STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali has pneumonia
- The illness was discovered quickly, Ali's spokesman said
- He is expected to be out of the hospital soon
- Ali became heavyweight world champion for the first time in 1964
Ali's treatment prognosis is good, he said.
"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 Ali, 72, is not expected to be in the hospital long.
Muhammad Ali at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 2, 2013.
"At this time, the Muhammad Ali family respectfully requests privacy," the statement said.
Ali was born Cassius Clay and won an Olympic gold medal as a light-heavyweight at age 18.
In 1964, he became world
heavyweight champion in an upset victory against then champion Sonny
Liston, according to Ali's official website.
Shortly thereafter changed his name to Muhammad Ali to reflect his conversion to Islam.
The boxer was also known
for his protest against the Vietnam War and refusal to be drafted into
service out of religious conviction.
He retired from boxing in 1981 and announced his diagnosis with Parkinson's Disease three years later.
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