ALI V GEORGE FOREMAN

ALI took part in some of the biggest fights in boxing history, but none proved more iconic than his mighty bout with Foreman in the dark heart of Africa: the legendary Rumble In The Jungle.

Ali’s mission to win back the world heavyweight title seven years after being banned from boxing for refusing the Vietnam draft would have been a big story where ever it happened to be staged.

Thanks to the vision of an audacious new promoter called Don King, it was set for Kinshasa in what was then known as Zaire, whose despotic president Mobutu Sese Seko stumped up the cash in a bid for international recognition.

Ali had returned from suspension and slowly built himself back into title contention, his decision win over Frazier in January 1974 finally earning him a shot at reigning champion Foreman.

Like Sonny Liston before him, Foreman was a surly, big-punching favourite who had battered Frazier in two rounds to take his titles the previous year, and was seen to have too much heavy weaponry for a rusty Ali to repel.

During the fight build-up, Ali courted the world’s media and earned the adoration of the Zairean people, in contrast to Foreman, whom it appeared to wish he was anywhere else but Kinshasa.

Even an enforced one-month delay due to a cut eye did nothing to quench Ali’s enthusiasm, and by the time the pair stepped in the ring in October 1974 he had made even his harshest critics believe another miracle may just be possible.

Expected to try to dance away from Foreman’s big shots as he had against the likes of Liston and Cleveland Williams before him, Ali did precisely the opposite.

For round after round, Ali covered up in the ropes - a tactic soon to be immortalised as ‘ Rope-a-dope’ - allowing Foreman to pummel away, gradually using up his reserves of energy in the process.

Ali would taunt Foreman and flick out fast jabs which noticeably puffed up Foreman’s face. Foreman’s angry responses only served to sap him more. By round eight, the fight began to take an extraordinary shift in momentum.

Midway through the eighth, Ali pounced, landing a pair of right hooks followed by a combination of shots that sent Foreman spiralling to the canvas, where he failed to beat the count.

Ali would go on to have more brutal fights and retain his title until 1978, when he was shocked by a young Leon Spinks. Foreman would not win back the title until 16 years later when, astonishingly, at the age of 45, he knocked out Michael Moorer.

But for all their epics before or since, nothing quite came close to matching the story of the Rumble In The Jungle, when the whole world watched transfixed as the most captivating chapter in Ali’s astonishing career unfolded before them.