Muhammad Ali 1942 - 2016: The boxing world pays tribute

The three-time world heavyweight champion, who had battled Parkinson's disease for 32 years, was admitted to hospital with a respiratory condition earlier in the week.

His family's spokesman Bob Gunnell confirmed Ali's death in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday evening local time.

Mo Fiaz, head coach at Wellington Boxing Academy, said everyone looked up to the icon, who was one of the world's best-known sportsmen.

He said: "He was the main man.

"Everybody looked up to him, everyone knew him.

"His pictures are all over our walls at the academy. I am very very shocked, absolutely gutted.

"I think he changed the face of boxing, it was the way he talked, the way he spoke.

"Before him boxing was boring. He changed that all around and got so many more people interested."

Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay, won 56 of his 61 fights when he retired in 1981.

His professional career began after he won light-heavyweight gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

He was the first boxer to capture a world heavyweight title on three separate occasions and was also a civil rights campaigner and poet.

He was well known for declaring himself the greatest, as well as his controversial move to oppose the US war in Vietnam which saw him stripped of his world title and boxing licence.

Tristan Davies, head coach at Donnington Boxing Club in Telford, said: "We always have his photographs and phrases up around the academy of what he used to say.

"All the kids knew him, and I've seen this morning all over social media newsfeeds that the children are putting up his phrases and saying why they train.

"He clearly has a big effect on people, you don't realise until things like this.

"I saw the news that he was in hospital and he has been fighting Parkinson's for so long.

"All the children will be talking about it, they all look up to him and they will all probably be thinking about it today."