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N his second reign as heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali made his 11th defence of the title he had famously won against George Foreman in The Rumble In The Jungle. His opponent was a stocky fellow by the name of Leon Spinks, who looked like the product of unprotected sex between an alpaca and a crazy camel with a passion gap. The fight place took place in the wee hours of the 17th of February 1978 (South African time).

The reason I remember this so vividly, even though I was only six at the time, is that it was the very first time I watched television. We didn’t own a TV at home and my dad had woken us up in the middle of the night and driven us in his Toyota Corona (no typo) to the house of a colleague, Mr Nyongwana. And there in the middle of Mr Nyongwana’s living room was this fat box connected to a car battery, beaming black-and-white