Muhammad Ali is the great-great-great grandson of former slave Archer Alexander

Muhammad Ali is the great-great-great grandson of former slave Archer Alexander

Muhammad Ali, the late professional boxer and activist's DNA, has been linked with a heroic slave Archer Alexander.

According to Savannah Now, the former boxing heavyweight champion had an interest in knowing his ancestors and was once featured in a New York Times 1980 story chronicling his maternal lineage.

In that story, he said, “Someday I’d like to dig up everything that can be found about all the people I’m descended from.”

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But one of family members have unraveled the truth about Ali's ancestral background and it is a very important one.

According to the Washington Post, Ali's DNA evidence shows he was the great-great-great grandson of Archer Alexander, who became a hero when he escaped from slavery and warned Union troops of a Confederate trap.

The link comes from Ali's father Cassius Clay, Sr., whose mother was Alexander's great-granddaughter.

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Alexander who was born into slavery, made a daring escape and later helped his wife and children escape as well.

Ali's third cousin, Keith Winstead who is reportedly a retired genealogist, used an at-home DNA kit to discovered the link.

“The beautiful thing about Ali is that he acted all along as if he were royalty, that he had a claim to greatness,” said Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life, a biography chronicling the life of the heavyweight champ.

“He would have loved knowing he was connected to someone like that,” said Ali's daughter, Maryum.

He was ahead of people in understanding that there was a connection that went back through slavery to the kings and queens in Africa.”

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that celebrated boxer Muhammad Ali's former Los Angeles home valued at $17million is up for sale.

The Italian Renaissance mansion has hosted celebrities from Sylvester Stallone to former US president Barrack Obama and his wife Michelle, Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood.

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Source: Legit.ng

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