Rumble in the jungle

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The Rumble in the Jungle ( English for "brawl in the jungle") was a boxing match on October 30, 1974 in Kinshasa ( Zaire , today: Democratic Republic of the Congo ) in the morning at 3 o'clock local time between the US heavyweight boxers George Foreman and Muhammad Ali . Ali won in the 8th round by knockout and was once again the undisputed boxing world champion , seven years after the NYSAC and WBA world titles had been revoked for political reasons.

The fight in front of 100,000 spectators, some of them frenetic, is considered by many to be the "greatest boxing match of all time". The entire event was of tremendous importance for the self-esteem of the population of Africa , since up to this point in time no similar major sporting events had taken place on the African continent.

prehistory

Organization and financing

Boxing promoter Don King , who organized the fight, chose the Stade du 20 Mai in Kinshasa in Zaire as the venue . The main motive for the fight in Zaire was that the income flowing from it was tax-free according to the DTA legal situation at the time between the United States and Zaire. The fight was also funded by dictator Mobutu Sese Seko as a promotion for his country and all of Africa. The prize was very lavishly endowed with ten million US dollars . As part of the supporting program, the promoter King organized a major concert, at which Miriam Makeba , James Brown , BB King , The Spinners and The Crusaders performed, among others .

The fight was originally scheduled for September 25th. Because of an injury to Foreman - a cut on the right eyebrow that he made during training when he collided with a sparring partner's elbow raised for protection - the fight was postponed for a month. The date finally chosen was October 30, at four in the morning, so that American television viewers could watch the fight live due to the time difference.

initial situation

World champion George Foreman was considered almost invincible until Rumble in the Jungle, 1973

The reigning heavyweight world champion George Foreman was considered the clear favorite before the fight, with the bookmakers he led with a betting odds of 3: 1. Foreman, Olympic champion from 1968 and at the age of 25 in the prime boxing age, was unbeaten in 40 professional fights by the time of the fight (37 knockout) and had won nine of his last ten fights by knockout in the first two rounds, including also his world championship fight against Joe Frazier . His boxing style was entirely geared towards his ability to deliver powerful, extremely hard punches with his long range, in case of doubt at the expense of his own cover - a classic "puncher" who relied on an effective hit and a knockout from his opponent.

Muhammad Ali, Olympic champion from 1960 and world champion from 1964 until his withdrawal in 1967, was already 32 years old and had already suffered two point losses since his comeback in 1970, in 1971 against Frazier and in 1973 against Ken Norton , against whom Foreman had easily defended his title. Ali's victories in the rematches against Frazier and Norton were only narrow points wins. Ali's boxing style was based on keeping the opponent at a distance and, at appropriate moments, using quick punches or combinations against the opponent's head. Although such a counterstyle is generally considered to be advantageous against a puncher like Foreman (and disadvantageous against fast-hitting attacking boxers like Frazier and Norton), most experts assumed a quick and clear knockout against Ali for the upcoming fight. Physically, both boxers were very similar - the same height (1.91 m) and almost exactly the same weight (Foreman 100 kg, Ali 98 kg), with a similar range (arm span Foreman 1.99 m, Ali 1.98 m).

As usual, there were psychological games and rhyming sayings on Ali's side:

“I've done something new for this fight. I've wrestled with an alligator, I've tussled with a whale, I did handcuff lightning, and threw thunder in jail. In the bathroom. Last week I've murdered a rock, injured a stone and hospitalized a brick. I'm so mean I make medicine sick. Last night I cut the light off in my bedroom, hit the switch and was in bed before room was dark. I'm so fast man I can run through a hurricane and don't get wet. When George Foreman meets me he'll pay his debt. I can drown and drink the water and kill a dead tree, wait 'til you see Muhammad Ali. "

“I've done something new for this fight. I've wrestled with an alligator, fought a whale, handcuffed lightning, and incarcerated the thunder. I'm angry Last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone and beat a brick to hospital. I'm so mean that I make medicine sick myself. Last night I flipped the light switch in my bedroom and was in bed before the room went dark. I'm so fast that I can walk through a hurricane without getting wet. If George Foreman meets me, he'll pay off his debt. I can go down and drink the water and kill a dead tree, wait until you see Muhammad Ali. "

When asked at a press conference what he had against Foreman in particular, he replied: "He talks too much" ("He talks too much").

Sympathies in the population

Foreman spoiled sympathy for performing with a German Shepherd , reminding the local population of the Belgian colonial police force , and was seen as an ignorant, arrogant American.

