January 15, 2025 • 61 mins
The infamous fight. Play by play. It's a punishing display of brutality and endurance. The avatars of America’s Culture War stand tall and fierce in the African ring. Foreman is fearsome, throwing haymaker after haymaker. Ali is classically savvy, inventing a new technique on the spot: The Rope-a-Dope. It’s all he can do to survive the onslaught of Foreman’s violence. This fight is considered by many to be the greatest sporting event of all time.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Nico Ali Walsh.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm a professional boxer, and Muhammad Ali is my grandfather.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Following in his grandfather's footsteps, Nico Ali Walsh also chose
a life inside the ring.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Normal kids would have Spider Man shirts and Batman's shirts,
but my superhero was my grandfather. I saw comic book
where my grandfather beat Superman, so I was like, my
grandfather was the real superhero.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Being related to a real life superhero definitely has its perks.
Nico got to learn from the champ himself about perseverance
and being able to go the distance.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
He would talk about roadwork NonStop, and that's something that
I personally implement literally every single day. I flipped a
page when I turned fro and I run every single
day now, and it's because of him. But whether I'm
training for a fight or not, I will run every
single day because that's what he said.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Road work is not only how a fighter trains his body,
but also his mind and soul. The road readies him
for the punishment he will face inside the ring. Roadwork
trains the lungs to burn, the legs to ache, and
the fighter to press on. In a way, it trains
a fighter to harness the raw will to win. Naturally,
(01:18):
Nico studied his grandfather's fights, especially the most famous ones
against Joe Frasier and George Foreman, but he also had
his grandfather to personally guide him to coach him. They'd
watch old fights together, typically on Nico's phone.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, I definitely I threw on all the fights with him.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It was at Joe Frasier fight that we didn't watch,
but there was one fight that stood out.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Our number one fight that we watched together was the
Rumble in the Jungle. That's one of the greatest fights
to meggie in heavyweight history. That fights like a Hollywood movie.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
As we've heard throughout this podcast, the drama that was
Muhammad Ali's life and boxing career is something that could
never be dreamed up by a writer, even the most talented.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Just the story behind how Foreman destroyed Joe Fraser. Fraser
beat my grandfather, and my grandfather was supposed to literally
die in that fight, like they had the ambulance on
standby and everything.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It's true the world really thought they just might see
the end of Ali, but the people's champ. It also
seemed like he had all of Africa on his side.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
How could he lose the fact that it was in
Africa and there were so many, hundreds and thousands of
people just chanting Ali.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Welcome to Rumble, the story of Ali Foreman and the
Soul Music of nineteen seventy four. I'm your host, Zarren Burnett,
the third iHeart Podcast and School of Humans. This is Rumble.
Previously on Rumble, people.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
From the US hearing these contemporary African musicians and hearing
themselves in it.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Saya Cruz starts singing a Huang Tanamna and everybody started
singing with her like they knew it.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
That's when I realized who Bill Woodles was.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
James Brown played this amazing set, so athletic and the
musicality is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
When we finished playing, it was daylight.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
After the Zai Year seventy four concert is over, the
festival directors, Hugh Masekela and Stuart Levigne fly off to
Nigeria to celebrate. The trip is Felakuti's idea. The legendary
afrobeat musician invites them back to his place and it
doubles as a spot for Hugh and Stu to wait
for the rescheduled heavyweight title fight. Here's the way. Selemma
(04:03):
Masekela remembers hearing the story from his dad.
Speaker 7 (04:07):
Fella basically said to my dad and to Stewart, come
with me. So they went to Fella's house and chilled
for a few weeks, stayed at his compound, and it
was the craziest experience that my father and Stu ever had.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
These are two guys who've seen some wild times. So
what made Fella Cooties play so damn extraordinary? Well, you
just had to be there.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
My dad tells a funny story that they'd be hanging
out with him and like they'd be you know the girlfriends,
the women that are dead, and they'd be talking and
having a laugh, and then in the middle of the conversation,
Fella would be like smoke, just scream smoke, and then
someone would straight off and then boom came in able
to play with the joints, Like there's the smoke, and
(04:52):
they'd be like in the middle of conversation and then
you know, the food and they someone would run and
and then come back and then there would be a
play of food in the Dad and stew It just
be looking at each other like, yo, who is this dude.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
But they were in the mood to celebrate. They'd done it,
They'd pulled off a miracle. Meanwhile, back in America, the
theme boxing announcer and personal friend to Muhammad Ali, Howard Kossel,
doesn't get to go to Zaiir. He must stay in
the US to cover Monday night football, but Cosel does
(05:28):
his own pre fight coverage of the Rumble in the
Jungle for the ABC show The Wide World of Sports.
At the end of his segment, Cosel says, quite candidly,
without hyperbole or exaggeration.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
The time may have come to say goodbye to Muhammad Ali,
because honestly, I don't think he can be George Foreman.
It's hard for me as a reporter to be totally
objective in this case because Muhammad Ali has been a
significant factor in my own career. I thought, before he
was idled for three and a half years, he was
He's the best fighter I ever saw. I still think
(06:02):
he's a remarkable athlete and one can never put anything
beyond him. For that reason, maybe he can pull off
a miracle, but against George Foreman, so young, so strong,
so fearless, Against George Foreman, who does away with his
opponents one after another in less than three rounds. It's
hard for me to conjure with that even when he's
(06:23):
out of boxing, he'll be all that boxing has.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
It feels like Howard Kosel gave Muhammad Ali's eulogy, doesn't it.
As Gary Stromberg notes, this was the common refrain at
the time.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Howard Cosell was an expert in fight analysis, and he
went on for five minutes talking about how fearful he
was for Ali. So we were scared to death for Ali.
The people who knew about boxing and cared about Ali
were really scared for.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
That's also not hyperbole. Gary was afraid he'd watch his
hero get murdered in the ring.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
If you listen to me Baal or up Plimpton or
Bud Shulberg, they all talked about how they were fearful
for his life. I thought George Foreman could kill him,
literally kill him.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
However, through it all and for the months leading up
to the fight, Ali remains resolute.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
He had this really intense belief that his God was
protecting him. I think that that was genuine, the belief
that he was fighting for God and for his people.
It was bigger than him.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
President Mabutu was also convinced Muhammad Ali may lose the fight.
In fact, this concern was so serious that his photographer
Lynn Goldsmith recalls.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
They dug a tunnel underneath the ring because they thought
that if George Foreman did win, because Ali had so
gotten the country against George Foreman, okay, And this was
also a way of psyching George Foreman out that should
George Foreman punch him out, which he could, okay, that
(08:02):
he needed to be able to get out of the
stadium a lot. And so a tunnel was dug underneath
the stage for George Foreman to be able to get
out without being killed.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Despite everyone's doubt in his long shot chance at victory,
Muhammad Ali invites Gerald Ford, the new President of the US,
to watch the title fight. Ali even sends a personal
note to the President by way of the US Embassy
in Zaiir.
Speaker 9 (08:35):
It is my wish that you, your family and aids
have the opportunity to witness my championship fight with George Foreman.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Remember how President Nixon had a special feed installed in
the White House just so he could watch Ali lose
to Joe Frasier back in seventy one, and when Ali
did indeed lose to Smokin' Joe. As Ali biographer Jonathan
Ig documents, quote in the White House, Nixon rejoiced, cheering
the defeat of that draft dodger asshole. Ali offers President
(09:06):
Ford a new closed circuit TV broadcast feed, basically his
own pay per view stream, but Nixon's replacement, President Ford,
he doesn't care about the outcome of the rumble in
the Jungle. President Ford's appointment, Secretary Warren Rustin, replies to Ali,
the President has asked me to thank you for your
thoughtfulness in offering to arrange for a closed circuit telecast
(09:29):
to the White House. Unfortunately, the President will be traveling
outside Washington at that time and will be unable to
take advantage of your kind offer. But for the rest
of the world, Muhammad Ali still holds the power to
cause heads to turn his way and to watch to
see if he can reclaim his crown. But that is
very much in doubt since.
Speaker 10 (09:50):
Ali was not in favor. Alli wasn't anyone's goat at
that time. Ali was not thought of in the magnificent
way we think of him now.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
For anyone who knew the fight the obvious seemed exactly that.
When it came to Ali.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
This guy was done.
Speaker 10 (10:05):
He was on the descent, and once you descend as
a fighter, it's steep.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
All that was left to do now was for the
two boxers to step inside the ring and let fate decide.
Their heavyweight title fight is scheduled for fifteen rounds, far
longer than modern bouts. At the way in. Muhammad Ali
tips the scales at two hundred and sixteen pounds. Muhammad
Ali stands six foot three and has a seventy eight
(10:31):
inch reach.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
The stage is set.
Speaker 9 (10:35):
When I whooped this man, I want to be declared
by all as the greatest of all time. I'm thirty
two years old. My legs are gone. This man is strong.
You talking about how great he was. Now we gonna see.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
George Foreman weighs in at two twenty He's barely four
pounds heavier than Ali, and he stands an inch taller
at six foot four. Foreman also had as a longer
eighty two inch reach.
Speaker 11 (11:02):
I am the danger. I am the one to be
afraid of. Definitely, I'm the one who can hit you
and knock you unconscious.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Now the quotes you're about to hear are performed by actors,
and they all come straight out of the autobiographies of
our two great boxers, the record of how they remembered
it as such, it's through their words will tell how
their fight went down.
Speaker 11 (11:25):
At four o'clock in the morning on October thirtieth, nineteen
seventy four, I awaited my fate in the locker room.
Speaker 9 (11:32):
I wondered if it would feel strange to strip down
for a fight at four am and Zayia Africa.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But it feels the same.
Speaker 9 (11:38):
As stripping down for a fight at nine pm in
Madison Square Garden, the corresponding time in New York, the
usual fight time.
Speaker 11 (11:46):
Who'd ever fought at four am? But it wasn't four
in the morning where it count back home? There it
was prime time. And we will live be at satellite
the focus of the world's attention.
Speaker 9 (11:58):
We're at the door has circled the editorial of a
magazine and reads it in my ear like a prayer quote.
So it boils down to this form and Ali five
million dollars each in a battle is Zaia Africa. Forget
everything else, every fight that has been won or lost before,
and all of those that will be contested in years
(12:18):
to come. Forget every battle of man against man, of
mine against mine, of soul against soul.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
This is the one, This is the greatest.
Speaker 9 (12:27):
A nod to him. Mundini's voice is husky. He then
cries out loud. The lambs come back to claim his crown,
get the pretender off his throne.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Meanwhile, there are all these small quiet thoughts, the inner
monologue only he can hear.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I feel chilly, nervous.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I want to pee, but now there is no time
for that, because it's finally time to go. Just as
he leaves his dressing room, a young Zayarean reporter asks
the People's champ.
Speaker 9 (12:57):
What does the fighter think these last minutes? I think
of who I am and who my opponent is. Who
is he? He is white America, Christianity, the flag, the
white man, puck chops. But George is the champion, and
the world listens to the champion. There are things I
want to say, the things I want the world to hear.
(13:20):
I want to be in a position to fight for
my people. Whatever I have to do tonight, George will
not leave Africa the champion.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
It's time.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Up from the bowels of the stadium, up through the
hallways and corridors. Ali makes his way.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
They push and pull us through the door.
Speaker 9 (13:39):
We're out in the hall now, and people jammed in
the corridor see me the chance start Ahli ahli whoomaye
ah ni ah ni bhoom ayek. The sound booms through
the corridor, stays with us until we make the turn
up the ramp to the opening into the stadium.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
The People's champ emerges. He strides out into the state
for all to see.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
It's a quarter to four.
Speaker 9 (14:03):
The moon is still out, but the stadium is lit
up like how knew. Spotlights crisscross searching for my crew,
and when the light finds them, the stadium explodes from
all sides.
Speaker 8 (14:14):
Ali whomayy Aimi whuma yay.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
It doesn't take long for Ali to push through to
the ring.
Speaker 9 (14:24):
I reached the four steps to the ring, climb up
to my corner and see the full sweep of the stadium.
People are on the walls, on the tracks, every space
is filled. They cheer, and I raise my hand and
salute them back. They respond as though we've been rehearsing
together all of our lives.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
As he waits for foreman to come out, Ali studies
the crowd.
Speaker 9 (14:48):
I understand George's play. He thinks he will make me
nervous warm legend by the time the fight begins.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But he had given me an age.
Speaker 9 (14:57):
I know how to take advantage of a chance to
study the crowd, to get to know their ego, their personality.
Crowds exert pressure on you. Every crowd feels stranger first,
no matter who they cheer for.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
But when I warm up, I feel their good vibration.
The post beats.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Also, most importantly, even more than his study of the crowd,
there is the fact George.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Is giving me time to test the ropes and to get.
Speaker 9 (15:25):
The feel of the distance between the center and the corner.
I circle the ring instead of starting out cold. My
feet get the feel of the canvas, the soft spots,
the firm spots.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
All He takes his time to check the crowd. He
searches for specific faces.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I look around ringside, not the people I know.
Speaker 9 (15:44):
I see Jim Brown, Miriam mccamble, Lord Price, Bill Withers.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I nod to depress.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Finally, George Foreman emerges from the bowels of the stadium,
like a gladiator in ancient Rome, prepared to step before
the crowd and kill a man to give them all
a thrill. That's how he feels.
