Area reacts to the death of Muhammad Ali

As he worked out at Planet Fitness on Saturday afternoon, Woonsocket resident Ernie Pitochelli reflected on the legacy left by boxing great Muhammad Ali.

“It’s sad. It’s extremely sad,” Pitochelli said of the boxer’s death on Friday. “I believe he was the greatest of all time. He backed up everything that he said.”

Pitochelli felt that it was not only Ali’s skill but also his personality that gave the boxer his appeal.

“I liked that he was flamboyant,” he said. “I liked that he had a big mouth, that he backed up what he said. It wasn’t just talk; it was action.”

Local residents reacted with surprise and sadness to the death of Ali, three-time world heavyweight champion. The boxer, who had lived with Parkinson’s disease for many years, died Friday from septic shock in a Phoenix-area hospital. He was 74.

While 46-year-old Woonsocket resident Scott Fugere said he was too young to have watched Ali’s fights. But he noted that the boxer had a great impact on some of the fighters he enjoyed watching when he was into boxing in the late 1980s and early 90s, citing Mike Tyson and George Forman and Evander Holyfield.

Lincoln resident Jen Pooley said the death of the boxing great was “devastating” and echoed one of Ali’s famous quotes: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

“I think it’s incredible, just the way he would move and the things he did,” Pooley commented of Ali’s unique style.

Raymond Castigliego remembered shaking Ali’s hand when the boxer spoke at the University of Rhode Island in 1970.

“His impact was great,” Castigliego said. “He certainly wrote a page of history in boxing.”

Follow Erica Moser on Twitter @Erica_Faith13