MUHAMMAD ALI’S childhood home is on the market.
The modest pink house in Louisville, Kentucky, has been converted into a museum.
Getty – ContributorMuhammad Ali left his childhood home and returned a champion[/caption]
Jam PressBoxing icon Ali grew up in Kentucky[/caption]
Jam PressThe house has been restored to how it would have looked in the 1950s[/caption]
Jam PressIt is a museum dedicated to Ali’s early life[/caption]
Ali – then known as Cassius Clay – spent his early years in the two-bedroom, one-bathroom property.
It went on the market this month alongside two neighbouring houses, which have been converted into a gift shop and short-term rental.
The collection is being valued at £1.1million and co-owner George Bochetto says the ideal buyer would keep the property as a museum.
Bochetto – a former Pennsylvania state boxing commissioner – said: “This is a part of Americana.
“This is part of our history. And it needs to be treated and respected as such.”
The museum opened shortly after Ali’s death in 2016.
Bochetto restored it to how it would have looked during the heavyweight’s days living there using photos as a guide.
He said in 2016: “You walk into this house, you’re going back to 1955, and you’re going to be in the middle of the Clay family home.”
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Ali lived in the house before leaving for the 1960 Olympics in Rome – returning a champion.
The museum ran into financial trouble and closed less than two years after it was opened.
GettyMuhammad Ali went on to become a three-time heavyweight champ[/caption]
Jam PressThe legend grew up in humble circumstances[/caption]
Jam PressThere had been plans to move the house to Saudi Arabia[/caption]
Jam PressThree properties are included in the listing[/caption]
There have been proposals to move it to Las Vegas, Philadelphia or Saudi Arabia, which were all turned down.
Bochetto explained: “I wouldn’t do that because it’s an important piece of Louisville history, Kentucky history and I think it needs to stay right where it is.”
A stunning mansion formerly owned by Ali went on the market for $13.5million in April.
The boxing great owned the sensational seven-bedroom Los Angeles home from 1979 to 1984.
Made my peace
MUHAMMAD ALI gave legendary Sun boxing writer Colin Hart his biggest ever story in a totally chance and heartbreaking meeting.
In December 1981, a 39-year-old Ali endured the last sickening defeat of his magnificent career, ten long hard-to-watch rounds against Trevor Berbick.
Ali’s health was already under such suspicion before the one-sided beating in the boxing backwater of the Bahamas.
And six years later the tragic news that he was hit with Parkinson’s spread around the world.
Our man Harty smelled a very separate scoop out in Las Vegas in 1987, around the same time of the agonising diagnosis.
But when he went to Sin City to seek out the Baddest Man on the Planet he ended up being approached by The Greatest.
Read our interview HERE.