'You are my brother!' The dramatic moment Muhammad Ali talked a suicidal man out of jumping to his death from a ninth-floor window

  • Muhammad Ali heard a man was threatening suicide & rushed to the scene
  • The man was threatening to jump from a ninth-floor window in Los Angeles
  • Ali went upstairs and wept as he told him: 'You're my brother. I love you'
  • Champion boxer persuaded him to come down and took him to hospital
  • Ali vowed to stay with the man and convince him he 'was not a nobody'
  • Do you know the man Ali saved? Email ollie.gillman@dailymail.com

By Ollie Gillman For Dailymail.com

Published: 20:47 EST, 4 June 2016 | Updated: 10:14 EST, 5 June 2016

This is the dramatic moment Muhammad Ali saved a suicidal man who was threatening to jump out of a ninth-floor window in Los Angeles in 1981.

Ali heard the man was sitting on a ledge and preparing to jump to his death so he sped towards the scene, driving the wrong way down roads with his lights flashing as he raced to make it there in time.

The champion boxer ignored the crowds calling out his name as he headed upstairs, before he was seen poking his head out of a window further along the building as he tried to convince the man that his life was worth living.

This is the dramatic moment Muhammad Ali saved a suicidal man who was threatening to jump out of a ninth-floor building in Los Angeles in 1981. Ali (right) is seen leaning out of a window pleading with the man 

This is the dramatic moment Muhammad Ali saved a suicidal man who was threatening to jump out of a ninth-floor building in Los Angeles in 1981. Ali (right) is seen leaning out of a window pleading with the man 

This is the dramatic moment Muhammad Ali saved a suicidal man who was threatening to jump out of a ninth-floor building in Los Angeles in 1981
Ali heard the man was sitting on a ledge and preparing to jump to his death so he sped towards the scene, going the wrong way down roads with his lights flashing as he raced to make it there in time

Pictured left, the man sits on a window ledge as Ali, right, tries to persuade him to come down

Ali (pictured helping the man down) leaned out of the window and told the man: 'You're my brother. I love you'

Ali (pictured helping the man down) leaned out of the window and told the man: 'You're my brother. I love you'

Ali, who died on Friday evening aged 74, leaned out of the window and told the man: 'You're my brother. I love you and I wouldn't lie to you. You got to listen. I want you to come home with me, meet some friends of mine.'

During the tense 20 minutes, the 21-year-old man, from Michigan, was captured by CBS News telling Ali that no one loved him. 

'Why do you worry about me? I'm a nobody,' the man told the three-time heavyweight champion of the world.

'I told him he wasn't a nobody,' Ali later told the Reading Eagle.  

'He saw me weeping and he couldn't believe I was really doing that, that I cared that much about him.'

Ali told the man: 'If you jump, you're going to Hell because there's no way to repent.'

After miraculously talking the man down, Ali - dressed in a suit and tie - drove him to a police station in his Rolls-Royce and went with him to a psychiatric hospital

After miraculously talking the man down, Ali - dressed in a suit and tie - drove him to a police station in his Rolls-Royce and went with him to a psychiatric hospital

Ali (pictured in the 1980s) died on Friday evening aged 74 after a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease

Ali (pictured in the 1980s) died on Friday evening aged 74 after a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease

After miraculously talking the man down, Ali - dressed in a suit and tie - drove him to a police station in his Rolls-Royce and went with him to a psychiatric hospital.

The gathered crowd chanted 'USA! Digs Ali' as he left the scene with the man he had saved. 

'I'm going to help him go to school and find a job, buy him some clothes,' Ali said.

'I'm going to go home with him to meet his mother and father. They called him a nobody, so I'm going home with him. I'll walk the streets with him and they'll see he's big. 

'Everyday I'm going to visit him in the hospital. I told him I'd stay close to him.'

Ali died at a hospital outside Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, days after he was taken there with difficulty breathing.

The father of nine married four times and will be remembered for his outstanding victories over Sonny Liston, George Foreman, Joe Frazier and Leon Spinks, as well as his gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

He was also known for his trash-talking, coming up with phrases such as 'float like a butterfly, sting like a bee'.

President Barack Obama was among those who paid tribute to the boxer, thanking him for 'gracing our time'. 

Do you know the man Ali saved? Email ollie.gillman@dailymail.com

For confidential support in the U.S., call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.

For confidential support in the UK call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or see www.samaritans.org. 

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