Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was laid to rest Friday in his hometown cemetery in Louisville — his life honored in moving eulogies by stars, athletes, world leaders and tearful kin.

“His jabs knocked some sense into us, yes they did,” President Obama said in a statement read aloud before some 15,000 mourners gathered at a multi-faith memorial service.

“Fly, butterfly, fly,” urged his daughter, Rasheda — one of Ali’s nine children, all in attendance.

Former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Orrin Hatch and comedian Billy Crystal — all of whom knew him personally — spoke stirringly to an audience that included former fellow champions Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, who had served as pallbearers.

Actor Will Smith, whose portrayal of Ali earned him an Oscar nomination, also helped carry The Greatest’s cherry-wood casket, which was draped with an Islamic tapestry.

Director Spike Lee, former NFL great Jim Brown, Arnold Schwarzenegger, soccer star David Beckham, Whoopie Goldberg and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also were among the memorial audience.

“He was funny, he was beautiful and he was the most perfect athlete you ever saw and those were his own words,” eulogized Crystal, whose comic impressions of The Champ, back in the mid-70s, sparked a decades-long friendship.

“Before James Brown said, ‘I’m black and I’m proud,’ Muhammad Ali said, ‘I’m black and I’m pretty,’ ” Louisville-based pastor Kevin Cosby told the crowd in a sports arena.

“He dared to affirm the power and capacity of Africa-Americans,” Cosby said.

Then there was the eloquent, one-word eulogy, chanted by the estimated 100,000 people who thronged his 16-mile funeral cortege, many throwing flowers and reaching for his hearse as it passed his small, pink-painted childhood Kentucky home:

“Ali!”
“Ali!”
“Ali!”

It was a cry that also broke out, spontaneously and joyously, in the three-hour memorial service.

There, Ali was remembered for his prowess, compassion, humor and religious and moral conviction.

“He was willing to sacrifice all he had to save his soul,” said his widow, Lonnie, referring to his decision, at age 25, not to fight in the Vietnam War.

The decision not to fight, but not to run either, would cost him his heavyweight title and get him barred from the boxing ring for three years, at the height of his career.

The magnetic, controversial athlete died last Friday at 74, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

“For once he will not get up. Not this time,” eulogized sportscaster Bryant Gumbel.