Muhammad Ali, the first man to regain the world title three times, was yesterday selected by the influential American sports magazine Sports Illustrated as their athlete of the century.

Ali, who will be 58 in January and is suffering from Parkinson's disease, was dispossessed of his crown when, having changed his name from Cassius Clay, he refused to serve in the American Army in the Vietnam War in 1967.

However, Ali reclaimed the title when he beat George Foreman in the so called Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire in 1974, which was immortalised in the award winning film When We Were Kings. Ali defied the critics who thought he was a shot fighter by taking an unbelievable pounding from Foreman before stopping the champion in the eighth round.

Leon Spinks beat Ali for the title over 15 rounds in February 1978 only for Ali to take it back in brutal fashion seven months later - Spinks ended up working as a barman in Detroit.

Sadly for those who remembered him in his prime Ali fought two more fights after that losing to Larry Holmes, who admitted that it was the most miserable fight of his career destroying the man he idolised, and Canadian Trevor Berbick.

Ali, whose exploit at holding the title three times was repeated by Evander Holyfield in 1996, retired in 1981 with a record of 56 wins, 37 knock-outs, and five defeats. Sports Illustrated, however, showed its parochialism by selecting the United States ice hockey team's 1980 Winter Olympics triumph over the then Soviet Union as its sporting moment of the century.

It beat Ali's defeat of Sonny Liston for his first heavyweight title in 1964, Bobby Thompson's home run for the New York Yankees which gave them the 1951 World Series title and Mark McGwire's record 62nd home run last season.