Ali, on the other hand, brought the fans to his side through charisma and sociability with the people on the street - especially with the children. He managed to portray himself as an intellectual and cultural icon and thereby unite the black population behind him, not least because he supported the African American civil rights movement in the 1960s, publicly rejected the Vietnam War in the USA and refused to serve as a weapon - which was a criminal offense in the US, since the right to conscientious objection did not exist in the US. This went so far that Ali was cheered on with the cry “Ali, boma ye!” (“Ali, kill him!”).

The fight

The fight was originally scheduled for September 25th, but eight days earlier Foreman was inadvertently injured over the right eye by his sparring partner Bill McMurray and had to sew the wound with eleven stitches, whereupon the date was postponed to October 30th. The fight was scheduled for 4 a.m. local time so that it could be broadcast in the US at prime time (from 10 p.m.). When it started at 4:30 a.m., the temperature was 30 ° C and the humidity was around 90%. Contrary to many popular representations, Ali largely controlled the course of the fight and also led all three referees on points before he decided the fight by knockout for himself. In accordance with the boxing styles of both fighters, Foreman boxed almost consistently offensively and tried to hit Ali's head and body with heavy cross-punches, while Ali hit quick jabs against Foreman's head from the defensive.

In the first round, Ali moved a lot, as expected, to avoid Foreman's punches and even hit Foreman's head with quick punches or 1-2 combinations, and then break the blow by clamping Foreman's neck. Foreman looked for this exchange of blows in the forward gear and always kept with the middle of the ring at Ali in order to cut off his way and to push him into the corner. This forced Ali to go much further than Foreman, which had to tire Ali in the long run and made him change his tactics. From the second lap onwards, Ali moved less through the ring, but stayed more on the ropes and in the corners and used the elastic ropes to control the distance to Foreman by leaning back or standing up. Since the correct distance is of great importance for the effect of every stroke technique, he took a lot of the force of Foreman's strokes and was able to bring himself into the right position again and again for his counter attacks.

Although Ali's trainer Angelo Dundee kept shouting to him to get off the ropes, Ali maintained this tactic for the rest of the fight: he stayed on the ropes a lot, keeping his head out of reach of Foreman's blows and repeatedly counterattacking Foremans quickly Head. Foreman hit hard against Ali's torso, but was repeatedly disturbed by counterattacks and evasive movements, and his hits had little effect. At the same time, Ali kept tying Foreman by holding his neck with one hand and applying pressure; Ali used these opportunities to provoke Foreman with words. Foreman barely found a chance to prepare Ali for heavy, effective punches, although he kept working towards it. From the fourth round the traces of Ali's counterattacks showed on Foreman's face. After the fourth round, John Daley, co-promoter of the fight, predicted HBO commentator Bob Sheridan that Ali would win the fight within the next four rounds.

From the fifth round the pace of the fight slowed down a bit. Both fighters, but especially Foreman, were slower on their feet, Ali now took cover more often on the ropes and limited his counterattacks more to the end of the round. After Foreman had set many powerful punches against Ali's body in the fifth round, only to take a few hard head hits towards the end of the round, his punching power decreased in the last few laps and he was looking for more head hits again, but failed on Ali's cover. After seven rounds Ali was leading on all three scoreboards: Referee Zach Clayton scored 4-2-1 after rounds (Ali - Foreman - tie), judge Nourridine Adalla 3-0-4, and judge James Taylor 4-1-2 .

In the eighth lap, Foreman's coordination had visibly decreased, his strokes were much less precise and hardly had any impact. When he had spent most of the lap attacking Ali's cover and torso with weak attacks, with 15-20 seconds to go, Ali used Foreman's tired arms and little cover for several single strikes and then a hard combination of 5 strikes against Foreman's head, after which Foreman staggered a few moments and then fell to the ground. He lay there in a daze for a moment, got up again, but was already counted before he was right again. Ali had won the fight and was the second heavyweight to regain a title after Floyd Patterson - contrary to the unwritten law "They never come back".

