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Muhammad Ali, the famed 72-year-old boxer and activist, was admitted to an undisclosed hospital Saturday with pneumonia, with a good prognosis for recovery, his spokesman, Bob Gunnell, said, according to CNN.
"Ali, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, is being treated by his team of doctors and is in stable condition," Gunnell said in a statement. The illness was caught early, and he is not expected to be hospitalized long, the report says.
"At this time, the Muhammad Ali family respectfully requests privacy," the statement says.
The prizefighter retired from boxing in 1981 and announced his diagnosis with Parkinson's disease three years later, the report notes. He was born Cassius Clay and won an Olympic gold medal as a light heavyweight at age 18, the report notes. He became world heavyweight champion in 1964 in an upset victory against then-champion Sonny Liston, according to Ali's official website.
He later changed his name to Muhammad Ali after converting to Islam. Besides knockouts in boxing ring, he was known for protests against the Vietnam War and refusing to be drafted into service out of religious conviction.
Read more at CNN.
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