Speaker 11 (16:05):
I climbed into the ring, accompanied by temperatures and scattered booms.
I looked over at Mohammed in his corner, clowning around.
When he wouldn't return my stand, I knew for sure
that he was afraid of me.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
The fight game is all about ego. It's vitally important
that both fighters believe that the other boxer fears him,
or at least the other boxer should.
Speaker 12 (16:29):
Wow referees that Clayton gave us instructions. Mohammad finally looked
me and die. We glad at each other. My only
thought was to knock him out earth.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
That's when the People's champ looks for Himan dead in
the eye, and Ali begins talking mad trash. Once the
Louisville lip starts talking, well, he don't stop, chunk.
Speaker 9 (16:50):
I say, with all the contempt, haking mustard, you're gonna
get yourself beat tonight in front of all these Africans.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
The referee warns Ali about talking, but Ali just keeps
drilling his way into foreman's head.
Speaker 9 (17:03):
You heard about me for years, sucker, All your life
gonna be hearing about Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Now Trump, you're gonna face me.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
The referee warns Ali again that he will disqualify it.
Ali backs off a bit, but he will keep talking
all throughout this fight.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I've never fought in the stadium like this. I feel at.
Speaker 9 (17:24):
Home so much so I look across at George and
take his measurements as though I'm a undertak As Taylor
outfitting for the suit he's to wear in his casket.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Before the ring bell dings to begin the first round,
Muhammad Ali reflects on something legendary fight trainer Cus Tomato
once told him about facing a bully like George Foreman.
Speaker 10 (17:55):
Ali had great respect for custom model. Cuss was like
a lot of people in boxing, part visionary, part crack pot.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
But Ali believed in you.
Speaker 10 (18:05):
And before the fight, Ali calls and starts to pick
his brain. De Motto understands the psychology of a bully
and he tells Ali the first thing you have to
do is punched the bully in the mouth. Go hit
him with the right hand right off the bat.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Ali plans to do exactly that, come out throwing blows.
Foreman certainly won't expect that another person close to Ali.
His former manager Gene Kilroy, who was on the pre
fight call with Customatto and Ali. He told Mark Kriegel.
Speaker 10 (18:36):
This is the way Kilwoye tells me the story. You
must turn strength into a weakness. Your first punch must
be one of devastating tenacity. Mohammed So I asked Kilroy,
like we shore like devastating Kanascius.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
What did I say?
Speaker 10 (18:50):
It's all offended, devastating tenacity.
Speaker 13 (18:52):
Ali was not a knockout puncher, but I think he
wanted to, you know, send a message early on to foremantave.
Speaker 10 (18:58):
Without question that strategy perfectly, and he's sending a message
to the bully. I'm not playing to the script.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Before the fight begins, Ali's great rival, Joe Fraser joins
the announcer's table for a pre fight interview. Surprising no one,
Joe Fraser picks Foreman to win the fight, but surprising himself,
Joe Fraser agrees to stay at the announcer's table and
call the whole fight. He joins announcers David Frost, Jim Brown,
and Bob Sheridan. Joe Fraser is the rare man who
(19:30):
fought both Ali and Foreman, and he says of his
rivals quote, I think it should be a real good fight.
Speaker 12 (19:38):
I fell open and bailed. Muhammed becomes a rabbit.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Following Customato's advice, Ali comes out and he lands the
first punch.
Speaker 9 (19:47):
Move out and dance straight into George. Throw a fast left.
He's barren down on me, and I dance away.
Speaker 12 (19:53):
And flick out some more jabs. He flick a jab
at me and run me.
Speaker 11 (19:57):
I rushed him like a tiger, hard shot after hard shot,
but he was one tough rabbit to catch even tighter.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Ali dances in close. He throws a right hand lead
followed by a left jab. The combo causes the crowd
to erupt in the first big roar of the fight.
Then Ali dances away. Foreman works Ali into a corner.
Foreman raises his hands like a big cat raises its paws.
Fighting from the corner, Ali throws a sloppy punch.
Speaker 9 (20:28):
I say nothing for the first full minute, But if
he thinks this is gonna be all work and no education,
he's mistaken.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
After the midway point, around one, Ali starts.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Talking chun, now's your chance, show me.
Speaker 12 (20:41):
What you got.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Foreman comes after Ali. He throws his big, sweeping blows.
Foreman uses his size and his brute strength. He pushes
Ali around the ring, literally shoving Ali. Ali sneaks in
quick punches when he can, but Foreman counters with a powerful.
Speaker 14 (21:00):
Left round one. Foreman comes out and looks like he's
clabbering Ali.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Any one of Foreman's punches could send a man to
the hospital for a six week stay. They may not
be pretty punches, but their fury cannot be denied. By
the halfway point of the first round, Foreman's face is
this mask of anger. He throws lunging, angry punches. When
they do connect, Ali absorbs the blow, then clinches up.
(21:27):
He locks up Foreman's arms. The furious puncher can't get
his rhythm going. Instead, Foreman must wait for the ref
to separate them.
Speaker 11 (21:35):
Somehow, we always ended up on the ropes or in
the corner, with me wailing away and him covering up, and.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I Jam jail Jam.
Speaker 11 (21:45):
Didn't throw himself with knockout punches that couldn't find their back.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
When Foreman's thunderous punches do hit their mark, Ali winces
in pain. Ali looks like he's getting hitting the gut
with a sledgehammer.
Speaker 14 (22:00):
Several right hands to start the fight. Ali is backed
against the ropes. He's backed into a corner for him
and is cutting off the ring on him, and it's like,
oh my god, Ali, I mean he could lose in
the first round.
Speaker 9 (22:14):
George is executing what he's practiced for months. He's cutting
the ring off and forcing me to move six steps
to his two, and he's doing it better than anybody
I've been up against. I've had fighters chase me, most
fighters chase me, but I make them match me step
for step. George is the first fighter to consistently cut
me off. He corners me for a few seconds, and
(22:36):
I find myself lying against the ropes.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
That is the worst place to be against jackhammer fisted
George Forman.
Speaker 9 (22:44):
The champion, moves in throwing long rights and lets haymaker hooks.
He's at the peak of his strength and he hurls
one left his anywhere punch that strikes me and makes
me feel exactly as boss Man Jones described it.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Dance champ Dance.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Are desperate for Ali to escape. Foreman, He's getting killed
out there.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
Everybody was telling him that you better run. You know,
that whole thing about dancing was all based on, you know,
the idea that you better move or you're gonna get killed.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And he started off with that belief. However, once Ali's
in the ring, things change.
Speaker 9 (23:18):
All during training, I had planned to stay off the ropes.
Now I move off and circle the rings. But before
the end of the round, I know I've got to
change my plans.
Speaker 12 (23:28):
His only offense was that famous clicking jam.
Speaker 11 (23:31):
It comes so fast that you could barely see, let
alone counter each time he threw.
Speaker 12 (23:36):
When I think, man, that's.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
A quick jam, it's also a calculated move. Ali is
sizing up his opponent and hoping for one good targeted strike.
Speaker 11 (23:45):
I soon figured out that he was trying to open
the cutover my eye, but I wasn't worried any minute.
I knew he was going down, just as every other opponent.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
Of mine had.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Foreman swaggering over confidence keeps him from seeing what's right
in front of him. Instead, he sees this fight is
no different than his previous bouts. That's a mistake, and
the round ends.
Speaker 14 (24:09):
Everyone is like, oh, thank God, what's gonna happen in
the second.
Speaker 9 (24:12):
Round When the first round is over, When I'm back
in my corner, Angelo's voice is urgent.
Speaker 12 (24:19):
Keep moving.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
You got to stay off those ropes.
Speaker 9 (24:22):
The only thing my corner man see out there is
that I need to move, But I see something else.
In his first three minutes, I felt George's power, and
I understand how Fraser and Norton would.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Destroy Ali can feel it all through his body. Everything
already hurts. He knows he can't go fifteen rounds with
Big George Foreman. When asked, Joe Frazier scores the first round,
even as Lewis Ehrenberg points out this was always more
than a fight between two boxers.
Speaker 14 (24:53):
The emotional sense of that the audience is like death.
I mean, this is is the hero of the moment,
the great freedom fighter, the person who would challenge American policy,
represent freedom for African Americans, fighting against the guy who
waved the flag, who supported American policy, etc. Anyway, Foreman
(25:20):
is just pounding Ali.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
After that first round. The future is still up for grabs.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Lay round you. I moved to the center, Jeb and dance,
and Jeb.
Speaker 14 (25:34):
Foreman comes out. Ali tries to rush into the center
of the ring.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
But I know that my danger is in the dance.
Is six death to Georgia's.
Speaker 14 (25:42):
Three and he just he can't find a way to
get off. Foreman is much better at cutting off the ring.
Ali's back on the ropes and it's like, oh, no
more of this.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Foreman keeps his gloves up at head height. With his
guard up, it makes it near impossible for Ali to
get in close, and Ali does Fororman just shoves Ali
around the ring. Foreman treats Ali like he's a pile
of laundry.
Speaker 11 (26:06):
I unleashed a torn of punches, none of which really
found its mark.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
But Foreman still can't land that knockout punch.
Speaker 12 (26:14):
Muhammed was a master covering.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Meanwhile, all these cornermen keep shouting at him.
Speaker 9 (26:24):
But I've moved into a corner and my back is
against the ropes. George eagerly comes in after me for
the first time in all my fights. I decide to
not wait until I'm tied to play the ropes, but
to take the corners while I'm fresh and strong, to gamble.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
On the ropes all the way.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Thirty seconds into the round, Foreman lands a brutal left
right combat. It whips Ali's head back, but again the
boxers clinch and wrap up. The ref steps in separates
them Ali looks dazed.
Speaker 9 (26:56):
George just blows, exploding into my kidneys, my rigs, my head.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I lean that, I slip and slide.
Speaker 9 (27:03):
I catch some of my arms off my elbows, but
I stay on the ropes, get off the ropes, jamp move.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
But they don't know what I know.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Ali relies on his elusive speed and his ability to
dodge punches. But he's not young anymore, and any one
of Foreman's head hunting punches can knock out Ali. If
Foreman can turn his jaw, if he can catch him
on the temple, that's it. Lights out. Ali must keep dodging,
deflecting knockout blow after knockout blow.
Speaker 10 (27:35):
At some point you ask yourself, who would be willing
to take that? Your brain, cells, your kidneys, your liver.
What's the price of that?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Finally comes relief.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
When the bell rings. I go back to my corner.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
I see concern, confusion, and fear in the eyes of
my corner man. They have strong advice about what I
should do, But my head is on the line.
Speaker 11 (27:58):
Not this.
Speaker 9 (28:00):
The hot breadth of the monster, and they do not
know what I know.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
What could Ali possibly know?
Speaker 12 (28:07):
Well?
Speaker 9 (28:08):
He knows this in the gym practicing year after year.
I've discovered something that heavyweights usually burned down when the
wide open opportunity to punch and punch is in.
Speaker 12 (28:19):
Front of them.
Speaker 9 (28:21):
But this is a gamble now because George is the
strongest heavyweight in the world.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
It's one of the greatest gambles in professional sports history.
Ali is literally risking death.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
When he stopped running after the first round and decided
to lay on the ropes against everybody's I mean, as corner.
Nobody knew that he was going to do that. He
didn't know that he was going to do that. But
when he started to do that and was taking this punishment,
it was fearsome, just fearsome.
Speaker 14 (28:50):
And this continues to the third round.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Despite the risks, Ali is fully convinced of his strategy
to go the distance. Also, Alli knows something that George
Foreman doesn't, something he learned from losing.
Speaker 9 (29:06):
George has twenty three knockout victims behind him. It's gotta
be hard for him to believe that the same methods
he used on the others will not make me the
twenty fourth. Can I make George the victim of his
own fantastic success? In a few seconds, the bell for
round three will ring.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
George has not had to go beyond round three in
five years.
Speaker 9 (29:27):
He will come to me now with all He's got,
Everything in his ego and his psyche is at stake now.
Speaker 14 (29:37):
Third round Ali starts to fight back, and there's a
sense in the audience. I mean, I remember, I felt
it like, you know, he's losing, but he's not being
knocked out.
Speaker 12 (29:47):
What's going on again?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Foreman backs Ali into the ropes, but Ali keeps landing punches,
sneaking in those flicking jabs.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I move quick and shoot jabs with steam. Pow pow pow.
Speaker 9 (30:00):
George blinks but moves forward like a big tank. He
controls the center of the ring as though he expects me.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
To challenge him. But I go back to the ropes
in the corner and I call to him, all right, sucking,
this is where you want me. Come on man.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Nearly a minute into the third round, Ali lands a
super fast right hand lead that makes Foreman's head whip back.
Speaker 14 (30:24):
Ali, you know, could get under anybody's skin, and he
got under Foreman's. I mean, Foreman is just you know,
throwing bombs, and all he's saying is that all you got?
And Foreman is thinking, I'll show you what I got,
and he unloads more bombs that you know don't do
the job.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Foreman's anger is causing him to throw lunging punches off balance.
Desperate to connect.
Speaker 9 (30:46):
I lean back, but he stays on top of me.
I'm amazed at how he can pack power into every punch.
Every punch is a haymaker. I blocked him from my head.
Speaker 12 (30:56):
Not until the third round that I lay in a
solid baker.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
When he does, he lands one hell of a blow.
He nearly knocks Ali out.
