Los Angeles , California ( CNN ) -- The ring awarded to Muhammad Ali when he became boxing 's first three-time heavyweight champion has been returned to Ali 's former wife six years after she loaned it to a friend who was dying of cancer , her lawyer said . `` It 's been a long road , '' said Veronica Porsche , who was married to Ali for 10 years . That road ended Monday when a federal judge ruled against the friend 's widow , who claimed it was a gift , not a loan , attorney Darren Enenstein said . Collector Keya Morgan , who is an Ali family friend , said the gold and diamond ring is the `` holy grail '' of boxing memorabilia . Ali got it after the September 1978 decision against Leon Spinks that made him a three-time champ , Morgan said . Porsche , who is a clinical psychologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles , loaned it to Dr. William Young in summer 2004 after she learned he was suffering from cancer . Young had treated her husband , who had died from leukemia earlier that year , she said . `` He had always been so supportive of us . '' `` It was a natural thing , '' she said , because Young was a fan of her former husband . Porsche thought the ring would give the doctor hope and inspiration in his battle with cancer , she said . When Young died in November 2004 , he still had the ring , she said . `` I did n't want to ask his widow immediately , so I waited a month or so and then I could n't find her , '' Porsche said . `` She had left town . '' After six years of trying to find the ring , a private investigator located Phyllis Young in Phoenix , Arizona , and began a legal battle that ended this week , Enenstein said . When Porsche filed a lawsuit against the widow seeking the ring , Young counter-sued claiming it was given to her husband by Ali as a gift . `` The ring was my husband 's to keep and an assurance of the personal bond between them , my husband and Muhammad Ali , '' Young said in her suit . While the doctor had treated the boxer once or twice , they were not close friends , Porsche said . Muhammad Ali signed a sworn statement to help his former wife 's legal battle for the return of the ring , Enenstein said . It was handed over to Porsche in a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday after U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson threw out the widow 's counterclaim , he said . The ring will eventually go to Laila Ali , the 32-year-old daughter of Porsche from her marriage with Ali , she said . The couple 's other daughter , Hana , already has the ring the boxer was given when he became a two-time heavyweight champ .
Ali 's former wife loaned the ring to a friend dying of cancer in 2004 . The ring disappeared for six years after the friend 's death . A federal judge ordered the widow to return the ring Monday .