The Rumble in the Jungle
The Rumble in The Jungle was a historic
boxing event that took place on October 30, 1974, in the May 20 Stadium in
Kinshasa,
Zaire . It pitted then world Heavyweight champion
George Foreman against former world champion and that time challenger
Muhammad Ali, who was looking to become the second fighter ever, after Floyd Patterson, to recover the world's Heavyweight crown.
The event was Don King's first venture as a professional boxing promoter. He managed to get both Ali and Foreman to sign separate contracts saying they would fight for him if he could get 5 million dollars to be their prize.
Encyclopedia
The Rumble in The Jungle was a historic
boxing event that took place on October 30, 1974, in the May 20 Stadium in
Kinshasa,
Zaire . It pitted then world Heavyweight champion
George Foreman against former world champion and that time challenger
Muhammad Ali, who was looking to become the second fighter ever, after Floyd Patterson, to recover the world's Heavyweight crown.
The event was Don King's first venture as a professional boxing promoter. He managed to get both Ali and Foreman to sign separate contracts saying they would fight for him if he could get 5 million dollars to be their prize. However, King didn't have the money. So he began looking for an outside country to sponsor the event, and Zaire's president
Mobutu Sésé Seko asked for the fight to be held there.
In 1967, Ali had been suspended from the sport of boxing for three and a half years following his refusal to obey the draft and enter the Army. He also was making a return after his loss against Joe Frazier, called the
Fight of the Century, in 1971.
Foreman however was listed as an 8 to 1 favorite by most bookies and oddsmakers.
Foreman and Ali spent much of the summer of 1974 training in Zaire, and getting their bodies used to the weather in the tropical
African country.
The fight was originally set to happen in September, but Foreman was injured and cut during training, pushing the fight back off to October.
With
Hollywood stars and world boxing champions such as Ken Norton and Joe Frazier present, the fight started at 5 am Kinshasa time, to accommodate
American viewers. Bob Sheridan was the commentator, with David Frost occasionally interviewing
Jim Brown and Joe Frazier at ringside.
The Rumble
Ali started the first round attacking Foreman. This was notable, as Ali was famed for his speed and technical skills, while Foreman's raw power was his greatest strength, making such close range fighting a seemingly poor strategy for Ali. However, while this aggressive tactic may have surprised Foreman—and it did allow Ali to hit him solidly a number of times—it failed to significantly hurt him. Before the end of the first round, Foreman caught up to Ali and began landing a few punches of his own. Ali then changed tactics.
Ali had told his trainer,
Angelo Dundee, and his fans, that he had a secret plan for Foreman. Early in the second round, Ali started lying on the ropes and letting Foreman punch him, without any attempt to attack Foreman himself .
As a result Foreman spent all his energy throwing punches—in oven-like heat—that either did not hit Ali or were blocked in a way that would do little damage to Ali. This loss of energy is the key to the "rope-a-dope" technique.
Ali seemed to do little to resist, except to occasionally shoot straight punches to the face of Foreman. When the two fighters were locked in clinches, however, Ali consistently outwrestled Foreman, using tactics such as leaning on Foreman to make Foreman support Ali's weight, or holding down Foreman's head by pushing on his neck, a move which is both disorientating and which can heighten the effect of punches, since it causes a greater snap in the neck when a fighter is hit in the head, and which subsequently increases the chances of a knock out. Ali also constantly taunted Foreman in these clinches, telling Foreman to throw more and harder punches, and an enraged Foreman responded by doing just that.
After several rounds, this caused Foreman to begin tiring. As Foreman's face became increasingly damaged by the occasional hard and fast jabs and crosses that Ali threw, his stamina looked to be draining from him. The effects were increasingly visible as Foreman was staggered by an Ali combination at the start of the fourth round and again several times near the end of the fifth, after Foreman had seemed to dominate much of that round. Although he would keep throwing punches and coming forward, after the fifth round Foreman was very tired and he looked increasingly worn out. Ali continued to taunt him by saying "they told me you could punch George".
Finally in the eighth round, Ali landed the final combination, a left hook that brought Foreman's head up into position so Ali could smash him with a rock-hard right straight to the face. Foreman staggered, then twirled across half the ring before landing on his back. Foreman did get up, but it was after the ten count. Foreman later claimed that the reason he got up late was that he was looking over at his corner, waiting for their signal to tell him when to get up, and that they were slow to do so.
Reactions
Foreman later claimed that Ali's trainers had loosened up the ropes to benefit Ali, but he apologized for those comments after the fight. However, in
Norman Mailer's account of the match , he describes quite explicitly that a member of Ali's camp had loosened the ropes in full view of the audience. This is disputed by several sources.
Foreman and Ali became friends after the fight. Ali had trouble walking to the stage at the Oscars to be part of the group receiving the Oscar for
When We Were Kings, a documentary of the fight in Zaire, due to the fact he has
Parkinson's disease. George Foreman helped him up the steps to receive the Oscar.
Cultural influence
The fight has had a large cultural influence. The events before and during this bout are depicted in the
Academy Award winning
documentary,
When We Were Kings. The biographical movie
Ali depicts this fight as the film's climax. In addition Norman Mailer wrote a book describing the events, and placing them within the context of his views of black American culture.
In addition, the events surrounding the fight, such as its musical acts , added to its cultural impact.
Johnny Wakelin wrote a song about this match called "In Zaire".
The
Fugees also wrote a song about the event with
A Tribe Called Quest and Forte titled "Rumble in the Jungle".
In the 1983 movie
Rocky III, Rocky uses a strategy similar to rope-a-dope in his rematch with Clubber Lang.
In 2002, the fight was ranked seventh in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.
External links
