A simple salute to the 40th Anniversary of “The Rumble in the Jungle.”
I was only 3 months old when the great Muhammad Ali was supposedly walking into his own funeral against the bruising “Big” George Foreman in Zaire, Africa back on October 30, 1974.
Photo Credit: imgkid.com
At this time of course I did not know a thing about boxing, heck I was just a baby for goodness’ sake, but when I got older and watched a few documentaries based on this fight, and the actual fight between Ali and Foreman.
This fight was so great as Ali invited Foreman to hit him the whole night, and by the way, back then Foreman was a bigger beast then Tyson could ever think of being back in the 1970s. This is why everyone before the fight thought that Foreman was simply going to dismantle Ali. Boy was the old school boxing world wrong on that one.
Ali leaned on the ropes the whole fight and took a lot of punishment from George Foreman. Some of the punches that Foreman landed on Ali was literally lifting Ali off of the ground, but Ali had a plan the whole time and fooled the whole world in the process. That night, Ali invited “The Rope-A-Dope.”
“The Rope-A=Dope” is when a fighter leans on the ring ropes and allow a big aggressive puncher to throw a lot of punches in hopes of the big aggressive puncher tiring and punching himself out.
Well Ali’s fight plan worked as Foreman punched himself out in the 8th round, which allowed Ali to score a knockdown on Foreman. Foreman would beat the 10 count from the referee, but walked to his corner as if to say I’ve had enough!
So not only did Ali wind up beating George Foreman physically, but he beat him mentally, which goes to show that brains will in all likelihood defeat bronze in most situations.
The great Mohammad Ali was awarded the 8th round knockout victory and became the heavyweight champion once again. The win over Foreman instantly put Ali up there with the greatest fighters of all times. One love and salute to “The Rumble in the Jungle.”
For more boxing news and articles continue to visit www.potshotboxing.com. If you like this post and others from Potshot Boxing, feel free to spread the word to your favorite social media channels with your friends and family!! Potshot Boxing – “Boxing news and article bites for all walks of life.”
