Muhammad Ali is not fighting for his life as a recent newspaper report suggests, his marketing agent told the British Broadcasting Company.
A report in the London Evening Standard attributed a quote to an anonymous family friend saying that Ali, who has battled Parkinson's for years, "may only have months to live."
But Harlan Werner, Ali's marketing agent, said his client is healthy. According to the BBC's Web site on Friday, Werner told BBC Sport: "Muhammad is fine and he has numerous appearances lined up.
"He had surgery on his back and was in therapy for that, but that had nothing to do with Parkinson's. He is fine."
The former three-time world heavyweight champion, 63, is scheduled to be honored at a White House ceremony Nov. 9. He is one of three former athletes to be awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Ali also is scheduled to be at the grand opening of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 19.
On Thursday, Ali's office began responding to recent published reports concerning his health.
Werner said: "It is disrespectful to Muhammad to suggest that he would not tell the truth about his health. Of all the people in the public eye, Muhammad Ali has always told the truth."
According to the Parkinson Disease Foundation's Web site, the affliction occurs when certain brain cells malfunction and die. The afflicted have trouble receiving and executing messages from the brain telling the body how to initiate and control movement. Symptoms continue and worsen over time. There is no known cause.
In October, the Los Angeles Times quoted Ali's boxing daughter Laila bemoaning Parkinson's toll on her father.
"I feel like the disease is progressing," she said. "Different things start happening as you get older. I have noticed a change in him, something that goes along with Parkinson's."
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