E-Paper
HT Archive: Gritty Ali takes out fearsome Foreman, reclaims world title
Muhammad Ali regained the heavyweight title on October 30, 1974, with an eighth-round knockout of George Foreman in "The Rumble In The Jungle."
By 1974, Muhammad Ali’s career had taken several dramatic turns. He was stripped of his heavyweight title in 1967 for protesting the Vietnam draft and barred from boxing. On his return, Ali lost to Joe Frazier in 1971, his first professional defeat. But in a twist, George Foreman ended Frazier’s reign as champion two years later. Ali got a shot at the title but Foreman was seen as the odds-on favourite . Their clash in Zaire, hosted by the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, came to be known as The Rumble In The Jungle and was one of the most watched events in TV history.
KINSHASA, Zaire: Muhammad Ali scored perhaps the greatest victory of his career on October 30 by regaining the world heavyweight boxing title with a stunning eight-round knockout of champion George Foreman.
“They thought I was getting old.... that my reflexes were gone,” cried Ali, 32, amid the bedlam surrounding his dressing room deep in the 20th May Stadium. “Am I not the greatest?”
The end came in the eighth round when Ali, backed into a corner by the ever-aggressive Foreman, suddenly unleashed a left and right to the champion’s head. And Foreman was counted out with two seconds left in the round as the stadium erupted into chaos.
“He was humiliated,” Ali said. “I did it. I told you he was nothing. I knew all along Foreman didn’t like to be hit. It was so clear to me. He just didn’t like to be punched.” Ali’s victory came 10 years after he won the championship from Sonny Liston and seven years after he was stripped of his title for refusing induction into the army. He became the second man in history to regain the heavyweight crown. Floyd Paterson was the first.
Ali said before the fight, the first heavyweight title clash ever held in Africa, that he would retire, win or lose. But after his victory he hedged, saying he would have to think about it.
It was Ali’s 45th professional victory, against two losses and his 38th knockout. Foreman, 25, who won the championship by stopping Joe Frazier in two rounds in January 1973 in Jamaica, lost for the first time in 41 bouts.
Poking out his tongue jokingly at the crowd, Ali dared Foreman to hit him and then picked him off as he desperately tried to take up the challenge.
Moving as swiftly as in his youth. Ali lived up to his motto: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Foreman landed fewer than one punch in ten on target while Ali built up his points haul with the relentless accuracy of his jabbing.
The end was in sight at the start of the eighth round when Foreman’s handlers had to push him back into action.
Sensing the moment had come to make the kill, Ali bombarded Foreman with a fusillade of punches before putting him down for the full count with a swinging right to Foreman’s chin.
American referee Zach Clayton began the count, but there never seemed any chance of Foreman beating it. He tried to get up, but was only halfway up when the count reached 10 after two minutes 58 seconds of the eighth round.
The fighters were guaranteed a record five million dollars apiece, and promoters expected to gross upwards of 25 million dollars. The fight was beamed around the world on television and seen on closed circuit in the US and Canada.
Shouts of “Ali, Ali, Ali” thundered from close to 50,000 African throats in the stadium and echoed around the world as Ali scored his sweet but strident Victory.
“Now they’ll have to pay me 20 million dollars to fight,” he boasted.
Foreman, a massive and sullen but pleasant man with fists that in five years of pro fighting have exploded 37 knockouts, said he would like another crack at Ali.
“The next time – and I hope there is a next time – I hope to fight a smarter fight,” he said. “I hope to follow (manager) Dick Sadler’s instructions better.”
But Ali showed little mercy for the vanquished champion. “I told you he was no good. I showed you,” Ali said afterward in the dressing room. “He’s slow and awkward. I’m not sure he deserves to fight me again. He would have no chance.”
The eye-injury which Foreman suffered in training and caused a one-month postponement had no effect on the outcome. Foreman was simply outclassed by a better boxer.
Ali is the oldest champion since Jersey Joe Walcott won the title at the age of 37 in 1951.
