Binge Sports: The Rumble in the Jungle-40th Anniversary

Welcome back to Binge Sports for a special look at one of the biggest events in sports history.

This week marks the 40th anniversary of “The Rumble in the Jungle”, the heavyweight championship match between the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, George Foreman, and former champion, Muhammad Ali. If you were in the United States, the fight took place on October 29th, 1974, but technically, the fight took place on October 30th in Zaire at 4 a.m., the reason being so it could appear on live closed-circuit television at 10 p.m. on the east coast here in the States. The fight was actually supposed to take place over a month earlier, but an accident in a sparring session left Foreman with a nasty cut around his right eye.

Nevertheless, Foreman came in as the favorite. It wasn’t often that Ali would come into a fight as the underdog, but that was the case here. He was now 32 years old and had suffered two defeats since his return from a nearly four year absence due to being suspended for refusing induction into the U.S. Army. After winning a couple of warmup fights, he lost by decision to then champion, Joe Frazier, in “The Fight of the Century” in 1971. He had also lost to Ken Norton in 1973, but did get redemption against both fighters. He came into this fight with a record of 44-2 with 31 KO’s.

On the other hand, George Foreman seemed invincible. He came into this fight with a record of 40-0 with 37 coming by way of knockout. In essence, he was Mike Tyson before Mike Tyson was. Over the years, people have made so many comparisons between Ali and Tyson, but in my opinion, Foreman is the better comparison. Foreman was demolishing people, including easy victories over both of the men who had defeated Ali. In his championship fight with Frazier, he knocked “Smokin’ Joe” down six times in two rounds before the fight was stopped. In similar fashion, he destroyed Ken Norton in two rounds as well.

And here we are. Two very different fighting styles usually makes for an interesting bout. Ali was obviously the more technical of the two, and pure strength easily went to Foreman, so it was surprising when Ali came out swinging. He surprised Foreman with some early shots, but Foreman was able to adapt pretty quickly and landed some of his signature bombs in the first. It was then that Ali went in a new direction. He knew that he couldn’t stand toe to toe with the younger, stronger champion so he went to a plan that he claims he had all along.

This fight is where the “Rope-A-Dope” was born. You’ve got to be either really smart or really stupid to let a guy like George Foreman beat on you round after round, but that’s exactly what Ali did. He would set himself up on the ropes and let Foreman punch and punch and punch.

The plan was to let Foreman punch himself tired and that’s exactly what happened. If you’re having trouble picturing it, think of the final fight in Rocky III when Rocky let Clubber Lang beat the hell out of him until he tired himself out. Yeah, that’s right, I took it there.

But it wasn’t as if Ali still wasn’t throwing punches. When he would notice that Foreman was getting winded, Ali would get a few jabs or a cross to the face and it was visible on the champion’s face. The challenger rocked Foreman in the fourth and towards the end of the fifth, and it was easy to see that Foreman was running out of gas. By the end of the seventh, Foreman seemed dead on his feet and the greatest thing about all of this is that the whole time, Ali had been whispering into Foreman’s ear, “They told me you could punch, George.” I listened to an interview with Foreman earlier this week, and it was great to listen to him relive that. He said that Ali would say that along with, “Is that all you got, George?” And Foreman openly admits that it was.

Ali’s plan came to fruition in the eighth as Foreman had trouble defending himself or landing any punches that made any significant impact. Near the end of the round, Ali rocked Foreman with a vicious combo and ended things with a left hook and a straight right that floored the champ.

Foreman actually did get up at the count of nine, but the referee stopped it with two seconds left in the eighth round. Foreman clearly had nothing left and Foreman will now admit that he just got beat.

Muhammad Ali’s comeback was now complete. He had regained the championship that he technically had never lost. The title had been stripped from him in 1967 and seven years later, he had regained it in one of the most epic battles of all time between two of the greatest fighters to ever live. If you’ve never seen the fight, you can watch it in its entirety below.

Over the years, this fight has been discussed in so many interviews, films, and documentaries, my favorite being When We Were Kings, released in 1996. Director Leon Gast takes you inside the events leading up to the fight, including interviews and also a full breakdown of the fight, far better than anything that I could give you. Here’s a look at the trailer.

It truly is one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen, and it actually took home the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. And do you know who was one of the presenters for the award that year? None other than Will Smith.

How about that segue? Whether you like him or not, there’s certainly no denying that Will Smith was uncanny as “The Greatest” in Ali. He had the voice down. He had the mannerisms down. Having the man himself on set couldn’t hurt.

While I think that the early part of the film could have been done a little better, the film really takes off in the lead-up to the Foreman fight and does a phenomenal job with the fight scene itself. Take a look at some of these images to the ones I posted above.

It’s hard to recreate an event like “The Rumble in the Jungle”, but Michael Mann does a fantastic job. He really gets at the redemption aspect and the end result was great. This movie is full of great performances. Obviously, Will Smith really came through as Ali, but Jamie Foxx as Bundini Brown and Ron Silver as legendary trainer, Angelo Dundee, held their own as well. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Jon Voight, but his portrayal as Howard Cosell was off the charts.

Sometimes called the greatest sporting event of the 20th century, “The Rumble in the Jungle” remains to this day one of the best heavyweight battles in boxing history. At a time when the heavyweight champion of the world (remember when there was only one) was like a god, George Foreman and Muhammad Ali gave the world a great matchup for the world’s biggest prize. These two men gave the world something they had never seen before, and with the state of the heavyweight division these days, something we’ll probably never see again.

Comments? Thoughts? Leave them below or follow and tweet @BingeSports or hit me up personally @THElukenorris.