50 Years of the "Rumble in the Jungle": Little Known Facts, Implications
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 30 Oct 2024
The basic facts of the fight known as the Rumble in the Jungle are:
-It was held in Kinshasa, Zaire on October 30, 1974;
-It was for the undisputed world heavyweight championship; George Foreman's third defense of the crown he won by 2nd round TKO of Joe Frazier the year before;
-It was promoted by Don King; and,
- It was won by Muhammad Ali via 8th round knockout making him the first man to regain the heavyweight championship.
But there was more than what are known to the casual boxing fans and students of history.
The fight was held in a makeshift outdoor arena inside the 20th of May stadium where temperature could soar above 100 degrees Fahrenheit which was even accentuated by the presence of 60,000 live viewers. This only proved the resilience and endurance of Ali, a virtual fight anywhere and in any condition fighter in an era of air-conditioned or heater-fitted arena.
Don King promised a fight purse of $5 million each for Foreman and Ali - a huge amount at that time. But he didn't have the money hence he persuaded then Zaire president Mobuto Sese Seko through his American adviser Fred Weymar for sponsorship to hold the fight in the African nation - the first heavyweight championship bout to be held in the continent. Seko agreed as he believed the event would improve the image of Zaire in the eyes of the international community and bring in more foreign investments.
Although King is most closely associated with the fight, Hemdale and Video Techniques Inc., with whom King was a director, were the bout's official co-promoters.
Prior to the fight, Foreman prepared by defending his title in January against top contender Ken Norton, the only other man besides Joe Frazier to beat Ali. Foreman knocked out Norton in the second round reinforcing his image as an indestructible force in the heavyweights. Ali meanwhile prepared with a revenge unanimous decision over ex titlist Joe Frazier also in January for the NABO heavyweight championship.
By 1974, Ali's own image as draft dodger seven years before had started to lose its stigma as the US had started a policy of disengagement from active direct participation in the Vietnam War which had grown very unpopular in the States. In 1975, forces of North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and succeeded in forcing the unification of the country. It was said that his conquest of Foreman fully restored Ali's image in the eyes of many Americans.
According to Wiki-
"Foreman and Ali spent much of the middle of 1974 training in Zaire, getting acclimated to its tropical African climate. The fight was originally set to happen on September 25 (September 24 in the United States due to the difference in time zones). However, eight days prior, Foreman was cut above his right eye by an accidental elbow thrown by his sparring partner Bill McMurray in a sparring session. Foreman's cut required 11 stitches, and the date of the fight was pushed back five weeks to October 30."
The rope a dope used by Ali to tire and frustrate Foreman eventually setting Big George up for the 8th round knockout was an adaptation of former light heavyweight champion Archie Moore's tactic he called turtle defense. Ironically, Moore was Foreman's trainer. Archie Moore had also served as Ali's trainer in his early years but he left him because Moore wanted to change his style. Never did Ali then thought that Moore's turtle defense would serve him in good stead versus Foreman years later.
Ali improved on Moore's original strategy by putting on his own techniques out of his own experience in using his physicality and physical advantages against past aggressive foes including Frazier and Norton in successful rematches like armlocking their heads and pressing his full weight on their bodies in clinches.
Ali was inspired to call the technique rope a dope by his trainer Angelo Dundee who at one sparring session chided him for "fighting like dope" by allowing his sparmate to hit him while laying along the ropes.
Ali started with his patented float like a butterfly sting like a bee in the first round with little impact on Foreman.
Per Wiki-
"As the second round commenced, Ali began to lean on the ropes and cover up, letting Foreman punch him on the arms and body. As a result, Foreman spent his energy throwing punches (without earning points) that either did not hit Ali or were deflected in a way that made Foreman hitting Ali's head difficult, while sapping Foreman's strength due to the large number of punches he threw. This loss of energy was key to Ali's rope-a-dope tactic.
Meanwhile, Ali took every opportunity to shoot straight punches to Foreman's face which was soon visibly puffy. When the two fighters were locked in clinches, Ali consistently out-wrestled Foreman, using tactics such as leaning on Foreman to make Foreman support Ali's weight, and holding down Foreman's head by pushing on his neck. He constantly taunted Foreman in these clinches, telling him to throw more punches, and an enraged Foreman responded by doing just that, further sapping his energy."
The strategy worked that led to Ali's knockout victory.
After the fight, Foreman accused Dundee of being responsible for the looser than usual ropestrands used in the ring that helped Ali to absorb the impact of Foreman's sledgehammer punches.
Lastly, per Wiki-
It has been called "arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century" and was a major upset, with Ali coming in as a 4–1 underdog against the unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight is famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. Some sources estimate that the fight was watched by as many as one billion television viewers around the world, becoming the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time. This included a record estimated 50 million viewers watching the fight on pay-per-view or closed-circuit theatre TV. The fight grossed an estimated $100 million (inflation-adjusted $600 million) in worldwide revenue. Decades later, the bout would be the subject of the Academy Award winning documentary film When We Were Kings.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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