Speaker 9 (31:05):
Suddenly he switches comes up from the floor with a
number cut and that seems to blow my jaw.
Speaker 11 (31:10):
Muhammed looked at me as if to say, hey, I'm
not gonna take that off for you now.
Speaker 12 (31:15):
That made me happy.
Speaker 11 (31:16):
Because I thought then that he finally stand told of
told with me, his pride getting the better of his intelligence.
Speaker 12 (31:22):
No way could he win a slugging match to me.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We both knew back Foreman's finally done it. He's stunned
and surprised. Ali.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
I'm hurt.
Speaker 9 (31:31):
I try to hold on get off the rope stirs
tip starts.
Speaker 11 (31:36):
He backed into the ropes and began covering up to
avoid another.
Speaker 12 (31:39):
Barage of heavy shots.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I try to move off, but he pushes me back
like a rag dog.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
George Foreman can smell blood. He circles closer, looking for
that killer knockout shot.
Speaker 11 (31:51):
I beat on him mercilessly, trying to connect with one
of those home run punch.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
I just sat there watching round after round of him
taking this kind of abuse, thinking at any moment that
he could get seriously hurt.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
The relentless violence starts to take a toll on Ali.
He can barely think straight.
Speaker 9 (32:10):
The tune and four in my head is humming. I've
got to hold on. I've got to keep him from
following up. George senses that I'm hurt and he's coming
for the quille.
Speaker 12 (32:20):
I block, move back, and weave.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
It's the longest round I've ever fought in my life.
Speaker 9 (32:25):
But near the end my head begins to clee.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
As self defense, he throws a flurry of left and rights.
Old as he is, Ali still has the same stunning
hand speed.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
The crowd roars. They come to life, as if they're
seeing me rise from the dead.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
When the round ends, both fighters retreat to their corners.
George Foreman realizes just how close he came to knocking
out Ali.
Speaker 11 (32:52):
At the sound of the bell and in the round, Muhammad's
face looked like he'd just seen a maer.
Speaker 12 (32:58):
He hanged his own some he was still on his feet.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
If he's honest with himself, that's exactly how Ali feels.
Speaker 9 (33:06):
But the round of my execution is over, and all
I do now is plot the time when my turn comes,
I take a deep swig from my water bottle and
wash the blood out of my mouth.
Speaker 11 (33:17):
Back in my corner, Saddler and Archie Moore insisted that
I keep up the pounding, but I was nearly exhausted.
I couldn't understand why I fought only three rounds yet
felt like I'd gone fifteen.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Meanwhile, over in all Lee's.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Corner, Bundini is crying, Jim, he gotta move. He got
a stick and move. He wants you on the ropes.
Don't let him. Angelo is desperate.
Speaker 9 (33:43):
I rarely ask for advice from my corner and seldom
accept what they say. And now, more than any time,
I know they do not understand what's happening out there.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
While his cornerman don't see it, the crowd does.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
The stadium crowd is all.
Speaker 9 (33:58):
I'm listening to Ali boo manaye, Ali Boomaye. They chanting lengala,
but I know that bou maye means knock him down,
kill him dead.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
They've seen me take the worst shilling I've had in
my life, and they still believe I can take the fighter.
It's like a charge of electricity.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
This is the spark. Ali desperately needs the people's love.
Then he spots one of his friends.
Speaker 9 (34:27):
I remember looking down at ringside, my eyes meet Jim Brown's.
Brown has publicly predicted George will knock me out. I
lean out of the ring. Jim Brown, You've been on
the wrong horse this second. Don't have a chance.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
You lost your money. He can't find no better than
you can.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Act with that. Ali is ready for round four.
Speaker 14 (34:49):
From then on, the fight became pretty clear.
Speaker 12 (34:54):
In the next round, we continue playing predator and pray.
Speaker 14 (34:59):
Foreman comes out. He backs Ali to the corner of
the ropes or Ali retreats quickly, and they're playing lethal
patty cake.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Early in the fourth, Ali lands a quick combo. It
staggers Foreman eyes blank. He's stunned.
Speaker 11 (35:15):
He'd hit me with one shot, usually the jack, but
sometimes the right didn't run. He had to because when
he faced me, I placed my left foot between both
of his feet. That meant his alternatives were to either
stand in front of me and fight or move back,
So of course he moved.
Speaker 12 (35:32):
Backwards and cover it up.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
In response, Foreman keeps closing off the ring, working Ali
back into a corner where Foreman can throw haymakers and
terrifying uppercuts.
Speaker 10 (35:44):
And he hits one right hands all night, right hand leaves,
and they're beautiful, I mean, in a brutal sort of way.
Speaker 14 (35:50):
Foreman is pounding away right in front of Ali, and
Ali is dodging, slipping, sliding, moving, punching, slipping, sliding, moving, punching, punching,
and you know, Foreman is getting tagged, and Foreman is
looking a little tired.
Speaker 11 (36:05):
In the fourth round, I was finally able to land
a thunder and right on the back of his neck.
It weakened, and I knew if I could land another
one like that, he go.
Speaker 12 (36:14):
Down and down.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Foreman finally lines up Ali the way he'd been waiting
to a clean shot at his head.
Speaker 11 (36:21):
But when I loaded up the weapon and cocked it,
I saw something that made me pull back instead. It
was the face of a friend sitting at ringside who
happened to be directly.
Speaker 12 (36:33):
In my line of vision.
Speaker 11 (36:35):
Between when I threw the first shot and prepared to
throw the second, he began waving his arms wildly and screaming.
Speaker 12 (36:41):
Bull He hit him behind the neck. He's cheating a
man I considered family was rooting against me.
Speaker 11 (36:49):
In a state of shock, I couldn't deliver the punch
that probably would have ended the fight.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Right there Foreman doesn't take the shot. He misses his moment?
Why because he's sensitive. His big tough act is surly mask.
His imitation of Sonny listing it all fails him in
the moment he needs it most.
Speaker 11 (37:10):
My hurt and disappointment and that thinking lessen whatever power
I had left, and there wasn't much of it.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Now he's in his head.
Speaker 12 (37:19):
I wondered what happened to my stamina.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Indeed, his legs start to go rubbery. The fight announcer
questions Foreman's endurance. He isn't alone.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
Man.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
I was tired.
Speaker 11 (37:31):
I could barely get off the store between rounds. Even so,
Sadler was instructing me to continue my fearsome attack. This
contradicted his usual advice which was to slowly, carefully build
to the knockout.
Speaker 12 (37:45):
Get him. He said, he can't last another round.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
When round five begins, with all the might he has left,
Foreman continues to hammer away at all these arms, his body,
haymaker after haymaking. He's desperate now to get Ali to
drop his arms, to lower his defenses. It's Foreman's only
hope to set up a knockout shot. It's clear that
(38:10):
Foreman can't last fifteen rounds fighting this way. But Ali
doesn't look like he can go the distance either. He's
no longer dancing. His feet are now planted flat on
the canvas, his back lying against the ropes. Ali just
absorbs blow after blow.
Speaker 10 (38:28):
If you look at the body shots that Ali took
in round five, the will and the ego that's required
to stand through that no one else had been able
to stand through, that Ken Norton couldn't stand through, that
he didn't last too. Here we are in five and
Foreman is wailing away in his body.
Speaker 9 (38:45):
George keeps driving all like a one way tank, every
ounce of his two hundred and twenty pounds behind his blows.
I'm draining him, but it's coming near time. When I've
got to go all out before he gets his second win.
Tied as he is, it will take the heaviest blows
I've ever thrown to bring him down.
Speaker 10 (39:04):
Look, there's not that much size difference between the two guys.
We think of them differently, and they move differently, and
Ali is much more.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Fluid and beautiful in the way that he moves.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
But he's not really that.
Speaker 10 (39:17):
Much of a smaller map.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
But he was certainly the more strategic fighter, and that
made all the difference. As Foreman sees it, Ali was.
Speaker 11 (39:27):
Helped by an apparently loose top rope, which allowed him
to lean.
Speaker 12 (39:31):
Way out of the ring, his head beyond my reach.
Speaker 11 (39:34):
No one in my camp had checked the ropes before
the fight, why bother For years now, my fight playing
had been to take off my rode, get a quick knockout,
put the rode back on, and return to the dressing room.
Who worried about toughness and slackness of the ropes. Now
Mohammed was the beneficiary of that lack of attention to detail.
Speaker 10 (39:55):
First of all, if you ever lean against the ropes,
it's not like they're made of steal hard barrier. They
get He's a big guy. You can lean far back
on a rope, especially if you're close to like you
know two twenty five.
Speaker 12 (40:07):
I think that the.
Speaker 10 (40:08):
Ropes may have helped him evade some of the functions
or absorb some more. But look, he had to catch
those shots anyway. And if you look at the body
shots he's taking, it's like a cartoon with these big
wind up shots the foreman is hitting with around the
mid section. In the fifth, he's not hitting the ropes.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Despite how well the ropeodope is working for ali foreman's
corner doesn't change tactics.
Speaker 11 (40:33):
They could have said to back off around or two,
catch my breast and let him come to me. He'd
have to if you wanted to win, because by then
he was far behind on points.
Speaker 12 (40:44):
But because these guys counseled me to attack, attack, attack,
I did. Their job was to give me advice. Mine
was to take it.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
The bell rings for round six. Both fighters are winded,
their backs glistening with sweat, their faces beginning to swell
from all the punches to their heads. They dig down
into their will to go on.
Speaker 14 (41:12):
And it continues this way through the fourth through the
seventh round.
Speaker 11 (41:16):
The sad part was that my blows, which numbered at
least five to one over his, were met by the
crowd with utter silence.
Speaker 12 (41:23):
Each one of Mohammad's.
Speaker 11 (41:24):
Little jams brought tumultuous crimes. I was winning these rounds,
but Muhammad Ali owned their hearts and minds more completely
with every punch he absorbed for them.
Speaker 12 (41:36):
This had become a morality play. Muhammad was good and
I was evil.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
The narrative Ali created months if not years before, takes
hold inside that ring in Zaiir. But Foreman still can't
understand why he isn't the hero of the people.
Speaker 11 (41:54):
It was because of me, as a champion that this
fight had been staged in Zaire. George Foreman, not Muhammad Ali,
had tried to do something grand for Africa, had brought
the television cameras to show off Africa to the world,
had made the Africans proud of themselves. I wanted them
to love me too, and for some reason they didn't.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
There's nothing he can do. The people love Ali because
they know he fights for them. They can feel it.
And when Ali needs them, all he has to do
is raise his fists.
Speaker 10 (42:31):
There's a moment in the fight where he no longer
has to taunt forman. After the sixth round, he turns
to the audience and he starts exhorting the audience, waving
to the crowd, and you can hear the chant go
up and it's almost like the final act has begun.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
Between rounds, Joe Fraser gives his assessment of the fight.
He says, foreman his quote fighting foolish. I don't think
he's in bad shape. I think he's fighting real foolish.
I made the statement earlier. Anything can happen. This man
has got experience, this man has got youth. It all
depends on how he's trained for him. And Ali is
fighting smart. What started as a contest of speed versus
(43:22):
strength now in the seventh round, morphs into an endurance contest,
which begs the question who can outlast the other.
Speaker 11 (43:31):
In the seventh round, Muhammed noticed that I was getting tired,
that my shots weren't hurting as much. He said, come on, George,
show me something. Is that all you got?
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Man?
Speaker 9 (43:43):
I talked to him like an old friend, louder and louder.
You gone sixth round, sucker, and you ain't hit me yet?
Who said you can hit? Come on, I'll give you
a chance. Swing, sucker swing.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
In the seventh round, there's no doubt.
Speaker 14 (43:58):
Ali looks stronger, and he's still in danger. He's still
on the ropes. But in the audience there's a sense of,
wait a minute, something weird is going on.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
That something weird was the flow of momentum switching directions.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I clinch him tightly, and I give him my best advice.
Speaker 9 (44:16):
You got eight more rounds to go, Sucker, eight more rounds,
and look at how.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Tired you are.
Speaker 9 (44:22):
I even got started yet, and you out of breath,
look at you, out of gas, and I'm whipping you.
Speaker 11 (44:29):
I figured, okay, I'm just going to play around man,
catch him talking and let him try to hit me.
When he tries, I'll knock him out.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
So Foreman keeps trying to set up his lethal knockout shot.
That's Foreman's only plan at this point.
Speaker 11 (44:44):
But then Angelo Dundee Mohammed's training must have divined my plan.
He yelled out, don't play with him, sucker, don't play.
He understood the damage I could do. Angelo's warning seemed
to sober Muhammed a little. He stopped playing around and talking.
Speaker 9 (45:00):
He throws a long, almost slow motion swing, Hai, and
I block it and come in.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
With two quick jabs to his face.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
All of Ali's roadwork helps him to last, gives him
the legs and the endurance that he can trust.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
But still the bell rings and I feel the pain
all over me.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
The question is can Ali keep taking all that pain?
Speaker 9 (45:27):
Even my corner man now saying something is being turned around.
I sit down, but I feel uneasy. The pace is
killing George, but it's also taking a heavy toll on me.
I've got to go for the kill before he gets
his second win. I know the champion is more exhausted
than I am, but how long.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Can I stand under this barrage?
