In 1974, the world braced itself for what would become the most infamous fight of all time. Big George Foreman, the hardest puncher in boxing history, had decisively taken the championship from Joe Frazier the previous year, and the iconic Muhammad Ali had avenged his losses to Frazier and Norton in two tremendous clashes of skill and perseverance.
Now there was only one fight the fans wanted to see, and they would get more than they bargained for. The two warriors soon made a phone call to finalize the evenly split $10 million deal. The fight was agreed to take place in Zaire, Africa, and was billed as The Rumble in the Jungle. Ironically, the two confident gladiators thought they heard fear and hesitation in each other's voices, thus ensuring an easy victory. But their iron wills and unwavering confidence were virtually all they had in common at that moment. Each boxer couldn't have been more different in temperament or style.
Foreman was a destructive machine, an unstoppable Goliath who had devastated the heavyweight scene with devastating blows, completely destroying all who dared to face him. He boasted 40 fights and 40 wins, 37 of them by knockout. But it wasn't just the concussive force of his punches that had earned him those victories with his fists. Foreman had a refined jab and hand-to-hand fighting skills passed down from the fearsome Sonny Liston. Rather than relying purely on brute force to pierce his opponents' defenses, he used long-guard tactics to explore and tear through their defenses. This led Ali to nickname him "the Great Mummy." But while Foreman had the same kind of relentless inevitability as a horror monster, he was neither clumsy nor uncoordinated. The big man had highly underrated head movement and footwork and even used subtle hand traps to take his opponent off guard, a trick he had learned years earlier from a judo practitioner.
And this was the man Ali had enraged, less through provocation and more because many fans still saw Ali as the rightful champion. Muhammad Ali was perhaps the most graceful boxer ever to enter the ring, though he'd give that honor to his hero, Sugar Ray Robinson. Ali had certainly adopted his idol's unorthodox footwork and whip-like jab, breaking nearly every rule of boxing and reconfiguring it to suit his unique preferences. Ali would cross his feet, turn his head away from its base of support, and slide to his weak side. Despite all this, or perhaps because of it, he had destroyed some of the most fearsome boxers of his era. But the question remained: what would happen if Foreman took all those tools away from him? Ali was now 33 years old, and his legs weren't what they used to be. So what would happen when Ali was cornered and forced to face the fearsome punches of the young, strong George Foreman?
