Muhammad Ali’s Brush With Bollywood: When He Met Big B, Mohd Rafi

Pictures to take you through Ali’s brush with Indian legends.

(Photo: Twitter/IndiaHistorypic)

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

Muhammad Ali

The great champion, the great voice, has now been silenced forever.

Former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was hospitalized on Thursday with a respiratory problem and on Friday, he lost the long standing fight against his body. The same body, that elevated him to the level of the self-proclaimed ‘Greatest Ever’.

Ali’s long career also saw him travel across the world for his fights and meet many fellow greats.

Among them, a few Indian legends as well.

Indian music legend Mohammad Rafi was touring America in 1979 when the big fan got to catch up with the champion boxer in Chicago.

Ali sat down with Rafi, his wife, and his son for a 45 minute chat and reportedly spoke about music and boxing.

They then decided to take a picture, planned by Ali.

Ali said, ‘We will pose like this. You punch me on the face and I will punch you back’. And they laughed about it.

Shahid Rafi (Mohammad Rafi’s son) to TOI

(Photo: Twitter/IndiaHistorypic)

In January 1980, Ali had travelled to Chennai to fight Jimmy Ellis. Seen here, his picture on stage with the charismatic M.G. Ramachandran.

(Photo: Twitter/IndiaHistorypic)

Amitabh Bachchan was also one of the lucky few to get an audience with the legend.

He Tweeted this picture of himself with Ali and filmmaker Prakash Mehra, taken at Ali’s home in LA.