October 30, 1974 is a historic date in the boxing world: when Muhammad Ali and George Foreman starred in the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight in Kinshasa, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, the result of which went down in history for the drama with which ‘The Greatest’ regained the title he had lost against Joe Frazier
This Friday, the last protagonist of that night, George Foreman, died at the age of 76. In one of his last posts on social media, he recalled that night that marked his career and his life, as in the pain of defeat, he experienced years later a spiritual awakening that even led him to become a Christian minister
“Can you believe it’s 50 years since the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’, the fight against Muhammad Ali? Remembering the best time of my life, celebrate with me with a piece of cake as I relive the ‘Rope-a-Dope’,” Foreman wrote on his X account
The problems involved in making ‘Rumble in the Jungle’
Weeks before the fight, a big gamble by Don King to take a stellar event to the heart of Africa, in one of the most violent dictatorships of the time, that of Mobutu Sese Seko, would have a satellite broadcast to the whole world and was about to be cancelled
Foreman suffered a cut over his right eyebrow in a sparring session with Bill McMurray, but the injury only forced the bout to be postponed, not cancelled
The fight was moved from September 25 to October 30 and would retain its conditions: a $5 million purse for each fighter, a historic figure at the time. Ali came in as the victim, despite being a living legend, he was a veteran trying to regain his belt against an undefeated beast who loved to knock out his opponents
Foreman, for his part, got into trouble with his community for parading around the ring at Mexico 1968 waving a US flag, in the midst of the Black Panthers era, when his fellow athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave a Black Power salute at those same games
At the time of the fight in Zaire, Foreman was 25 years old, already an Olympic gold medallist and had won his 40 professional fights, 37 of them by knockout. Among his victims was former champion Joe Frazier, whom he knocked out in six rounds on January 22, 1973, with a brutal beating in Kingston, Jamaica. Ali would be his third defence of his two WBA and WBC belts
In the betting, Ali started as a clear 7-1 favorite, the lowest odds of his entire career. He had 44 fights, with 31 knockouts and two losses, in his rematch against Joe Frazier and a surprise against Ken Norton. He no longer ‘floated like a butterfly and stung like a wasp’, as he did in his youth and few believed he could beat a brutal champion in his prime
The details of Rumble in the Jungle
On the day of the fight, Ali’s manager Angelo Dundee went with publicist John Goodman to revisit the ring, which was huge, 24 feet, and was also uneven and the ropes completely loose.
“We set to work on the braces, to make them firm,” Goodman explained. “Angelo was afraid that his boxer, with such weight without stretched ropes, would end up in the ring, especially because the ring was very high. That’s when Sadler and Moore, Foreman’s men, appeared. When we asked them for help, they didn’t do it. We kept working on our own”.
When the fight began, Ali tried to dance around Foreman to wear him down and when he finally cornered him, he noticed that George was throwing open punches and that, with a closed guard and a lot of endurance, he was neutralizable. Ali stayed too long waiting against the ropes and since they were not tense, they allowed him to lean back and cushion Foreman‘s punches
“I know what I’m doing, leave it to me,” Ali replied to Dundee’s scolding between each round
In addition, he began to get into Foreman’s head, yelling at him and challenging him: “Is that all you got, George? It didn’t hurt at all! Come on, hit harder!”
In the fifth round, Foreman, already tired, began to walk slowly, while Ali seemed to dance at a different speed. In addition, he hugged him, pushed his arms down and wrestled with him to finish tiring him out
Ali described his strategy as ‘Rope a Dope’: tricking the opponent by waiting against the ropes to rest and counterattack, like a ‘bait for fools’ provoking an intense effort from the opponent. Although Ali took a brutal beating that night, he even said that he felt like he was going to die.
In Foreman’s corner, the manager, Archie Moore was desperate. Ali in the seventh round exchanged a look with Ali, who seemed to say: “Relax, this is over”.
During the break of that round, Ali told his corner: “Now I’m getting tired so I’m going to knock him out.”
In the eighth, Foreman had nothing left and advanced on instinct alone. Ali found a comfortable path then, with several 1-2s to the head and finished with a right hand, sending his opponent to the canvas in a tragic pirouette
Foreman got up on the nine count, but the referee decreed the knockout. At that moment the scorecards gave him the advantage: 68-66, 70-67 and 69-66.
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