Speaker 9 (45:49):
I remember catching the eye of a tall African girl
walking by flashing the number of the upcoming round.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
She winks at me. I'll wink back and feel better.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
While it's shocking that Muhammad Ali has lasted seven rounds
against big George Foreman, the people clearly believe their champ
will win this bout somehow, but Ali, he's not so sure.
Ali can feel his body starting to fail him, the
hot pain with each breath, the humidity that's making it
(46:24):
hard to breathe. However, when Ali looks across the ring,
he sees Foreman is worse off than him. That gives
Ali new hope, same as the wink did.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Clear brown it.
Speaker 9 (46:37):
George storms out, still only one thing on his mind, knockout.
But now his blows come slower, take longer to reach me.
I know fine pain are inside his stomach and lungs,
and every breath.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Is torture, just as it is for me.
Speaker 9 (46:54):
I see him draw back for a mighty swing, all
his power, and I slip aside as he tame himself
in the ropes sucker.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
I say, you miss me, Byma, you look bad.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
Hum Lewis Ehrenberg remembers, well, how for Foreman.
Speaker 14 (47:11):
In the eighth He's desperate, He's out of gas, he's hurting,
he's winded, and Ali looks fresher and fresher.
Speaker 6 (47:21):
In the eighth round. All of a sudden, I can
just see there's something changing here. Ollie was still standing.
There was miraculous that he was still standing there. And
then I'd seen Ali turn the tide really quick on
other fights, so I knew that he had the capability
if he had anything left, and remarkable that he still
had that left.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
I keep my eyes pinned on his eyes. I never
even blink. I don't want to miss anything his face
might say, and his eyes tell me. Every day, as
I watch him pull himself back.
Speaker 9 (47:50):
Into the rings, I suddenly think of Joe Frasier. Have
I been treating George like he's another Fraser?
Speaker 3 (47:58):
For Ali? Joe Frasers his measure of a true fighter,
a man like him who's prepared to die in the ring.
Speaker 9 (48:06):
If you knock down Fraser, he'll almost get up before
he hits the canvas and come back at you.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
His heart is a lion.
Speaker 9 (48:14):
When Fraser comes at you, his blood and marrow and
muscles all scream at you.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
If you can't kill me, get out of my way,
or I'll kill you.
Speaker 12 (48:22):
He'll fight way.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Beyond exhaustion and still come on.
Speaker 9 (48:26):
Even when his lungs are tired and burning, every ounce
of blood is drained.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Out of him. He still keeps coming, whatever the price
you'll pay it. George looks like King Kong when he
comes at you. But does he have the heart.
Speaker 9 (48:41):
Of a Joe Lewis Rocky Marciano a Joe Fraser?
Speaker 3 (48:45):
This is the real question of the moment. Does George
Foreman have the heart to outlast, to persevere? He thinks
He just needs one good punch.
Speaker 9 (48:56):
Only a man who knows what it is to be
defeated can read down to the bottom of his soul
and come up with the extra und to power it
takes to win. When the match is either I know
George wants to keep the champion's crown. He wants the crown,
But is he willing to pay the price? Would he
lay out his life?
Speaker 3 (49:16):
How far is foreman willing to go to remain world champion?
At this point, Ali knows it's.
Speaker 9 (49:24):
Time to go all out, toe to toe.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
He's up and he's ready.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Now I gotta go lay it all down on the line. Now.
Speaker 9 (49:33):
Look, if the price of winning is to be a
broken jaw, a smash nose, a crack skull, a disfigured face.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
Ali is prepared to pay whatever price he must for glory.
Speaker 9 (49:45):
If you want to wear a crown, you could play
it careful only until you meet a man who will
die before he lets you win. When that happens, well
then you have to lay it all down on the
line or back down and be damned forever.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Muhammad Ali ain't about to be damned forever. He has
Allah on his side. He has the crowd on his side.
Ali feels the eyes of the world watching him.
Speaker 9 (50:12):
The crowd eggs me on Ali, Ali, who by it.
Speaker 11 (50:19):
In the eighth round, I tried to entice Muhammed to
come to me, dropping my hands and I followed him
around the ring as if daring him to step into
my wear.
Speaker 12 (50:28):
There was no way he could hurt me.
Speaker 14 (50:30):
Foreman is exhausted. He has thrown so many punches, some
of them gotten through, but Ali is countered just about
every one of them from the fifth round on, and
Foreman cannot get off his major knockout cloths.
Speaker 3 (50:45):
At one point, Foreman nearly falls out of the ring
over the loose ring ropes. Ali sort of catches him
and keeps him from falling into the front row. The
ref separates the fighters. Foreman follows Ali right back to
the ropes like a dope.
Speaker 12 (51:01):
When he neared the ropes, I began pummeling him again.
Speaker 11 (51:04):
He was knocked backwards near the corner, then bounced to
the side.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
With less than thirty seconds left to go. In the
eighth round, Foreman lands a solid shot to Ali's face.
Foreman corners Ali, cutting off the ring. He starts to
work the body.
Speaker 14 (51:19):
Ali is on the ropes. Foreman is now stumbling after him,
trying to knock him out, and he stumbles a little
bit off balance.
Speaker 12 (51:29):
I turned to follow him and was leaning his way.
Speaker 14 (51:32):
His footwork is off.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Ali sees it. He throws a series of rights. Each
one is targeted, each one connects. Foreman is dazed. He stumbles.
He tries to defend himself. Ali lands a devastating left
right combo.
Speaker 11 (51:49):
When he threw a left right combination whose power was
multiplied by my leaning toward him.
Speaker 12 (51:55):
I tried to rebalance myself a right.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Hand George trying to lumber back to regain his paws.
Speaker 14 (52:03):
He turns and Ali just unloads on his chin.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
I should have straight right to his jaw, with all
the snapping power that's in me. I strike him almost
flush on the chin.
Speaker 9 (52:14):
Another think you're right.
Speaker 11 (52:15):
An as the combination struck ground zero on my chin.
I remember thinking, boy, I'm going down.
Speaker 9 (52:26):
I'm ready to follow through with the combination, but I
see he slowly falling.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
A day's look in his eye.
Speaker 11 (52:33):
Mohammed, I'm sure it was a surprised as album.
Speaker 14 (52:37):
There's the famous picture. At least to me, it seems
faintness of forming pirouetting slowly to the canvas, while Ali
looks like looking down on him like I did that.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
George is down. He's listening to the tuning forks coming
into his head.
Speaker 9 (52:56):
Matt's blowing saxophones, alligators, whistling, neon signs, blinket.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
The referee begins the count.
Speaker 12 (53:07):
Though I could have, I didn't get up immediately, because
in the days when there were no standing eight counts
that would allow a boxer to clear his senses before
re entering the fray, the custom developed to stay down
until eight. Instead of watching the referees count. You were
supposed to look for your cornumin sigma. Even as I did,
(53:29):
I could hear Zach Clayton's count.
Speaker 9 (53:34):
I watch every lift of the referees on. I remember
thinking again a Frasier, he would never lose the crown.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
Lying on the floor.
Speaker 9 (53:42):
No referee could count over his body as long as
he had blood in it.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Six, seven, eight. George is slowly turning over.
Speaker 11 (53:52):
He said eight, and Saddler motioned me up. I stood
at once, but Clayton waved me off with a quick count.
Ten became one word to me.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
Nine. Ten George is on his feet, but it's over.
Speaker 3 (54:09):
Foreman did not get up in time. He miscalculated the
ref's count, and that's how.
Speaker 14 (54:15):
Foreman is then counted out.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
It was over. The referee raises my head in.
Speaker 12 (54:20):
Victory, Ali and the crowd began to celebrate.
Speaker 15 (54:24):
This most joy of thing ever seen in hing.
Speaker 8 (54:28):
The place is going wildham and Ali has once the
thing he.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
Said was impossible.
Speaker 14 (54:34):
His Ali is a chairman. People are going nuts. Ali
Ali Ali Bo my Ali Bo my a my god.
Speaker 6 (54:44):
It was over.
Speaker 12 (54:46):
It was really.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
Over, like a controlled demolition. Everything comes down all at once.
Then Foreman feels the full way of it. What all
he's just lost.
Speaker 12 (55:03):
The magnitude of the loss began to hit me.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
The loss in zai ear before all the world marks
the beginning of a long, dark chapter in Foreman's life.
Speaker 11 (55:13):
In short order, I would become depressed beyond recognition, and
this fight would go down in boxing history. No less
than Norman Mayler wrote an entire book about it.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
This is a fight that he would dwell on for
years to come.
Speaker 12 (55:29):
I would be sorting it out for a long time.
Speaker 10 (55:36):
The reason we think of I'll leave the way we
do is because, more famously than anyone whoever boxed, he
beat the bully. The first was Listen. You know, Listen
was supposed to reign for decades. Same thing with Foreman.
He was going to be there forever, and I'll leave
beat both of them.
Speaker 14 (55:53):
He had proved himself after a very difficult career isolation,
losing his right to fight. This guy who had been
written off, just like he'd been written off with his
stand on Vietnam, had triumphed over tremendous odds. I mean,
Ali just seemed like a god, a sporting god who
(56:15):
now had to be taken seriously.
Speaker 10 (56:17):
Every once in a while, you see what is the
best about an individual soul on full display in the ring.
I think that that Knight in Zair happened to be
one of them, probably the greatest, most famous example. You
saw what was most noble in Ali's soul, and the audience,
(56:38):
you know, one billion people around the world, a quarter
of the Earth's population probably came to that conclusion on
mass Holy shit, Look what he did.
Speaker 3 (56:48):
Ali reclaims his stolen crown. He is now the undisputed
world champion the goat, and.
Speaker 13 (56:56):
It's overlooked just how brilliantly he fought when he wasn't
throwing punches. And of course we all know that the
robodote was successful, but we also should remember that the
rope a dope was not really a proven technique. It
was improvised and it was a move of desperation. It
was an act that he felt like was the only
way he could win. It's one of all these most
(57:17):
brilliant fights tactically.
Speaker 10 (57:19):
What this fight did, especially for the people who had
been predisposed to dislike him or to hate him from
way back, you could no longer argue.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
With his heroism.
Speaker 10 (57:32):
It was right there to see. If you watch the
fight in zai ear, you can no longer hate him,
and he could not have been remembered in the way
he is. There is no greatest of all time without
that fight.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
All that Cashus Clay endured, and all that Muhammad Ali
was forced to endure, all the pain and humiliation, the
lost relationships, the lost time, the constant doubts, the anger
and viterly all the condescension and it insults. All of
it led to and prepared Ali for this his crowning moment.
Speaker 13 (58:07):
Ali has been defeated by Frasier, and he's coming back
as an underdog, and he's also become a hero to
oppressed people everywhere. He's become the symbol of opposition, of rebellion.
He's the man who had the courage to stand up
to the most powerful government on earth and to take
their shots, to take their punishment. He's the baddest Black.
Speaker 14 (58:28):
Man on earth.
Speaker 7 (58:29):
The sheer joy and pride of the African peoples in
celebrating this symbol of strength and power and greatness and exceptionalism,
like Black African exceptionalism. That was Ali, and that anyone,
any Black people's anywhere across the diaspora could see themselves
(58:52):
in him was just magic.
Speaker 3 (59:00):
After the title bout ends, Norman Mahler fights and squeezes
his way into the New Champs dressing room. He's the
only reporter to shove his way inside. For this moment
of celebration.
Speaker 15 (59:13):
Ali sat on the rubbing table with his hands on
his knees, looking like a happy and tired host after
a good party. His face was unmarked except for a
small red bruise on his cheekbone. Maybe he never appeared
more handsome. He stared out like a child. I have
stolen the jam, said his eyes, and it tastes good.
(59:35):
Light twinkled in those eyes all the way back to
the beginning. Truth he looked like a castle all lit up.
Speaker 3 (59:52):
Next time on Rumble, the Legacy of the Rumble in
the Jungle.
Speaker 14 (59:56):
Foreman is a guy who didn't have much for him,
but he had boxing, and he had his strength, and
he is just undone.
Speaker 13 (01:00:06):
And that's why he continues to say that he was drugged,
that he didn't lose the fight.
Speaker 9 (01:00:10):
Legitimately, that's when he went home and sat down by
himself and realized that he had become somebody that he
did not want to be.
Speaker 10 (01:00:18):
Everyone's cheering and he's shaking, lighting the Olympic torch. That's
the price.
Speaker 12 (01:00:23):
They could still play the Trouble out, And I'll always
be amazed that would I die. I will leave something here.
Speaker 7 (01:00:29):
Who's going to have the stones to tell the stories
and to make the music and to write the things
that give people no choice but to feel.
Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
Rumbell is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
Rumbell is written and hosted by Zaren Burnett. The third
produced and directed by Julia Chriscal. Sound designed by Jesse
Niswanger and scoring by John Washington. Original music composed by
Jordan Manley and TJ. Merritt series concept by Gary Strong.
(01:01:00):
Executive producers are Jason English, Sean Titone, Gary Stromberg, Virginia Prescott,
el C. Crowley, and Brandon barr Our. Senior producer is
Amelia Brock. Production manager Daisy Church, fact checker Savannah Hugley.
Legal services provided by canoel Hanley PC. Additional production by
(01:01:21):
Claire Keating, Casting director Julia Chriscau. Casting support services provided
by Breakdown Express. Episode twelve cast Abraham.
Speaker 16 (01:01:30):
Amka as Muhammad Ali, Anthony Brandon Walker as George Foreman,
Wayne j As Howard Cosell, Jonah Weston as Norman Mahler.
