John Cena
John Cena will be awarded the Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Legacy Award for his charitable work in December. In this picture, Cena attends the red carpet for 'Bumblebee' at Comic-Con International 2018 in San Diego, California, July 20, 2018. Matthew Simmons/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

Sports Illustrated announced Thursday that World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) superstar John Cena will receive the prestigious Muhammad Ali Legacy Award to be presented at the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year show on Dec. 11 at the Beverley Hills Hilton in Los Angeles.

The 16-time WWE champion is receiving the award for his philanthropy work outside the ring. He has made the Make-A-Wish Foundation the center of his charity work and has granted over 600 wishes to terminally ill children – more than any other person connected with the foundation.

He is also a major advocate for breast cancer awareness and its importance for early detection. Sports Illustrated will highlight all of Cena’s charitable efforts with a feature story in its Dec. 17 Sports Person of the Year issue.

“I am truly thrilled to receive Sports Illustrated’s Muhammad Ali Legacy Award,” Cena said, as quoted on Sports Illustrated. “Ali’s commitment to helping others, his dedication to his sport and his generous spirit are incomparable and he was a role model to us all. To be linked with him in any way is an honor that means so much to me.”

Sports Illustrated executive editor Stephen Cannella, who along with Lonnie Ali, the widow of the legendary boxer, selects the most deserving candidate for the award, had nothing but praise for the WWE superstar.

“From his unparalleled work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to his support for a wide range of causes ranging from activism for military families to cancer research, John has made personal outreach and generosity of time and spirit his calling cards,” Cannella said. “He might just be the most charitable person in sports, and his dedication to philanthropy richly reflects the spirit of the Ali Legacy Award.”

The Sports Illustrated Legacy Award was born in 2008 when Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics became the first recipient of the award. The publication renamed the award after Ali in 2015 in recognition of his decades as a boxing legend, humanitarian and activist.

The recipient of the award in 2017 was controversial former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was released by his team, the San Francisco 49ers, earlier this year. He was one of the first players to start kneeling during the national anthem before games to protest racial injustice.

The other sportspersons to receive the prestigious award include golf legend Jack Nicklaus, former NFL player Jim Brown and basketball legends Bill Russell, Magic Johnson and Karim Abdul-Jabbar.

Apart from the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, the other awards that will be presented on the night in Los Angeles include Sportsperson of the Year, SI Kids’ SportsKid of the Year and three separate awards given to athletes who inspired and surprised the sports world in 2018.

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