“The time may have come to say goodbye to Muhammad Ali because, very honestly, I don’t think he can beat George Foreman.” Howard Cosell spoke gravely down the camera, as if the fighter he loved was being sent to the gallows.
It’s easy to reflect on the glory of the Rumble In The Jungle, fall for the romance of ‘Ali Bumaye’ and the great man’s inevitable majesty. But Cosell was not alone. Few gave Ali a chance. Even though he’d evened the score in their rematch, Ali had lost to Joe Frazier and had his jaw broken in a defeat to Ken Norton. Foreman had obliterated both inside two rounds.
But, just as he had a decade earlier when written off prior to his shot at the title against the ferocious Sonny Liston, Ali knew better. He didn’t just beat Foreman, who had swiftly become the most feared puncher in heavyweight history at that time, he outsmarted him, played on his ego and embarrassed him. One of the great myths around the daring “rope-a-dope” defence Ali unfurled in Kinshasa is that Foreman beat him up before running out of gas.
Sure, Ali took his lumps, but he won most of the rounds in a masterclass of hitting and not getting hit. Then there was the balletic beauty and brutality of the finish. Perfectly timed punches coming off the ropes, right on the button before Ali pulled his last shot so he could watch the bedraggled Foreman totter to the canvas. Right there — in the heart of Africa, considering everything he stood for before and after — in that moment, Muhammad Ali became ‘The Greatest’.
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