If you like the show, let us know, like subscribe,
leave five star reviews. It really helps. Also check out
our show notes for a full list of reference materials.
I'm Nico Ali Walsh.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm a professional boxer, and Muhammad Ali is my grandfather.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Following in his grandfather's footsteps, Nico Ali Walsh also chose
a life inside the ring.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Normal kids would have Spider Man shirts and Batman's shirts,
but my superhero was my grandfather. I saw comic book
where my grandfather beat Superman, so I was like, my
grandfather was the real superhero.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Being related to a real life superhero definitely has its perks.
Nico got to learn from the champ himself about perseverance
and being able to go the distance.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
He would talk about roadwork NonStop, and that's something that
I personally implement literally every single day. I flipped a
page when I turned fro and I run every single
day now, and it's because of him. But whether I'm
training for a fight or not, I will run every
single day because that's what he said.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Road work is not only how a fighter trains his body,
but also his mind and soul. The road readies him
for the punishment he will face inside the ring. Roadwork
trains the lungs to burn, the legs to ache, and
the fighter to press on. In a way, it trains
a fighter to harness the raw will to win. Naturally,
(01:18):
Nico studied his grandfather's fights, especially the most famous ones
against Joe Frasier and George Foreman, but he also had
his grandfather to personally guide him to coach him. They'd
watch old fights together, typically on Nico's phone.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, I definitely I threw on all the fights with him.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It was at Joe Frasier fight that we didn't watch,
but there was one fight that stood out.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Our number one fight that we watched together was the
Rumble in the Jungle. That's one of the greatest fights
to meggie in heavyweight history. That fights like a Hollywood movie.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
As we've heard throughout this podcast, the drama that was
Muhammad Ali's life and boxing career is something that could
never be dreamed up by a writer, even the most talented.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Just the story behind how Foreman destroyed Joe Fraser. Fraser
beat my grandfather, and my grandfather was supposed to literally
die in that fight, like they had the ambulance on
standby and everything.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It's true the world really thought they just might see
the end of Ali, but the people's champ. It also
seemed like he had all of Africa on his side.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
How could he lose the fact that it was in
Africa and there were so many, hundreds and thousands of
people just chanting Ali.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Welcome to Rumble, the story of Ali Foreman and the
Soul Music of nineteen seventy four. I'm your host, Zarren Burnett,
the third iHeart Podcast and School of Humans. This is Rumble.
Previously on Rumble, people.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
From the US hearing these contemporary African musicians and hearing
themselves in it.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Saya Cruz starts singing a Huang Tanamna and everybody started
singing with her like they knew it.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
That's when I realized who Bill Woodles was.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
James Brown played this amazing set, so athletic and the
musicality is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
When we finished playing, it was daylight.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
After the Zai Year seventy four concert is over, the
festival directors, Hugh Masekela and Stuart Levigne fly off to
Nigeria to celebrate. The trip is Felakuti's idea. The legendary
afrobeat musician invites them back to his place and it
doubles as a spot for Hugh and Stu to wait
for the rescheduled heavyweight title fight. Here's the way. Selemma
(04:03):
Masekela remembers hearing the story from his dad.
Speaker 7 (04:07):
Fella basically said to my dad and to Stewart, come
with me. So they went to Fella's house and chilled
for a few weeks, stayed at his compound, and it
was the craziest experience that my father and Stu ever had.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
These are two guys who've seen some wild times. So
what made Fella Cooties play so damn extraordinary? Well, you
just had to be there.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
My dad tells a funny story that they'd be hanging
out with him and like they'd be you know the girlfriends,
the women that are dead, and they'd be talking and
having a laugh, and then in the middle of the conversation,
Fella would be like smoke, just scream smoke, and then
someone would straight off and then boom came in able
to play with the joints, Like there's the smoke, and
(04:52):
they'd be like in the middle of conversation and then
you know, the food and they someone would run and
and then come back and then there would be a
play of food in the Dad and stew It just
be looking at each other like, yo, who is this dude.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
But they were in the mood to celebrate. They'd done it,
They'd pulled off a miracle. Meanwhile, back in America, the
theme boxing announcer and personal friend to Muhammad Ali, Howard Kossel,
doesn't get to go to Zaiir. He must stay in
the US to cover Monday night football, but Cosel does
(05:28):
his own pre fight coverage of the Rumble in the
Jungle for the ABC show The Wide World of Sports.
At the end of his segment, Cosel says, quite candidly,
without hyperbole or exaggeration.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
The time may have come to say goodbye to Muhammad Ali,
because honestly, I don't think he can be George Foreman.
It's hard for me as a reporter to be totally
objective in this case because Muhammad Ali has been a
significant factor in my own career. I thought, before he
was idled for three and a half years, he was
He's the best fighter I ever saw. I still think
(06:02):
he's a remarkable athlete and one can never put anything
beyond him. For that reason, maybe he can pull off
a miracle, but against George Foreman, so young, so strong,
so fearless, Against George Foreman, who does away with his
opponents one after another in less than three rounds. It's
hard for me to conjure with that even when he's
(06:23):
out of boxing, he'll be all that boxing has.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
It feels like Howard Kosel gave Muhammad Ali's eulogy, doesn't it.
As Gary Stromberg notes, this was the common refrain at
the time.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Howard Cosell was an expert in fight analysis, and he
went on for five minutes talking about how fearful he
was for Ali. So we were scared to death for Ali.
The people who knew about boxing and cared about Ali
were really scared for.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
That's also not hyperbole. Gary was afraid he'd watch his
hero get murdered in the ring.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
If you listen to me Baal or up Plimpton or
Bud Shulberg, they all talked about how they were fearful
for his life. I thought George Foreman could kill him,
literally kill him.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
However, through it all and for the months leading up
to the fight, Ali remains resolute.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
He had this really intense belief that his God was
protecting him. I think that that was genuine, the belief
that he was fighting for God and for his people.
It was bigger than him.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
President Mabutu was also convinced Muhammad Ali may lose the fight.
In fact, this concern was so serious that his photographer
Lynn Goldsmith recalls.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
They dug a tunnel underneath the ring because they thought
that if George Foreman did win, because Ali had so
gotten the country against George Foreman, okay, And this was
also a way of psyching George Foreman out that should
George Foreman punch him out, which he could, okay, that
(08:02):
he needed to be able to get out of the
stadium a lot. And so a tunnel was dug underneath
the stage for George Foreman to be able to get
out without being killed.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Despite everyone's doubt in his long shot chance at victory,
Muhammad Ali invites Gerald Ford, the new President of the US,
to watch the title fight. Ali even sends a personal
note to the President by way of the US Embassy
in Zaiir.
Speaker 9 (08:35):
It is my wish that you, your family and aids
have the opportunity to witness my championship fight with George Foreman.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Remember how President Nixon had a special feed installed in
the White House just so he could watch Ali lose
to Joe Frasier back in seventy one, and when Ali
did indeed lose to Smokin' Joe. As Ali biographer Jonathan
Ig documents, quote in the White House, Nixon rejoiced, cheering
the defeat of that draft dodger asshole. Ali offers President
(09:06):
Ford a new closed circuit TV broadcast feed, basically his
own pay per view stream, but Nixon's replacement, President Ford,
he doesn't care about the outcome of the rumble in
the Jungle. President Ford's appointment, Secretary Warren Rustin, replies to Ali,
the President has asked me to thank you for your
thoughtfulness in offering to arrange for a closed circuit telecast
(09:29):
to the White House. Unfortunately, the President will be traveling
outside Washington at that time and will be unable to
take advantage of your kind offer. But for the rest
of the world, Muhammad Ali still holds the power to
cause heads to turn his way and to watch to
see if he can reclaim his crown. But that is
very much in doubt since.
Speaker 10 (09:50):
Ali was not in favor. Alli wasn't anyone's goat at
that time. Ali was not thought of in the magnificent
way we think of him now.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
For anyone who knew the fight the obvious seemed exactly that.
When it came to Ali.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
This guy was done.
Speaker 10 (10:05):
He was on the descent, and once you descend as
a fighter, it's steep.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
All that was left to do now was for the
two boxers to step inside the ring and let fate decide.
Their heavyweight title fight is scheduled for fifteen rounds, far
longer than modern bouts. At the way in. Muhammad Ali
tips the scales at two hundred and sixteen pounds. Muhammad
Ali stands six foot three and has a seventy eight
(10:31):
inch reach.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
The stage is set.
Speaker 9 (10:35):
When I whooped this man, I want to be declared
by all as the greatest of all time. I'm thirty
two years old. My legs are gone. This man is strong.
You talking about how great he was. Now we gonna see.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
George Foreman weighs in at two twenty He's barely four
pounds heavier than Ali, and he stands an inch taller
at six foot four. Foreman also had as a longer
eighty two inch reach.
Speaker 11 (11:02):
I am the danger. I am the one to be
afraid of. Definitely, I'm the one who can hit you
and knock you unconscious.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Now the quotes you're about to hear are performed by actors,
and they all come straight out of the autobiographies of
our two great boxers, the record of how they remembered
it as such, it's through their words will tell how
their fight went down.
Speaker 11 (11:25):
At four o'clock in the morning on October thirtieth, nineteen
seventy four, I awaited my fate in the locker room.
Speaker 9 (11:32):
I wondered if it would feel strange to strip down
for a fight at four am and Zayia Africa.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But it feels the same.
Speaker 9 (11:38):
As stripping down for a fight at nine pm in
Madison Square Garden, the corresponding time in New York, the
usual fight time.
Speaker 11 (11:46):
Who'd ever fought at four am? But it wasn't four
in the morning where it count back home? There it
was prime time. And we will live be at satellite
the focus of the world's attention.
Speaker 9 (11:58):
We're at the door has circled the editorial of a
magazine and reads it in my ear like a prayer quote.
So it boils down to this form and Ali five
million dollars each in a battle is Zaia Africa. Forget
everything else, every fight that has been won or lost before,
and all of those that will be contested in years
(12:18):
to come. Forget every battle of man against man, of
mine against mine, of soul against soul.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
This is the one, This is the greatest.
Speaker 9 (12:27):
A nod to him. Mundini's voice is husky. He then
cries out loud. The lambs come back to claim his crown,
get the pretender off his throne.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Meanwhile, there are all these small quiet thoughts, the inner
monologue only he can hear.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I feel chilly, nervous.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I want to pee, but now there is no time
for that, because it's finally time to go. Just as
he leaves his dressing room, a young Zayarean reporter asks
the People's champ.
Speaker 9 (12:57):
What does the fighter think these last minutes? I think
of who I am and who my opponent is. Who
is he? He is white America, Christianity, the flag, the
white man, puck chops. But George is the champion, and
the world listens to the champion. There are things I
want to say, the things I want the world to hear.
(13:20):
I want to be in a position to fight for
my people. Whatever I have to do tonight, George will
not leave Africa the champion.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
It's time.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Up from the bowels of the stadium, up through the
hallways and corridors. Ali makes his way.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
They push and pull us through the door.
Speaker 9 (13:39):
We're out in the hall now, and people jammed in
the corridor see me the chance start Ahli ahli whoomaye
ah ni ah ni bhoom ayek. The sound booms through
the corridor, stays with us until we make the turn
up the ramp to the opening into the stadium.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
The People's champ emerges. He strides out into the state
for all to see.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
It's a quarter to four.
Speaker 9 (14:03):
The moon is still out, but the stadium is lit
up like how knew. Spotlights crisscross searching for my crew,
and when the light finds them, the stadium explodes from
all sides.
Speaker 8 (14:14):
Ali whomayy Aimi whuma yay.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
It doesn't take long for Ali to push through to
the ring.
Speaker 9 (14:24):
I reached the four steps to the ring, climb up
to my corner and see the full sweep of the stadium.
People are on the walls, on the tracks, every space
is filled. They cheer, and I raise my hand and
salute them back. They respond as though we've been rehearsing
together all of our lives.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
As he waits for foreman to come out, Ali studies
the crowd.
Speaker 9 (14:48):
I understand George's play. He thinks he will make me
nervous warm legend by the time the fight begins.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But he had given me an age.
Speaker 9 (14:57):
I know how to take advantage of a chance to
study the crowd, to get to know their ego, their personality.
Crowds exert pressure on you. Every crowd feels stranger first,
no matter who they cheer for.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
But when I warm up, I feel their good vibration.
The post beats.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Also, most importantly, even more than his study of the crowd,
there is the fact George.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Is giving me time to test the ropes and to get.
Speaker 9 (15:25):
The feel of the distance between the center and the corner.
I circle the ring instead of starting out cold. My
feet get the feel of the canvas, the soft spots,
the firm spots.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
All He takes his time to check the crowd. He
searches for specific faces.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I look around ringside, not the people I know.
Speaker 9 (15:44):
I see Jim Brown, Miriam mccamble, Lord Price, Bill Withers.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I nod to depress.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Finally, George Foreman emerges from the bowels of the stadium,
like a gladiator in ancient Rome, prepared to step before
the crowd and kill a man to give them all
a thrill. That's how he feels.
Speaker 11 (16:05):
I climbed into the ring, accompanied by temperatures and scattered booms.
I looked over at Mohammed in his corner, clowning around.
When he wouldn't return my stand, I knew for sure
that he was afraid of me.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
The fight game is all about ego. It's vitally important
that both fighters believe that the other boxer fears him,
or at least the other boxer should.
