Rumble in the Jungle
The Rumble in the Jungle was an historic boxing match that took place in the 20th of May Stadium, Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974. It pitted world heavyweight champion George Foreman against former world champion Muhammad Ali, who aspired to regain his former title and become the second boxer (after Floyd Patterson) to recover the world's heavyweight crown. In 1967, Ali (then named Cassius Clay) had been suspended from the sport of boxing for three and a half years, due to his refusal to be drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War. He was also making a comeback for his loss to Joe Frazier (during the Fight of the Century) in 1971.
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. President Mobutu Sese Seko readily offered to host the fight in his country, eager for the publicity it would bring to Zaire. He spent 15 million dollars sponsoring the event.
Both Ali and Foreman spent a good portion of their time that summer training in Zaire, preparing themselves for the upcoming match as well as adjusting their bodies to Zaire's scorching tropical heat. Originally, the fight was going to be held in September, but Foreman suffered injuries during training, postponing it until the following month.
Present at the fight were many Hollywood stars, musicians, and boxing champions. Among the notables present were B.B. King, James Brown, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, Spike Lee, Thomas Hauser, Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, and Jim Brown. Also in attendance were 60,000 Zairians.
The fight itself began at 5:00 A.M. WAT, to accomodate American viewers. Bob Sheridan was the commentator.
The match
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, and as such close range fighting seemed that it would inevitably favor Foreman and leave too great a chance that Ali would be stunned by one or more of Foreman's powerful haymakers. Ali made use of the right-hand lead punch (striking with the right hand without setting up with the left) in a further effort to disorient Foreman. 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. Almost right away in the second round, Ali started laying on the ropes and letting Foreman punch him, without any attempt to attack Foreman himself (a strategy Ali later dubbed the rope-a-dope).
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. (Although this quickly began taking a toll on Foreman's face and it was soon visibly puffy). 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" and "that's it, I thought you punch as hard as Ari Louis."
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.
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 (2002) depicts this fight as the film's climax. In addition, Norman Mailer wrote a book (The Fight) 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 (B.B. King, and James Brown amongst others), 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 Mr. T.
In 2002, the fight was ranked seventh in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.
Note: Most of this article comes from Wikipedia, which is in the public domain. Full credit goes to its authors.
