go up onto the ledge of the ninth floor of a building in Los Angeles and talked to a young man threatening to jump out from the window, reports Xinhua.
According to reports, back in 1981, Ali was hanging out when he heard people talking about a man sitting on a ledge of the Miracle Mile office building and preparing to end his life.
Police negotiators and members of the 21-year-old’s family had all tried to reason with him but hours of effort were to no avail. So the boxer rushed to the scene, driving the wrong way down roads with his lights flashing as he raced to make it there in time.
The crowds were very excited when they saw Ali and started to call out his name. Ignoring the chanting crowds, Ali ran into the building and then quickly remerged from another window on the same floor.
Ali leaded out the window and told the young African American:” You’re my brother. I love you and I wouldn’t lie to you. You got to listen. I want you to come with me, meet some friends of mine.”
“Why do you worry about me? I’m a nobody,” the disturbed man yelled.
“I told him he wasn’t a nobody,” Ali later told the reporters.
After 20 minutes, Ali finally talked the man down. When the young man finally came inside, Ali put his arm around his shoulders and led him back to safety.
After that Ali drove the man to a police station in his Rolls-Royce and then visited him in the hospital where the young man was taken for psychiatric treatment following the incident.
The crowd chanted “USA! Digs Ali” as the champion left the scene with the man he saved.
Ali died at a hospital outside Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, 32 years after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’ s disease. One of the greatest sports idols in the last century, he was also known for the phrase — “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
–IANS