Speaker 12 (16:29):
Wow referees that Clayton gave us instructions. Mohammad finally looked
me and die. We glad at each other. My only
thought was to knock him out earth.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
That's when the People's champ looks for Himan dead in
the eye, and Ali begins talking mad trash. Once the
Louisville lip starts talking, well, he don't stop, chunk.
Speaker 9 (16:50):
I say, with all the contempt, haking mustard, you're gonna
get yourself beat tonight in front of all these Africans.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
The referee warns Ali about talking, but Ali just keeps
drilling his way into foreman's head.
Speaker 9 (17:03):
You heard about me for years, sucker, All your life
gonna be hearing about Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Now Trump, you're gonna face me.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
The referee warns Ali again that he will disqualify it.
Ali backs off a bit, but he will keep talking
all throughout this fight.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I've never fought in the stadium like this. I feel at.
Speaker 9 (17:24):
Home so much so I look across at George and
take his measurements as though I'm a undertak As Taylor
outfitting for the suit he's to wear in his casket.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Before the ring bell dings to begin the first round,
Muhammad Ali reflects on something legendary fight trainer Cus Tomato
once told him about facing a bully like George Foreman.
Speaker 10 (17:55):
Ali had great respect for custom model. Cuss was like
a lot of people in boxing, part visionary, part crack pot.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
But Ali believed in you.
Speaker 10 (18:05):
And before the fight, Ali calls and starts to pick
his brain. De Motto understands the psychology of a bully
and he tells Ali the first thing you have to
do is punched the bully in the mouth. Go hit
him with the right hand right off the bat.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Ali plans to do exactly that, come out throwing blows.
Foreman certainly won't expect that another person close to Ali.
His former manager Gene Kilroy, who was on the pre
fight call with Customatto and Ali. He told Mark Kriegel.
Speaker 10 (18:36):
This is the way Kilwoye tells me the story. You
must turn strength into a weakness. Your first punch must
be one of devastating tenacity. Mohammed So I asked Kilroy,
like we shore like devastating Kanascius.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
What did I say?
Speaker 10 (18:50):
It's all offended, devastating tenacity.
Speaker 13 (18:52):
Ali was not a knockout puncher, but I think he
wanted to, you know, send a message early on to foremantave.
Speaker 10 (18:58):
Without question that strategy perfectly, and he's sending a message
to the bully. I'm not playing to the script.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Before the fight begins, Ali's great rival, Joe Fraser joins
the announcer's table for a pre fight interview. Surprising no one,
Joe Fraser picks Foreman to win the fight, but surprising himself,
Joe Fraser agrees to stay at the announcer's table and
call the whole fight. He joins announcers David Frost, Jim Brown,
and Bob Sheridan. Joe Fraser is the rare man who
(19:30):
fought both Ali and Foreman, and he says of his
rivals quote, I think it should be a real good fight.
Speaker 12 (19:38):
I fell open and bailed. Muhammed becomes a rabbit.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Following Customato's advice, Ali comes out and he lands the
first punch.
Speaker 9 (19:47):
Move out and dance straight into George. Throw a fast left.
He's barren down on me, and I dance away.
Speaker 12 (19:53):
And flick out some more jabs. He flick a jab
at me and run me.
Speaker 11 (19:57):
I rushed him like a tiger, hard shot after hard shot,
but he was one tough rabbit to catch even tighter.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Ali dances in close. He throws a right hand lead
followed by a left jab. The combo causes the crowd
to erupt in the first big roar of the fight.
Then Ali dances away. Foreman works Ali into a corner.
Foreman raises his hands like a big cat raises its paws.
Fighting from the corner, Ali throws a sloppy punch.
Speaker 9 (20:28):
I say nothing for the first full minute, But if
he thinks this is gonna be all work and no education,
he's mistaken.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
After the midway point, around one, Ali starts.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Talking chun, now's your chance, show me.
Speaker 12 (20:41):
What you got.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Foreman comes after Ali. He throws his big, sweeping blows.
Foreman uses his size and his brute strength. He pushes
Ali around the ring, literally shoving Ali. Ali sneaks in
quick punches when he can, but Foreman counters with a powerful.
Speaker 14 (21:00):
Left round one. Foreman comes out and looks like he's
clabbering Ali.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Any one of Foreman's punches could send a man to
the hospital for a six week stay. They may not
be pretty punches, but their fury cannot be denied. By
the halfway point of the first round, Foreman's face is
this mask of anger. He throws lunging, angry punches. When
they do connect, Ali absorbs the blow, then clinches up.
(21:27):
He locks up Foreman's arms. The furious puncher can't get
his rhythm going. Instead, Foreman must wait for the ref
to separate them.
Speaker 11 (21:35):
Somehow, we always ended up on the ropes or in
the corner, with me wailing away and him covering up, and.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I Jam jail Jam.
Speaker 11 (21:45):
Didn't throw himself with knockout punches that couldn't find their back.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
When Foreman's thunderous punches do hit their mark, Ali winces
in pain. Ali looks like he's getting hitting the gut
with a sledgehammer.
Speaker 14 (22:00):
Several right hands to start the fight. Ali is backed
against the ropes. He's backed into a corner for him
and is cutting off the ring on him, and it's like,
oh my god, Ali, I mean he could lose in
the first round.
Speaker 9 (22:14):
George is executing what he's practiced for months. He's cutting
the ring off and forcing me to move six steps
to his two, and he's doing it better than anybody
I've been up against. I've had fighters chase me, most
fighters chase me, but I make them match me step
for step. George is the first fighter to consistently cut
me off. He corners me for a few seconds, and
(22:36):
I find myself lying against the ropes.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
That is the worst place to be against jackhammer fisted
George Forman.
Speaker 9 (22:44):
The champion, moves in throwing long rights and lets haymaker hooks.
He's at the peak of his strength and he hurls
one left his anywhere punch that strikes me and makes
me feel exactly as boss Man Jones described it.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Dance champ Dance.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Are desperate for Ali to escape. Foreman, He's getting killed
out there.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
Everybody was telling him that you better run. You know,
that whole thing about dancing was all based on, you know,
the idea that you better move or you're gonna get killed.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And he started off with that belief. However, once Ali's
in the ring, things change.
Speaker 9 (23:18):
All during training, I had planned to stay off the ropes.
Now I move off and circle the rings. But before
the end of the round, I know I've got to
change my plans.
Speaker 12 (23:28):
His only offense was that famous clicking jam.
Speaker 11 (23:31):
It comes so fast that you could barely see, let
alone counter each time he threw.
Speaker 12 (23:36):
When I think, man, that's.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
A quick jam, it's also a calculated move. Ali is
sizing up his opponent and hoping for one good targeted strike.
Speaker 11 (23:45):
I soon figured out that he was trying to open
the cutover my eye, but I wasn't worried any minute.
I knew he was going down, just as every other opponent.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
Of mine had.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Foreman swaggering over confidence keeps him from seeing what's right
in front of him. Instead, he sees this fight is
no different than his previous bouts. That's a mistake, and
the round ends.
Speaker 14 (24:09):
Everyone is like, oh, thank God, what's gonna happen in
the second.
Speaker 9 (24:12):
Round When the first round is over, When I'm back
in my corner, Angelo's voice is urgent.
Speaker 12 (24:19):
Keep moving.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
You got to stay off those ropes.
Speaker 9 (24:22):
The only thing my corner man see out there is
that I need to move, But I see something else.
In his first three minutes, I felt George's power, and
I understand how Fraser and Norton would.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Destroy Ali can feel it all through his body. Everything
already hurts. He knows he can't go fifteen rounds with
Big George Foreman. When asked, Joe Frazier scores the first round,
even as Lewis Ehrenberg points out this was always more
than a fight between two boxers.
Speaker 14 (24:53):
The emotional sense of that the audience is like death.
I mean, this is is the hero of the moment,
the great freedom fighter, the person who would challenge American policy,
represent freedom for African Americans, fighting against the guy who
waved the flag, who supported American policy, etc. Anyway, Foreman
(25:20):
is just pounding Ali.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
After that first round. The future is still up for grabs.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Lay round you. I moved to the center, Jeb and dance,
and Jeb.
Speaker 14 (25:34):
Foreman comes out. Ali tries to rush into the center
of the ring.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
But I know that my danger is in the dance.
Is six death to Georgia's.
Speaker 14 (25:42):
Three and he just he can't find a way to
get off. Foreman is much better at cutting off the ring.
Ali's back on the ropes and it's like, oh, no
more of this.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Foreman keeps his gloves up at head height. With his
guard up, it makes it near impossible for Ali to
get in close, and Ali does Fororman just shoves Ali
around the ring. Foreman treats Ali like he's a pile
of laundry.
Speaker 11 (26:06):
I unleashed a torn of punches, none of which really
found its mark.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
But Foreman still can't land that knockout punch.
Speaker 12 (26:14):
Muhammed was a master covering.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Meanwhile, all these cornermen keep shouting at him.
Speaker 9 (26:24):
But I've moved into a corner and my back is
against the ropes. George eagerly comes in after me for
the first time in all my fights. I decide to
not wait until I'm tied to play the ropes, but
to take the corners while I'm fresh and strong, to gamble.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
On the ropes all the way.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Thirty seconds into the round, Foreman lands a brutal left
right combat. It whips Ali's head back, but again the
boxers clinch and wrap up. The ref steps in separates
them Ali looks dazed.
Speaker 9 (26:56):
George just blows, exploding into my kidneys, my rigs, my head.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I lean that, I slip and slide.
Speaker 9 (27:03):
I catch some of my arms off my elbows, but
I stay on the ropes, get off the ropes, jamp move.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
But they don't know what I know.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Ali relies on his elusive speed and his ability to
dodge punches. But he's not young anymore, and any one
of Foreman's head hunting punches can knock out Ali. If
Foreman can turn his jaw, if he can catch him
on the temple, that's it. Lights out. Ali must keep dodging,
deflecting knockout blow after knockout blow.
Speaker 10 (27:35):
At some point you ask yourself, who would be willing
to take that? Your brain, cells, your kidneys, your liver.
What's the price of that?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Finally comes relief.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
When the bell rings. I go back to my corner.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
I see concern, confusion, and fear in the eyes of
my corner man. They have strong advice about what I
should do, But my head is on the line.
Speaker 11 (27:58):
Not this.
Speaker 9 (28:00):
The hot breadth of the monster, and they do not
know what I know.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
What could Ali possibly know?
Speaker 12 (28:07):
Well?
Speaker 9 (28:08):
He knows this in the gym practicing year after year.
I've discovered something that heavyweights usually burned down when the
wide open opportunity to punch and punch is in.
Speaker 12 (28:19):
Front of them.
Speaker 9 (28:21):
But this is a gamble now because George is the
strongest heavyweight in the world.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
It's one of the greatest gambles in professional sports history.
Ali is literally risking death.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
When he stopped running after the first round and decided
to lay on the ropes against everybody's I mean, as corner.
Nobody knew that he was going to do that. He
didn't know that he was going to do that. But
when he started to do that and was taking this punishment,
it was fearsome, just fearsome.
Speaker 14 (28:50):
And this continues to the third round.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Despite the risks, Ali is fully convinced of his strategy
to go the distance. Also, Alli knows something that George
Foreman doesn't, something he learned from losing.
Speaker 9 (29:06):
George has twenty three knockout victims behind him. It's gotta
be hard for him to believe that the same methods
he used on the others will not make me the
twenty fourth. Can I make George the victim of his
own fantastic success? In a few seconds, the bell for
round three will ring.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
George has not had to go beyond round three in
five years.
Speaker 9 (29:27):
He will come to me now with all He's got,
Everything in his ego and his psyche is at stake now.
Speaker 14 (29:37):
Third round Ali starts to fight back, and there's a
sense in the audience. I mean, I remember, I felt
it like, you know, he's losing, but he's not being
knocked out.
Speaker 12 (29:47):
What's going on again?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Foreman backs Ali into the ropes, but Ali keeps landing punches,
sneaking in those flicking jabs.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I move quick and shoot jabs with steam. Pow pow pow.
Speaker 9 (30:00):
George blinks but moves forward like a big tank. He
controls the center of the ring as though he expects me.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
To challenge him. But I go back to the ropes
in the corner and I call to him, all right, sucking,
this is where you want me. Come on man.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Nearly a minute into the third round, Ali lands a
super fast right hand lead that makes Foreman's head whip back.
Speaker 14 (30:24):
Ali, you know, could get under anybody's skin, and he
got under Foreman's. I mean, Foreman is just you know,
throwing bombs, and all he's saying is that all you got?
And Foreman is thinking, I'll show you what I got,
and he unloads more bombs that you know don't do
the job.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Foreman's anger is causing him to throw lunging punches off balance.
Desperate to connect.
Speaker 9 (30:46):
I lean back, but he stays on top of me.
I'm amazed at how he can pack power into every punch.
Every punch is a haymaker. I blocked him from my head.
Speaker 12 (30:56):
Not until the third round that I lay in a
solid baker.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
When he does, he lands one hell of a blow.
He nearly knocks Ali out.
Speaker 9 (31:05):
Suddenly he switches comes up from the floor with a
number cut and that seems to blow my jaw.
Speaker 11 (31:10):
Muhammed looked at me as if to say, hey, I'm
not gonna take that off for you now.
