A Turkish educational foundation has purchased the Michigan farm property belonging to the late legendary Muslim boxer Muhammad Ali.
The property, which spans over a 328-decare land in the U.S. state of Michigan, was sold to the New York-based ‘Turken Foundation’ in December 2018 by Muhammad Ali’s widow Lonnie Ali.
Ali purchased the property in mid-1970s for $400,000 and used the property for periodic seclusion after moving to Arizona and Los Angeles.
Besides the four-bedroom house, the property also includes seven other buildings, including a basketball field, a swimming pool, and a gym with a boxing ring.
The American press have estimated the sale of the property at $2.5 million (£1.95m).
Tim Mitchell from Cressy & Everett, the real estate agency that sold the property, said that there were various interested parties from Dubai and Indonesia.
He said that they sold the property to the Turken Foundation as “the buyers fell in love with the region and nostalgia.”
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The Turken Foundation established itself in 2014 in the U.S. by Turkey’s two prominent educational foundations, Türgev and Ensar, to assist aspiring Turkish students by providing accommodation, scholarship and other cultural programmes to improve their educational experience.
Muhammad Ali
The former world heavyweight champion died in June 2016 at the age of 74 in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, after suffering from a respiratory illness worsened by Parkinson’s disease.
Ali embraced Islam in the early 1960s with the ‘Nation of Islam’ sect, before turning to mainstream Sunni Islam in 1975.
He held the heavyweight title on three separate occasions.
His fights are widely regarded as the greatest showdowns in the sport’s history.
However, it was his political activism, religious values, charisma and principles that made him a global icon which transcended the ring.
