Boxing icon Muhammad Ali — “The Greatest” — captured the No. 1 victory of his career in 1974 by knocking out George Foreman to win the “Rumble in the Jungle.”
Ali flattened the previously undefeated champion 2 minutes, 58 seconds into the eighth round in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire, but is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In addition to an epic effort that displayed his boxing gifts, the triumph touched upon the role of Ali — who died on Friday at age 74 — as a cultural hero. He reclaimed the world heavyweight crown he had not held since being banned from boxing in 1967 for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, a conviction overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1971.
Photo: AFP
Using his now-legendary “rope-a-dope” strategy, Ali played upon fears that at 32 he might be seriously outmatched by the larger, more intimidating and younger Foreman, then a 25-year-old who entered the ring at 40-0 with 37 knockouts.
Ali leaned on the ropes and covered up while Foreman pounded away at him, his deflected blows doing minimal damage while spending precious energy.
Ali taunted the champion into swinging away as the rounds wore on that October night, while the crowd chanted “Ali, boma ye” (Kill him, Ali).
Photo: AFP
Foreman began to tire, while Ali started landing fast jabs and hard punches. In the eighth round, Ali connected with a lightning-bolt right hand and Foreman stumbled to the canvas, beaten for the first time.
“Muhammad amazed me,” Foreman said. “I’ll admit it. He out-thought me. He outfought me. That night, he was just the better man in the ring.”
In the run-up to the fight, Ali uttered some of the most magical of his rhyming quips. Among them:
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee — his hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.”
“I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark.”
“I done something new for this fight. I done ’rassled with an alligator. I done tussled with a whale. I handcuffed lightning, I thrown thunder in jail.”
“Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”
Ali was diagnosed in 1984 with Parkinson’s disease, which ended the snappy banter that had been his trademark.
Foreman, who needed 20 years to regain the crown, could not deny Ali’s greatness.
“Muhammad Ali has always been bigger than boxing,” Foreman said in a 2014 essay on his Web site.
“I say Ali was the greatest man because there has never been a man so young and so good at what he did, give up so much,” he added.
“I say boxing is too small for Muhammad Ali. He changes the very world. No other boxer could do that,” Foreman said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB