Muhammad Ali: Archive footage shows The Greatest playfighting with a little boy

Muhammad Ali is once again trending on social media after a clip of him play fighting with a small child resurfaced.

For those that don’t know the story, one has to go back to Ali’s visit to India in 1980.

‘The Greatest’ reportedly participated in exhibition boxing matches in cities such as Delhi, Bombay, and Chennai at the behest of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

And now archive footage has re-emerged of Ali engaging in a mock fight with a toddler during his tour of the country.

In it, the little boy is hilariously dwarfed by the 6ft 3in Ali but does manage to land some good shots from close range – with a little help from his opponent of course.

Ali can be seen bending down at the waist, before encouraging the boy to hit him several times.

The cheeky youngster is only too happy to oblige, smacking Ali bang in the face.

Ali then shakes his head with a smile before urging him on again.

Check out the video below…

The best boxing match I have witnessed #MuhammadAlipic.twitter.com/etQXR7qVJ1

Those standing ringside can be heard watching on in amusement as Ali dramatically falls to the canvas in mock agony after pretending to be hurt from a glancing blow.

Harsh Goenka, the person who shared the video on Twitter, captioned it: “The best boxing match I have witnessed.”

It has amassed 698,000 views, 2623 likes and 379 retweets at the time of writing.

The magical moment caught the attention of boxing fans on social media, who were quick to show their appreciation for the consensus greatest of all time.

One fan wrote: “Not only the GOAT but also a great human being.”

While another added: “True legend!”

And a third said: “That’s why he is the greatest.”

Back in 2019, Ali’s brother Rahman Ali spoke about his