During the early hours of Saturday morning, sport lost arguably its greatest star as former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali passed away at the age of 74.

Earlier this week, Ali was admitted to hospital with a respiratory illness - further complicated by Parkinson's disease which he was diagnosed with in 1984 - before a family spokesman announced that the man that had transcended the sport had died in a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.

The boxing world has wasted no time in paying its respects to a man who many considered as their hero, and Sports Mole has rounded up some of those words below.