The only son of Muhammad Ali has opened up about his crack addiction and using prostitutes, as the story of being abandoned by his boxing legend father has been turned into a Hollywood film.
For most of adulthood and despite his dad’s vast wealth, Jr lived in abject poverty and reverted to “crack and hookers” to escape his bleak situation.
The biopic focuses on how Ali Jr was effectively abandoned by his dad, nicknamed “The Greatest”, but was certainly not the best father, leaving Ali to be raised by his maternal grandparents from the age of five.
Ali Jr has largely been shunasned by his natural family and his father’s fourth wife Lonnie, who has control over his $50 million estate.
The movie claims that Ali Jr only gets around $1,000-a-month from the estate and is currently making ends meet as a painter with his best friend, retired New York cop Richard Blum, who also acts as his manager.
Verdi says Ali’s always had to appease stepmom Lonnie in interviews, but that’s all changed now, adding: “”He got very little, but he didn’t want to get nothing.
Ali Jr adds: “I’ve never been scared [of L onnie]. I had to hold my tongue for a reason.”
Ali Jr likes to pin his suffering on “carrying the name”, as his only natural son – Ali also had seven daughters and adopted another boy Asaad.
His father had numerous affairs, walked away from three marriages, and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in this case, as his son ran away from estranged wife Shaakira, whom he left five years ago in Chicago and moved to Miami.
Like father, like son, the doc explores how Ali Jr hasn’t been there for their two younger children, Ameera and Shakera, although he has reconnected with eldest daughter Saliah.
He is filmed walking upto Shaakira’s family home, but instead of a happy reunion, he returns to the car with divorce papers, and says to camera: “I got served the papers, dissolution of marriage, never liked her anyway.”
The doc questions whether Ali Jr will ever live upto his father’s legacy, as he and Blum struggle to set up their foundation, which isn’t yet a registered non-profit.
Their “five to ten year plan to accomplish everything we want to do”, according to Blum, is shown to be ultimately flawed and futile.
But Ali Jr won’t give in and reckons he’s in the “biggest fight of all” to carry on the so-called legacy and quotes from his famous dad.