Even now, it's still good to see Ali

The Greatest sat quietly in the front row at the worship center. It was Friday afternoon in Clearwater and it was a funeral for a friend.

Angelo Dundee, a sweet boxing icon who trained world champions, was being remembered. In all the words spoken by eulogists, loving words, Dundee's name was linked, as it always will be, to the man in the front row.

Muhammad Ali was ushered into the Countryside Christian Center by a side door. He sat there like a ghost.

Joe Frazier, who once pummeled Ali, and was pummeled right back, is gone. And now so is Angie Dundee, who was in Ali's corner all those years. Dundee stood by his man. And Ali stood by Angelo.

There isn't a lot of loyalty like that left in boxing, or anywhere else. There isn't a lot of Ali's kind of boxing either – the kind of fights that make the world stand still.

People get sad seeing Muhammad Ali, but they want to see him anyway. It was like that Friday. Before and after the service, people made their way to his seat. Ali's wife, Lonnie, sat beside him. People shook Ali's hand. A few people tried to snap photos with their phones. Mostly, people just wanted to stand near the champ, be near him.

Muhammad Ali turned 70 last month. Angelo Dundee was at the party in Louisville. Ali doesn't speak. He has been that ravaged by Parkinson's syndrome – and surely by that battering in the ring. Frazier is gone. Dundee is gone. A golden era is fading.

There has never been anyone like Ali in sports history, not Babe Ruth, not Michael Jordan, not anyone with Ali's reach. He is a world figure. Seeing him is always a big deal, always.

I look at Ali and I get sad – but he's still Ali.

I think about 41 years ago, and Ali was fighting Frazier at the Garden, and it was only the biggest thing ever. It wasn't on TV, and I had to go to bed before the fight began, but I listened to reports from the radio under my pillow, and when the last round was done, and the decision was in, the announcer began, "Joe Frazier …" I cried myself to sleep.

I remember being in the Nassau Coliseum, watching the closed-circuit feed from Zaire on big screens … and Ali chopped down George Foreman and he was king of the world again.

And, now, he sat quietly while his friend Dundee was remembered.

You don't stop loving who you love, even when they're not there anymore.

At the service Friday, Hall of Fame referee and Tampa Bay resident Brian Garry was talking about the Ali he knows. Garry was good friends with Angelo Dundee. Garry, who is Ali's age, was talking about when he accompanied Ali, Dundee and the entourage to China. Coming back, they were outside at the airport in San Francisco when Ali saw a panhandler. Ali walked over and handed the man a $20 bill.

Garry said, "I looked up at him – Ali's a big man, you look up at him – and I asked, 'Champ, why'd you do that? That guy was just hustling you.' Ali just looks at me and says, 'He looked like he needed it.'"

You love who you love.

It's always good to see Muhammad Ali.