Muhammad Ali paid heartfelt tribute and Ashes cricketers donned black armbands Friday as the sports world united in respect and mourning after the death of Nelson Mandela.
Heavyweight boxing legend Ali said Mandela "taught us forgiveness on a grand scale" as athletes and officials from Australia to Brazil expressed their sadness.
FIFA chief Sepp Blatter called Mandela "one of the greatest humanists of our time" and Tiger Woods said he had been inspired by South Africa's anti-apartheid hero.
Australia and England held a minute's silence before play in the second Ashes cricket Test in Adelaide, a scene replicated by New Zealand and West Indies in Dunedin.
Ali, in a statement from the Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, paid tribute to South Africa's first black president, who led the country peacefully out of apartheid rule after spending nearly three decades in prison.
"He made us realise, we are our brother's keeper and that our brothers come in all colours," said Ali, a towering figure in America's civil rights movement.
"What I will remember most about Mr. Mandela is that he was a man whose heart, soul and spirit could not be contained or restrained by racial and economic injustices, metal bars or the burden of hate and revenge.
"He taught us forgiveness on a grand scale."
Blatter, who is attending the 2014 World Cup draw in Brazil, said he and Mandela had "shared an unwavering belief in the extraordinary power of football (and sport generally) to unite people in peace and friendship".
