October 30, 1974: The Rumble In the Jungle

October 30, 1974, 50 years ago: "The Rumble in the Jungle" is held in Kinshasa, in the former colony of Belgian Congo, at this point called Zaire, and since 1997 called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

George Foreman was the undefeated, undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, 40-0,  and heavily favored to defeat former champion Muhammad Ali, 44-2. Ali was talking his usual trash, but most people thought Ali would lose. Indeed, there were some who feared that Ali would be killed in the ring.

Ali fooled them all. People who say Ali just leaned against the ropes in his "rope-a-dope" strategy and let Foreman tire himself out with punches are fools. I've seen the tape of the fight: Ali got in a lot of punches, enough to win every round except for the 2nd and the 6th.

Foreman would later tell an interviewer that, at the end of the 6th, Ali yelled at him, "Is that all you got, George?" And Foreman had to admit, "Yup, that's about it."

Through a months-long psychological campaign, including practically the entire black population of the continent of Africa in his favor and against the equally black Foreman – he had done something similar to Joe Frazier, who was puzzled by it: "I'm darker than he is!" – Ali had gotten into Foreman's head, just as he had done to Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, and just about everybody else he'd ever fought.

The referee was Zack Clayton, who had played in baseball's Negro Leagues, and for one of the great pre-NBA all-black teams, the New York Renaissance Five.

In the 8th round, backed up against the ropes, Ali managed to turn an exhausted Foreman around, toss a few jabs, and knock him on his can. Foreman tried to get up, but he ran out of time, and Ali was the winner by a knockout.

When David Frost went to interview him for the BBC after the fight, he pointed at the camera and said, "Is this thing on? I told you all that I was the greatest of all time when I beat Sonny Liston! I am still the greatest of all time! Never again doubt me! Never again make me an underdog until I'm about 50 years old!"

He was off a bit, as he probably should have quit at 36, after losing the title to Leon Spinks and then regaining it from him. But, by far more than his boxing prowess, by the force of his personality, and by the example he set as a man of (at least, in America) a minority race and a minority religion, making him, somewhat contradictorily, the champion of the underdog, he proved that he really was The Greatest... Of All Tiiiiiiiime!

He still is.

Built in 1952 under Belgian rule as the Stade Roi Baudouin, the site of the fight was renamed Stade du 20 Mai (for May 20, the anniversary of the founding of Zaire's ruling party) in 1967, and Stade Tata Raphaël (Father Raphael Stadium) in 1997, after the death of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.