Myth and Reality

In popular depictions it is often described how an actually inferior Muhammad Ali, through the strategy of hanging himself in the ring ropes and thereby cushioning Foreman's blows, allowed the younger world champion to be beaten tired (" rope-a-dope "), in order to then in knocked out a sudden comeback: “Foreman, who has been beating Muhammad Ali for minutes through the damp boxing ring, repeatedly hits, in the face, on the torso, round after round, blow by blow. [...] Ali writhes in the ring ropes and collects and collects and collects. [...] For the first time you can see the fear of defeat in Ali's face - although it can be celebrated after every hopelessly lost round. ”This not only falsifies the course of the fight, it also misrepresents essential elements of the fight such as Ali's tactics. Ali just didn't hang passively on the ropes, but kept moving and counter-attacking again and again, so that George Foreman hardly had a chance to deliver effective blows to the target. With a less active opponent, that wouldn't have been a problem for Foreman. Conversely, Ali received a lot of effective hits with his tactics against an opponent like Joe Frazier, who mainly attacked at close range with hooks and who could hardly be avoided on the ropes. In addition, ring ropes hardly dampen the impact of the blows - the impact of the blow is based on the sudden transfer of force and the resulting consequences on the tissue, not on setting the opponent's entire body in motion.

Several factors contributed to the creation of this narrative. The entire course of the fight contradicted many expectations: Ali did not dance Foreman, but went on the ropes, i.e. where Foreman wanted him (Foreman had explicitly trained before the fight to cut off the path of an opponent in the ring). Foreman hit Ali with his dreaded punches, but they had little effect on Ali. In addition, Foreman was constantly in forward gear throughout the fight, at first glance he looked like the superior fighter. The knockout by Ali was the complete opposite of the expected result - Foreman had been considered hardly defeatable because of his many quick knockout victories even against world-class boxers. All of these unexpected factors called for an unexpected explanation. Ali's self-marketing as the developer of a revolutionary strategy delivered it.

reception

The documentary When We Were Kings (director: Leon Gast ) about the boxing match won the 1997 Oscar for best documentary. It shows interviews by the American writers and combat watchers Norman Mailer and George Plimpton as well as recordings of the concert in Kinshasa. A song by the Fugees entitled Rumble in the Jungle was released as the soundtrack for the film that same year and reached number three on the UK singles chart.

The biographical film Ali from 2001 also gives this struggle a lot of space and depicts it as the finale in Ali's life's work.

Norman Mailer wrote the book The Fight about it .

The hit In Zaire (1976 in the charts) by Johnny Wakelin is also about this fight and he is eponymous for Ali in the Jungle by The Hours .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The greatest boxing match of the century: "Rumble in the Jungle" is 35 years old. In: news.at . October 28, 2009, accessed March 7, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Gunnar Meinhardt : "I prayed not to kill Ali". In: welt.de . October 26, 2014, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b Andreas Spinrath: Legendary boxing match 1974: "Ali, kill him!" In: Spiegel Online . October 30, 2014, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Christopher Klein: The “Rumble in the Jungle,” 40 Years Ago. In: history.com. August 31, 2018, accessed March 7, 2020 .
  5. ^ A b Andrew Eisele: George Foreman's Fight-By-Fight Career Record. In: liveaboutdotcom. December 24, 2018, accessed March 7, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Muhammad Ali. In: BoxRec . Accessed March 7, 2020 (English, statistics).
  7. ↑ George Foreman. In: BoxRec . Accessed March 7, 2020 (English, statistics).
  8. ↑ Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame George Foreman For Losing To Muhammad Ali. In: ESPN Documentary . YouTube , November 16, 2016, accessed March 7, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Lily Rothman: How Muhammad Ali Won the 'Rumble in the Jungle'. In: Time . October 30, 2014, accessed March 7, 2020 .
  10. ↑ a b Mike Tyson: This Day in Boxing "Ali-Foreman. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on October 2, 2016 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / miketysonlive.com
  11. ↑ a b Michael Ezra: How Muhammad Ali's Rope-A-Dope Myth Suckered America. In: deadspin. October 30, 2014, accessed March 7, 2020 .
  12. ↑ a b c d e George Foreman vs Muhammad Ali - Oct. Sep. 30, 1974 - Entire fight - Rounds 1 - 8 & Interview. In: YouTube . Retrieved March 7, 2020 (recorded from the HBO broadcast of the fight).
  13. ↑ Axel Maluschka , Jürgen Höller, Georg Stang: Olympic boxing: technique - fitness - training. Meyer & Meyer Verlag, Aachen 2015, ISBN 978-3-89899-746-1 .
  14. ↑ Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier 1 FULL FIGHT. In: YouTube . Retrieved March 7, 2020 (Frazier-Ali “Fight of the Century” 1971).
  15. ↑ Norman Mailer: The fight . 1976, ISBN 3-426-08862-2 .