JEFF POWELL’S
GREATEST FIGHTS
IN the latest of a 12-fight series, our Boxing Correspondent recalls an African night that shook the world... IT was voted the greatest sporting event of the 20th century and it established Muhammad Ali as the most recognisable human on Earth. The Rumble in the Jungle was the brainchild of promotional genius Don King, who persuaded Ali and George Foreman to sign $5million contracts bankrolled by Zaire president Mobutu Sese Seko. Heavyweight champion Foreman, 25, was odds-on favourite to crush the man they called The Greatest but who, at 32 and diminished by his three-and-a-half-year ban for refusing to go to war in Vietnam, was perceived as a fading force. Ali went to work on Foreman’s psyche as soon as the circus arrived in Kinshasa, mocking him for his size and intellect. He charmed the locals, too. They chanted, ‘Ali, bomaye’ — ‘Ali, kill him.’ The fight developed into a tactical triumph for Ali, albeit a punishing one which may have contributed to the later onset of Parkinson’s. In a strategy he later entitled ‘Rope-ADope’, and which came as a surprise to everyone including his trainer Angelo Dundee, Ali spent much of his time against the ropes, inviting Foreman to punch himself out. Big George obliged by throwing hundreds of blows in the first seven rounds. Ali evaded and blocked but still had to withstand the brute force of those which got through. ‘They told me you could punch, George,’ he said as Foreman began to flag. ‘Is that all you got, George?’ he rasped as a punch connected with his chin. Throughout, Ali peppered Foreman’s swelling face with break-out combinations and the steamy 4am heat helped. Come the eighth round, come the
coup de grace. A succession of right hooks, a two-fisted burst and then a left hook which straightened up Big George to receive the holy mother of all right-handers. Foreman staggered to his feet at the count of nine but referee Zack Clayton knew he was finished. Sensation. Bedlam in the jungle. Astonishment around the satellite world. Ali was still The Greatest.