Speaker 12 (31:15):
That made me happy.
Speaker 11 (31:16):
Because I thought then that he finally stand told of
told with me, his pride getting the better of his intelligence.
Speaker 12 (31:22):
No way could he win a slugging match to me.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We both knew back Foreman's finally done it. He's stunned
and surprised. Ali.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
I'm hurt.
Speaker 9 (31:31):
I try to hold on get off the rope stirs
tip starts.
Speaker 11 (31:36):
He backed into the ropes and began covering up to
avoid another.
Speaker 12 (31:39):
Barage of heavy shots.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I try to move off, but he pushes me back
like a rag dog.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
George Foreman can smell blood. He circles closer, looking for
that killer knockout shot.
Speaker 11 (31:51):
I beat on him mercilessly, trying to connect with one
of those home run punch.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
I just sat there watching round after round of him
taking this kind of abuse, thinking at any moment that
he could get seriously hurt.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
The relentless violence starts to take a toll on Ali.
He can barely think straight.
Speaker 9 (32:10):
The tune and four in my head is humming. I've
got to hold on. I've got to keep him from
following up. George senses that I'm hurt and he's coming
for the quille.
Speaker 12 (32:20):
I block, move back, and weave.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
It's the longest round I've ever fought in my life.
Speaker 9 (32:25):
But near the end my head begins to clee.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
As self defense, he throws a flurry of left and rights.
Old as he is, Ali still has the same stunning
hand speed.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
The crowd roars. They come to life, as if they're
seeing me rise from the dead.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
When the round ends, both fighters retreat to their corners.
George Foreman realizes just how close he came to knocking
out Ali.
Speaker 11 (32:52):
At the sound of the bell and in the round, Muhammad's
face looked like he'd just seen a maer.
Speaker 12 (32:58):
He hanged his own some he was still on his feet.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
If he's honest with himself, that's exactly how Ali feels.
Speaker 9 (33:06):
But the round of my execution is over, and all
I do now is plot the time when my turn comes,
I take a deep swig from my water bottle and
wash the blood out of my mouth.
Speaker 11 (33:17):
Back in my corner, Saddler and Archie Moore insisted that
I keep up the pounding, but I was nearly exhausted.
I couldn't understand why I fought only three rounds yet
felt like I'd gone fifteen.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Meanwhile, over in all Lee's.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Corner, Bundini is crying, Jim, he gotta move. He got
a stick and move. He wants you on the ropes.
Don't let him. Angelo is desperate.
Speaker 9 (33:43):
I rarely ask for advice from my corner and seldom
accept what they say. And now, more than any time,
I know they do not understand what's happening out there.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
While his cornerman don't see it, the crowd does.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
The stadium crowd is all.
Speaker 9 (33:58):
I'm listening to Ali boo manaye, Ali Boomaye. They chanting lengala,
but I know that bou maye means knock him down,
kill him dead.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
They've seen me take the worst shilling I've had in
my life, and they still believe I can take the fighter.
It's like a charge of electricity.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
This is the spark. Ali desperately needs the people's love.
Then he spots one of his friends.
Speaker 9 (34:27):
I remember looking down at ringside, my eyes meet Jim Brown's.
Brown has publicly predicted George will knock me out. I
lean out of the ring. Jim Brown, You've been on
the wrong horse this second. Don't have a chance.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
You lost your money. He can't find no better than
you can.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Act with that. Ali is ready for round four.
Speaker 14 (34:49):
From then on, the fight became pretty clear.
Speaker 12 (34:54):
In the next round, we continue playing predator and pray.
Speaker 14 (34:59):
Foreman comes out. He backs Ali to the corner of
the ropes or Ali retreats quickly, and they're playing lethal
patty cake.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Early in the fourth, Ali lands a quick combo. It
staggers Foreman eyes blank. He's stunned.
Speaker 11 (35:15):
He'd hit me with one shot, usually the jack, but
sometimes the right didn't run. He had to because when
he faced me, I placed my left foot between both
of his feet. That meant his alternatives were to either
stand in front of me and fight or move back,
So of course he moved.
Speaker 12 (35:32):
Backwards and cover it up.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
In response, Foreman keeps closing off the ring, working Ali
back into a corner where Foreman can throw haymakers and
terrifying uppercuts.
Speaker 10 (35:44):
And he hits one right hands all night, right hand leaves,
and they're beautiful, I mean, in a brutal sort of way.
Speaker 14 (35:50):
Foreman is pounding away right in front of Ali, and
Ali is dodging, slipping, sliding, moving, punching, slipping, sliding, moving, punching, punching,
and you know, Foreman is getting tagged, and Foreman is
looking a little tired.
Speaker 11 (36:05):
In the fourth round, I was finally able to land
a thunder and right on the back of his neck.
It weakened, and I knew if I could land another
one like that, he go.
Speaker 12 (36:14):
Down and down.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Foreman finally lines up Ali the way he'd been waiting
to a clean shot at his head.
Speaker 11 (36:21):
But when I loaded up the weapon and cocked it,
I saw something that made me pull back instead. It
was the face of a friend sitting at ringside who
happened to be directly.
Speaker 12 (36:33):
In my line of vision.
Speaker 11 (36:35):
Between when I threw the first shot and prepared to
throw the second, he began waving his arms wildly and screaming.
Speaker 12 (36:41):
Bull He hit him behind the neck. He's cheating a
man I considered family was rooting against me.
Speaker 11 (36:49):
In a state of shock, I couldn't deliver the punch
that probably would have ended the fight.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Right there Foreman doesn't take the shot. He misses his moment?
Why because he's sensitive. His big tough act is surly mask.
His imitation of Sonny listing it all fails him in
the moment he needs it most.
Speaker 11 (37:10):
My hurt and disappointment and that thinking lessen whatever power
I had left, and there wasn't much of it.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Now he's in his head.
Speaker 12 (37:19):
I wondered what happened to my stamina.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Indeed, his legs start to go rubbery. The fight announcer
questions Foreman's endurance. He isn't alone.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
Man.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
I was tired.
Speaker 11 (37:31):
I could barely get off the store between rounds. Even so,
Sadler was instructing me to continue my fearsome attack. This
contradicted his usual advice which was to slowly, carefully build
to the knockout.
Speaker 12 (37:45):
Get him. He said, he can't last another round.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
When round five begins, with all the might he has left,
Foreman continues to hammer away at all these arms, his body,
haymaker after haymaking. He's desperate now to get Ali to
drop his arms, to lower his defenses. It's Foreman's only
hope to set up a knockout shot. It's clear that
(38:10):
Foreman can't last fifteen rounds fighting this way. But Ali
doesn't look like he can go the distance either. He's
no longer dancing. His feet are now planted flat on
the canvas, his back lying against the ropes. Ali just
absorbs blow after blow.
Speaker 10 (38:28):
If you look at the body shots that Ali took
in round five, the will and the ego that's required
to stand through that no one else had been able
to stand through, that Ken Norton couldn't stand through, that
he didn't last too. Here we are in five and
Foreman is wailing away in his body.
Speaker 9 (38:45):
George keeps driving all like a one way tank, every
ounce of his two hundred and twenty pounds behind his blows.
I'm draining him, but it's coming near time. When I've
got to go all out before he gets his second win.
Tied as he is, it will take the heaviest blows
I've ever thrown to bring him down.
Speaker 10 (39:04):
Look, there's not that much size difference between the two guys.
We think of them differently, and they move differently, and
Ali is much more.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Fluid and beautiful in the way that he moves.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
But he's not really that.
Speaker 10 (39:17):
Much of a smaller map.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
But he was certainly the more strategic fighter, and that
made all the difference. As Foreman sees it, Ali was.
Speaker 11 (39:27):
Helped by an apparently loose top rope, which allowed him
to lean.
Speaker 12 (39:31):
Way out of the ring, his head beyond my reach.
Speaker 11 (39:34):
No one in my camp had checked the ropes before
the fight, why bother For years now, my fight playing
had been to take off my rode, get a quick knockout,
put the rode back on, and return to the dressing room.
Who worried about toughness and slackness of the ropes. Now
Mohammed was the beneficiary of that lack of attention to detail.
Speaker 10 (39:55):
First of all, if you ever lean against the ropes,
it's not like they're made of steal hard barrier. They
get He's a big guy. You can lean far back
on a rope, especially if you're close to like you
know two twenty five.
Speaker 12 (40:07):
I think that the.
Speaker 10 (40:08):
Ropes may have helped him evade some of the functions
or absorb some more. But look, he had to catch
those shots anyway. And if you look at the body
shots he's taking, it's like a cartoon with these big
wind up shots the foreman is hitting with around the
mid section. In the fifth, he's not hitting the ropes.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Despite how well the ropeodope is working for ali foreman's
corner doesn't change tactics.
Speaker 11 (40:33):
They could have said to back off around or two,
catch my breast and let him come to me. He'd
have to if you wanted to win, because by then
he was far behind on points.
Speaker 12 (40:44):
But because these guys counseled me to attack, attack, attack,
I did. Their job was to give me advice. Mine
was to take it.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
The bell rings for round six. Both fighters are winded,
their backs glistening with sweat, their faces beginning to swell
from all the punches to their heads. They dig down
into their will to go on.
Speaker 14 (41:12):
And it continues this way through the fourth through the
seventh round.
Speaker 11 (41:16):
The sad part was that my blows, which numbered at
least five to one over his, were met by the
crowd with utter silence.
Speaker 12 (41:23):
Each one of Mohammad's.
Speaker 11 (41:24):
Little jams brought tumultuous crimes. I was winning these rounds,
but Muhammad Ali owned their hearts and minds more completely
with every punch he absorbed for them.
Speaker 12 (41:36):
This had become a morality play. Muhammad was good and
I was evil.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
The narrative Ali created months if not years before, takes
hold inside that ring in Zaiir. But Foreman still can't
understand why he isn't the hero of the people.
Speaker 11 (41:54):
It was because of me, as a champion that this
fight had been staged in Zaire. George Foreman, not Muhammad Ali,
had tried to do something grand for Africa, had brought
the television cameras to show off Africa to the world,
had made the Africans proud of themselves. I wanted them
to love me too, and for some reason they didn't.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
There's nothing he can do. The people love Ali because
they know he fights for them. They can feel it.
And when Ali needs them, all he has to do
is raise his fists.
Speaker 10 (42:31):
There's a moment in the fight where he no longer
has to taunt forman. After the sixth round, he turns
to the audience and he starts exhorting the audience, waving
to the crowd, and you can hear the chant go
up and it's almost like the final act has begun.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
Between rounds, Joe Fraser gives his assessment of the fight.
He says, foreman his quote fighting foolish. I don't think
he's in bad shape. I think he's fighting real foolish.
I made the statement earlier. Anything can happen. This man
has got experience, this man has got youth. It all
depends on how he's trained for him. And Ali is
fighting smart. What started as a contest of speed versus
(43:22):
strength now in the seventh round, morphs into an endurance contest,
which begs the question who can outlast the other.
Speaker 11 (43:31):
In the seventh round, Muhammed noticed that I was getting tired,
that my shots weren't hurting as much. He said, come on, George,
show me something. Is that all you got?
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Man?
Speaker 9 (43:43):
I talked to him like an old friend, louder and louder.
You gone sixth round, sucker, and you ain't hit me yet?
Who said you can hit? Come on, I'll give you
a chance. Swing, sucker swing.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
In the seventh round, there's no doubt.
Speaker 14 (43:58):
Ali looks stronger, and he's still in danger. He's still
on the ropes. But in the audience there's a sense of,
wait a minute, something weird is going on.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
That something weird was the flow of momentum switching directions.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I clinch him tightly, and I give him my best advice.
Speaker 9 (44:16):
You got eight more rounds to go, Sucker, eight more rounds,
and look at how.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Tired you are.
Speaker 9 (44:22):
I even got started yet, and you out of breath,
look at you, out of gas, and I'm whipping you.
Speaker 11 (44:29):
I figured, okay, I'm just going to play around man,
catch him talking and let him try to hit me.
When he tries, I'll knock him out.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
So Foreman keeps trying to set up his lethal knockout shot.
That's Foreman's only plan at this point.
Speaker 11 (44:44):
But then Angelo Dundee Mohammed's training must have divined my plan.
He yelled out, don't play with him, sucker, don't play.
He understood the damage I could do. Angelo's warning seemed
to sober Muhammed a little. He stopped playing around and talking.
Speaker 9 (45:00):
He throws a long, almost slow motion swing, Hai, and
I block it and come in.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
With two quick jabs to his face.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
All of Ali's roadwork helps him to last, gives him
the legs and the endurance that he can trust.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
But still the bell rings and I feel the pain
all over me.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
The question is can Ali keep taking all that pain?
Speaker 9 (45:27):
Even my corner man now saying something is being turned around.
I sit down, but I feel uneasy. The pace is
killing George, but it's also taking a heavy toll on me.
I've got to go for the kill before he gets
his second win. I know the champion is more exhausted
than I am, but how long.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Can I stand under this barrage?
Speaker 9 (45:49):
I remember catching the eye of a tall African girl
walking by flashing the number of the upcoming round.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
She winks at me. I'll wink back and feel better.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
While it's shocking that Muhammad Ali has lasted seven rounds
against big George Foreman, the people clearly believe their champ
will win this bout somehow, but Ali, he's not so sure.
