Muhammad Ali was stripped of his World Heavyweight Championship title in 1967 after refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.
But 4,000 miles away in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, indignant fan Paddy Monaghan decided to start a petition. He managed to get 22,224 signatures which he delivered to the American Embassy in London. The American Supreme Court cleared Ali in 1971 and his boxing licence was reinstated.
When he heard about Mr Monaghan's efforts, Ali sent him a letter saying he wanted to meet.
The two men became life-long friends and whenever Ali was in the UK he would try to pay the Monaghans a visit at the home in Saxton Road, Abingdon.
Ali visited Abingdon about a dozen times. Sometimes he went in secret and sometimes publicly, when he would be mobbed by hundreds of fans.
Mr Monaghan's son Tyrone was a keen Welterweight boxer and in 1981, when he was just 16, he got to spar with "The Greatest" in his Abingdon back garden.
Tyrone Monaghan said: "Besides my three children being born, the best day of my life was when I sparred with Muhammad Ali."
"I couldn’t even see his jabs. If he could do that there to me, what would he be like in his prime against other heavyweights who would have been a lot slower? He was absolutely amazing."
The Monaghans and Ali met up many times over the years and regularly stayed in contact over the phone.
Tyrone Monaghan said a few years ago: "A lot of Ali fans know him for being The Greatest in the ring but there is a lot more to Muhammad Ali than just fighting and boxing. He was greater outside the ring than he was in it. He is an absolutely amazing man. His aura is unreal."
