[EXCLUSIVE] Tyrese Gibson Tells What Inspired 'Muhammad Ali: The People's Champ' Documentary

Wednesday night, celebrities, T.I., Tyrese, David Banner and Marc Lamont Hill were among many for The Urbanworld Film Festival screening of Muhammad Ali: The People's Champ New York City's Time Square AMC theatre, which later premiered on BET that night (Sept. 23).

The film's directors Clarence "Coodie" Simmons and Chike Ozah  created a documentary to celebrate the life of Boxing's great heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali's political involvement during the Civil Right's movement, being stripped of his titles when he refused to fight in the Vietnam War before being vindicated by the Supreme Court and dealing with Parkinson disease.

Yes, we've seen many documentaries, and even 2001's Ali movie starring Will Smith, but the directors of the film thought it was necessary to produce this documentary strictly for the boxer's enjoyment after being inspired by Tyrese's personal encounter with 73-year-old. Simmons told the crowd that they weren't producing the film just for fans, but for him, "We gonna edit this for MO to watch!"

To give the audience the same moving and inspiring feeling that they've shared when hearing the story, The Black Rose singer what exactly moved them after his encounter with the legendary boxer.

While in Arizona, the 36-year-old told the cast and packed theatre he found out that Ali lived not too far and decided to give him a visit. He said, once in the house he was shocked at what he witnessed and was nearly brought to tears, "I see all these awards, all these posters, and all these stuff and I finally get to Mahammad Ali and he's sitting in his chair kind of hunched over. Mahammad Ali was sitting in his living room looking at a documentary of Mahammad Ali," he said in disbelief as the crowd burst out into laughter.

Still laughing from his experience, "I done seen a lot of sh*t, I'm just like sitting down, I'm trying to process what's happening. Now he greeted me, he was really nice, really cool, but then he went back to watching himself because the documentary wasn't over." He continued, "So, I started to ask the caretaker some questions on the low, 'what's going on? Is this normal, dos he normally look at documentaries of himself?'"

"And then she said, 'Mahmamad Ali' -I almost cried when she dropped this on me- refused to accept his condition. He refused to accept of him struggling or dealing with this Parkinson's disease, so what he does on the days he may feel weak or discouraged, deals with in-and-out depression, he pulls from the strength of who he is.'"

Check out the trailer here: