Manhattan Street Re-Named 'Muhammad Ali Way' for 1 Week Only

MANHATTAN, NY — New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio has ordered the city's Department of Transportation to re-name West 33rd Street between 7th and 8th avenues "Muhammad Ali Way" for the week of June 7 to June 14.

The new street sign went in Tuesday afternoon across from Ali's photo on the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame.

“Muhammad Ali was a champion, activist and the self-proclaimed Greatest,” de Blasio said at the street-naming ceremony. “Throughout his life he lived up to that title again and again — and today, we are paying tribute to the man in the heart of this City."

"Ali never backed down from a fight in or outside the ring," the mayor said, "and because The World’s Most Famous Arena hosted some of Muhammad Ali’s greatest fights within the ring — including the ‘Fight of the Century’ against Joe Frazier in 1971 — he deserves this naming honor and more.”

Read the full Patch obituary for Muhammad Ali, as fierce a human-rights activist as he was a fighter.