PHOTOS: Unseen pictures of Muhammad Ali's visit to Hampshire

But in October 1971 that is exactly what happened in Hampshire.

Bemused shoppers looked on in astonishment as the former world heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, created a “rumble” in the aisles as he made an appearance at the Fine Fare Supermarket in Hedge End.

It was undoubtedly a surprising sight and not a little incongruous to see a legend of Ali’s stature up close and personal and it's pretty safe to say that since that day no one with a bigger name than Muhammed Ali has been spotted locally.

As we mourn the loss of the man hailed as “The Greatest”, who is being laid to rest on Friday at a funeral service in his home town of Louisville, Kentucky, Hampshire Heritage looks back four-and-a-half decades ago when he was at the height of his fame, somebody special, when, quite simply, there was nobody else like the man who was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr in Louisville on January 17, 1942.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s the nation would regularly get up in the middle of the night to tune in televisions or their radio sets to listen to the broadcasts of his fights but now here he was in the flesh, the great sporting hero, standing around chatting to people in a Hedge End supermarket.

He was handsome, his face seemed unblemished by the battles in the ring, he was funny and there was that special, undefinable charisma that stamps some people as truly remarkable.

Renowned for his famed speed in the ring and the fast footwork of the “Ali shuffle”, he was the boxer who “floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee”.

He had been brought to this country by the makers of Ovaltine to promote the malted milk drink and that is how the man crowned the Sportsman of the Century came to be in Hedge End.

Known as much for his beguiling charm, outrageous boasting and poems as his powerful fists, Ali worked the crowd, treating everyone to a word or a playful punch and even had time to pay special attention to Mandy Tourle, who was then aged just 12 months old.

The boxer had arrived in Southampton by train on Thursday October 15, 1971 and was then whisked off to the Fine Fare store where he spent about half-an-hour autographing tins of Ovaltine.

Later chatting at the old Polygon Hotel, then the most prestigious in Southampton but now demolished to make way for a new development of flats, the boxer was happy to hold court surrounded by scores of media, journalists and TV cameramen.

Somehow one of Ali’s fans, Beda Graham with his wife, Yvonne and their five children, from Townhill Park in Southampton appeared by the side of the great man.

Turning to the youngsters, Ali quipped with his usual amicable “tact”: “How come you are so pretty when your dad looks like that!”

Settling back in his chair the boxer said that he had just returned from Nigeria where he also helped advertise Ovaltine.

“This is the first thing I have ever promoted,” he told the gathered pressmen. “I don’t promote alcohol, cigarettes or beer –- nor do I make any movies.

“I have turned down offers of 10 million dollars to advertise things I do not believe in.”

The benefits of bedtime drinks were not the only subject Ali, never at a loss for words, talked about and as usual he took the chance to snipe at his arch-rival Joe Frazier, then the world heavyweight champion.

“I am going to retire after I meet Joe Frazier,” said Ali.

“I am going to whup him like I did the first time.

"It was the judge who gave him the fight.”

Ali, who was stripped of his world title for refusing to do National Service in the United States during the Vietnam War, was beaten by Frazier in his attempt to win back the title.

Then for a brief few minutes a serious side to Ali came to the surface. “I represent freedom, justice and equality for the black people of the world,” said the boxer who first put on a pair gloves at the age of 12.

In that short time there was a glimpse of his deeply-held convictions and in his later days Ali discovered an interest in world politics as he battled to keep Parkinson’s disease at bay.

There was one other time when Muhammad Ali was in Hampshire and surprised the regulars when he stopped at the New Inn at Heckfield, near Basingstoke in August 1977.

Ali was on his way to have dinner with the producer of the film, The Greatest, which told the boxer’s life story.

But because he was early he thought he would stop at a pub.

He signed many autographs during his 40-minute visit but Ali, as usual, did not touch a drink. He preferred to joke and spar with the landlord, Basil Francis, and the locals in the bar.

The record books will show that Muhammad Ali’s professional boxing career lasted 21 years, during which he won 56 fights and scored 37 knock-outs out of a total of 61 bouts.

But that is only half of the remarkable story that is Muhammad Ali as it wasn’t just his boxing prowess that earned him worldwide respect and admiration.

Ali harnessed his fame in the ring to champion causes outside of the ring, such as racial equality for black Americans at the time.