Recalling a classic: George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ – Boxing
George Foreman’s fight with Muhammad Ali, which was promoted by Don King as ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’, is one of the most memorable fights in the history of boxing.
This historic event took place on October 30, 1974 in the Mai 20 Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire.
It was a clash between two of the boxing’s greats in the golden age of heavyweight boxing and Ali, who at that time was a former world champion and a challenger, won the fight by knocking out Foreman in the eighth round.
The 62-year-old George Foreman, who is a two-time former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Olympic gold medallist, was considered invincible at the time when Ali met him. He was undefeated in all of his 40 professional fights, with 37 of his wins coming
by the way of a knockout. Moreover, in the previous four years Foreman had knocked out all of his opponents within the first two rounds. However, that night Ali, who is widely considered as the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, totally outclassed Foreman
in the ring.
The 69-year-old Ali, who would go on to become the first and only three-time Lineal World Heavyweight Champion, entered the ring as an underdog but he surprised everyone with a much aggressive start than expected.
Ali started dominating the fight from the very first round and confused Foreman with his shuffle and rope-a-dope techniques. Foreman, who was widely known for his powerful punches, tried coming on to Ali in the second round but he failed to land a clean
punch on his opponent. Ali in the meantime kept on taunting Foreman as a result to which Foreman started digging vicious body punches into Ali’s sides but it quickly became clear that it was Ali’s technique to unsettle and tire Foreman.
Foreman did unleash some of his devastating shots at Ali’s body but none of his punches did any damage to Ali, as he was in an excellent shape. As the rounds passed, Ali started using his rope-a-dope technique and Foreman on the other hand started becoming
more and more tired because he kept trying to hit Ali but failed most of the times.
Ali, who was super confident during the fight, availed almost every opportunity to hit Foeman while lying on the ropes and as a result to which Foreman’s left eye started swelling a bit in the third round.
Former world heavyweight champion and Ali’s biggest rival late Smokin’ Joe Frazier was also sitting at the ringside watching and commentating on the fight. Frazier also noticed that Foreman was rushing himself into Ali and was not calm at all and this was
all due to Ali’s continuous taunts.
In the fourth round Ali, who was winning all the way, staggered Foreman with a vicious right hand lead while Foreman was again trying to come on to him and by the end of the fourth round Foreman was so tired that he didn’t have any bounce left in his legs.
That was the time when John Daily, who was responsible for bringing the fight, predicted a historic win for Ali in the next four rounds.
In the fifth round, Ali after hitting Foreman once laid down on the ropes allowing Foreman to hit him. This was yet another intentional move from Ali. Foreman kept on hitting Ali all the way during the round until he became so tired that he lost all of his
power and Ali suddenly gave him some powerful headshots which left everyone flabbergasted.
Those were the best shot landed by Ali and afterwards he had a tremendous look of confidence on his face. Ali knew he was winning the fight and thus he simply waited for the opportunity to come itself and in the eighth round, he won the fight by knocking
out a much-tired Foreman.
Ali, who earned himself a nickname ‘The Greatest’, became the second man in the history of boxing who ever regained his heavyweight titles.
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