Ali can feel his body starting to fail him, the
hot pain with each breath, the humidity that's making it
(46:24):
hard to breathe. However, when Ali looks across the ring,
he sees Foreman is worse off than him. That gives
Ali new hope, same as the wink did.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Clear brown it.
Speaker 9 (46:37):
George storms out, still only one thing on his mind, knockout.
But now his blows come slower, take longer to reach me.
I know fine pain are inside his stomach and lungs,
and every breath.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Is torture, just as it is for me.
Speaker 9 (46:54):
I see him draw back for a mighty swing, all
his power, and I slip aside as he tame himself
in the ropes sucker.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
I say, you miss me, Byma, you look bad.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
Hum Lewis Ehrenberg remembers, well, how for Foreman.
Speaker 14 (47:11):
In the eighth He's desperate, He's out of gas, he's hurting,
he's winded, and Ali looks fresher and fresher.
Speaker 6 (47:21):
In the eighth round. All of a sudden, I can
just see there's something changing here. Ollie was still standing.
There was miraculous that he was still standing there. And
then I'd seen Ali turn the tide really quick on
other fights, so I knew that he had the capability
if he had anything left, and remarkable that he still
had that left.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
I keep my eyes pinned on his eyes. I never
even blink. I don't want to miss anything his face
might say, and his eyes tell me. Every day, as
I watch him pull himself back.
Speaker 9 (47:50):
Into the rings, I suddenly think of Joe Frasier. Have
I been treating George like he's another Fraser?
Speaker 3 (47:58):
For Ali? Joe Frasers his measure of a true fighter,
a man like him who's prepared to die in the ring.
Speaker 9 (48:06):
If you knock down Fraser, he'll almost get up before
he hits the canvas and come back at you.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
His heart is a lion.
Speaker 9 (48:14):
When Fraser comes at you, his blood and marrow and
muscles all scream at you.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
If you can't kill me, get out of my way,
or I'll kill you.
Speaker 12 (48:22):
He'll fight way.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Beyond exhaustion and still come on.
Speaker 9 (48:26):
Even when his lungs are tired and burning, every ounce
of blood is drained.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Out of him. He still keeps coming, whatever the price
you'll pay it. George looks like King Kong when he
comes at you. But does he have the heart.
Speaker 9 (48:41):
Of a Joe Lewis Rocky Marciano a Joe Fraser?
Speaker 3 (48:45):
This is the real question of the moment. Does George
Foreman have the heart to outlast, to persevere? He thinks
He just needs one good punch.
Speaker 9 (48:56):
Only a man who knows what it is to be
defeated can read down to the bottom of his soul
and come up with the extra und to power it
takes to win. When the match is either I know
George wants to keep the champion's crown. He wants the crown,
But is he willing to pay the price? Would he
lay out his life?
Speaker 3 (49:16):
How far is foreman willing to go to remain world champion?
At this point, Ali knows it's.
Speaker 9 (49:24):
Time to go all out, toe to toe.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
He's up and he's ready.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Now I gotta go lay it all down on the line. Now.
Speaker 9 (49:33):
Look, if the price of winning is to be a
broken jaw, a smash nose, a crack skull, a disfigured face.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
Ali is prepared to pay whatever price he must for glory.
Speaker 9 (49:45):
If you want to wear a crown, you could play
it careful only until you meet a man who will
die before he lets you win. When that happens, well
then you have to lay it all down on the
line or back down and be damned forever.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Muhammad Ali ain't about to be damned forever. He has
Allah on his side. He has the crowd on his side.
Ali feels the eyes of the world watching him.
Speaker 9 (50:12):
The crowd eggs me on Ali, Ali, who by it.
Speaker 11 (50:19):
In the eighth round, I tried to entice Muhammed to
come to me, dropping my hands and I followed him
around the ring as if daring him to step into
my wear.
Speaker 12 (50:28):
There was no way he could hurt me.
Speaker 14 (50:30):
Foreman is exhausted. He has thrown so many punches, some
of them gotten through, but Ali is countered just about
every one of them from the fifth round on, and
Foreman cannot get off his major knockout cloths.
Speaker 3 (50:45):
At one point, Foreman nearly falls out of the ring
over the loose ring ropes. Ali sort of catches him
and keeps him from falling into the front row. The
ref separates the fighters. Foreman follows Ali right back to
the ropes like a dope.
Speaker 12 (51:01):
When he neared the ropes, I began pummeling him again.
Speaker 11 (51:04):
He was knocked backwards near the corner, then bounced to
the side.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
With less than thirty seconds left to go. In the
eighth round, Foreman lands a solid shot to Ali's face.
Foreman corners Ali, cutting off the ring. He starts to
work the body.
Speaker 14 (51:19):
Ali is on the ropes. Foreman is now stumbling after him,
trying to knock him out, and he stumbles a little
bit off balance.
Speaker 12 (51:29):
I turned to follow him and was leaning his way.
Speaker 14 (51:32):
His footwork is off.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Ali sees it. He throws a series of rights. Each
one is targeted, each one connects. Foreman is dazed. He stumbles.
He tries to defend himself. Ali lands a devastating left
right combo.
Speaker 11 (51:49):
When he threw a left right combination whose power was
multiplied by my leaning toward him.
Speaker 12 (51:55):
I tried to rebalance myself a right.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Hand George trying to lumber back to regain his paws.
Speaker 14 (52:03):
He turns and Ali just unloads on his chin.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
I should have straight right to his jaw, with all
the snapping power that's in me. I strike him almost
flush on the chin.
Speaker 9 (52:14):
Another think you're right.
Speaker 11 (52:15):
An as the combination struck ground zero on my chin.
I remember thinking, boy, I'm going down.
Speaker 9 (52:26):
I'm ready to follow through with the combination, but I
see he slowly falling.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
A day's look in his eye.
Speaker 11 (52:33):
Mohammed, I'm sure it was a surprised as album.
Speaker 14 (52:37):
There's the famous picture. At least to me, it seems
faintness of forming pirouetting slowly to the canvas, while Ali
looks like looking down on him like I did that.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
George is down. He's listening to the tuning forks coming
into his head.
Speaker 9 (52:56):
Matt's blowing saxophones, alligators, whistling, neon signs, blinket.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
The referee begins the count.
Speaker 12 (53:07):
Though I could have, I didn't get up immediately, because
in the days when there were no standing eight counts
that would allow a boxer to clear his senses before
re entering the fray, the custom developed to stay down
until eight. Instead of watching the referees count. You were
supposed to look for your cornumin sigma. Even as I did,
(53:29):
I could hear Zach Clayton's count.
Speaker 9 (53:34):
I watch every lift of the referees on. I remember
thinking again a Frasier, he would never lose the crown.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
Lying on the floor.
Speaker 9 (53:42):
No referee could count over his body as long as
he had blood in it.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Six, seven, eight. George is slowly turning over.
Speaker 11 (53:52):
He said eight, and Saddler motioned me up. I stood
at once, but Clayton waved me off with a quick count.
Ten became one word to me.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
Nine. Ten George is on his feet, but it's over.
Speaker 3 (54:09):
Foreman did not get up in time. He miscalculated the
ref's count, and that's how.
Speaker 14 (54:15):
Foreman is then counted out.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
It was over. The referee raises my head in.
Speaker 12 (54:20):
Victory, Ali and the crowd began to celebrate.
Speaker 15 (54:24):
This most joy of thing ever seen in hing.
Speaker 8 (54:28):
The place is going wildham and Ali has once the
thing he.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
Said was impossible.
Speaker 14 (54:34):
His Ali is a chairman. People are going nuts. Ali
Ali Ali Bo my Ali Bo my a my god.
Speaker 6 (54:44):
It was over.
Speaker 12 (54:46):
It was really.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
Over, like a controlled demolition. Everything comes down all at once.
Then Foreman feels the full way of it. What all
he's just lost.
Speaker 12 (55:03):
The magnitude of the loss began to hit me.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
The loss in zai ear before all the world marks
the beginning of a long, dark chapter in Foreman's life.
Speaker 11 (55:13):
In short order, I would become depressed beyond recognition, and
this fight would go down in boxing history. No less
than Norman Mayler wrote an entire book about it.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
This is a fight that he would dwell on for
years to come.
Speaker 12 (55:29):
I would be sorting it out for a long time.
Speaker 10 (55:36):
The reason we think of I'll leave the way we
do is because, more famously than anyone whoever boxed, he
beat the bully. The first was Listen. You know, Listen
was supposed to reign for decades. Same thing with Foreman.
He was going to be there forever, and I'll leave
beat both of them.
Speaker 14 (55:53):
He had proved himself after a very difficult career isolation,
losing his right to fight. This guy who had been
written off, just like he'd been written off with his
stand on Vietnam, had triumphed over tremendous odds. I mean,
Ali just seemed like a god, a sporting god who
(56:15):
now had to be taken seriously.
Speaker 10 (56:17):
Every once in a while, you see what is the
best about an individual soul on full display in the ring.
I think that that Knight in Zair happened to be
one of them, probably the greatest, most famous example. You
saw what was most noble in Ali's soul, and the audience,
(56:38):
you know, one billion people around the world, a quarter
of the Earth's population probably came to that conclusion on
mass Holy shit, Look what he did.
Speaker 3 (56:48):
Ali reclaims his stolen crown. He is now the undisputed
world champion the goat, and.
Speaker 13 (56:56):
It's overlooked just how brilliantly he fought when he wasn't
throwing punches. And of course we all know that the
robodote was successful, but we also should remember that the
rope a dope was not really a proven technique. It
was improvised and it was a move of desperation. It
was an act that he felt like was the only
way he could win. It's one of all these most
(57:17):
brilliant fights tactically.
Speaker 10 (57:19):
What this fight did, especially for the people who had
been predisposed to dislike him or to hate him from
way back, you could no longer argue.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
With his heroism.
Speaker 10 (57:32):
It was right there to see. If you watch the
fight in zai ear, you can no longer hate him,
and he could not have been remembered in the way
he is. There is no greatest of all time without
that fight.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
All that Cashus Clay endured, and all that Muhammad Ali
was forced to endure, all the pain and humiliation, the
lost relationships, the lost time, the constant doubts, the anger
and viterly all the condescension and it insults. All of
it led to and prepared Ali for this his crowning moment.
Speaker 13 (58:07):
Ali has been defeated by Frasier, and he's coming back
as an underdog, and he's also become a hero to
oppressed people everywhere. He's become the symbol of opposition, of rebellion.
He's the man who had the courage to stand up
to the most powerful government on earth and to take
their shots, to take their punishment. He's the baddest Black.
Speaker 14 (58:28):
Man on earth.
Speaker 7 (58:29):
The sheer joy and pride of the African peoples in
celebrating this symbol of strength and power and greatness and exceptionalism,
like Black African exceptionalism. That was Ali, and that anyone,
any Black people's anywhere across the diaspora could see themselves
(58:52):
in him was just magic.
Speaker 3 (59:00):
After the title bout ends, Norman Mahler fights and squeezes
his way into the New Champs dressing room. He's the
only reporter to shove his way inside. For this moment
of celebration.
Speaker 15 (59:13):
Ali sat on the rubbing table with his hands on
his knees, looking like a happy and tired host after
a good party. His face was unmarked except for a
small red bruise on his cheekbone. Maybe he never appeared
more handsome. He stared out like a child. I have
stolen the jam, said his eyes, and it tastes good.
(59:35):
Light twinkled in those eyes all the way back to
the beginning. Truth he looked like a castle all lit up.
Speaker 3 (59:52):
Next time on Rumble, the Legacy of the Rumble in
the Jungle.
Speaker 14 (59:56):
Foreman is a guy who didn't have much for him,
but he had boxing, and he had his strength, and
he is just undone.
Speaker 13 (01:00:06):
And that's why he continues to say that he was drugged,
that he didn't lose the fight.
Speaker 9 (01:00:10):
Legitimately, that's when he went home and sat down by
himself and realized that he had become somebody that he
did not want to be.
Speaker 10 (01:00:18):
Everyone's cheering and he's shaking, lighting the Olympic torch. That's
the price.
Speaker 12 (01:00:23):
They could still play the Trouble out, And I'll always
be amazed that would I die. I will leave something here.
Speaker 7 (01:00:29):
Who's going to have the stones to tell the stories
and to make the music and to write the things
that give people no choice but to feel.
Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
Rumbell is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
Rumbell is written and hosted by Zaren Burnett. The third
produced and directed by Julia Chriscal. Sound designed by Jesse
Niswanger and scoring by John Washington. Original music composed by
Jordan Manley and TJ. Merritt series concept by Gary Strong.
(01:01:00):
Executive producers are Jason English, Sean Titone, Gary Stromberg, Virginia Prescott,
el C. Crowley, and Brandon barr Our. Senior producer is
Amelia Brock. Production manager Daisy Church, fact checker Savannah Hugley.
Legal services provided by canoel Hanley PC. Additional production by
(01:01:21):
Claire Keating, Casting director Julia Chriscau. Casting support services provided
by Breakdown Express. Episode twelve cast Abraham.
Speaker 16 (01:01:30):
Amka as Muhammad Ali, Anthony Brandon Walker as George Foreman,
Wayne j As Howard Cosell, Jonah Weston as Norman Mahler.
If you like the show, let us know, like subscribe,
leave five star reviews. It really helps. Also check out
our show notes for a full list of reference materials.
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