RIP Muhammad Ali, the Greatest

Muhammad Ali, a titan among titans, has passed away following respiratory complications at a hospital in Scottsdale, Ariz., reports the Associated Press. He was 74. It's difficult to succinctly capture what exactly Ali, born Cassius Clay, meant to the sport of boxing. Or, for that matter, to being a man of color existing in the public eye. Or to peace. Or to the notion that one could ferociously stand up for their beliefs (see: his refusal to be drafted for the Vietnam War), no matter what legal repercussions could be meted out from on high. To paraphrase Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, it was Ali who redefined what it meant to be proud and black and talented in a 1960s America that wanted nothing more than to make an example out of him. And to top it all off, Ali did it all with flair and finesse and an unerring sense of morality that followed him into his well-chronicled diagnosis with Parkinson's in the eighties. It feels cliché to say, but Ali was truly too large and too good for this world, a heavyweight in every sense of the word. He was the greatest. 2016, you're quite the motherfucker so far.