Bouts of Mania by Richard Hoffer

Author:Richard Hoffer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2014-04-24T15:35:12+00:00

—Chapter 14—

A Leopard-Skin Hat, a Monster, and Mr. Tooth Decay

It had been more than just a sports event for several years now. Ali, able to weave personality and politics so seamlessly, had turned each of his fights into a kind of national argument. And then, given proper competition, he made a heavyweight championship fight even bigger than that, more important, too important, really, for its normal presentation. His accumulated charisma, coupled with whatever heightened jeopardy this new far-deadlier sort of opponent could bring to bear, was now enough to excite international fascination. And this fight with Foreman, who’d shown over and over an almost obscene capacity for obliteration, had almost certainly become a geopolitical affair.

After traveling the franchise to places such as Jamaica and Venezuela, it no longer seemed appropriate to stage a title fight in anything as mundane as Madison Square Garden or the Los Angeles Forum. That was never even a consideration. Ali might not be able to beat Foreman, or even survive a bout with him, but his growth as a worldwide figure demanded a bigger stage, a global venue. And it would draw more than just boxing fans. An Ali fight was available for hopes and dreams that went far beyond any idea of athletics. These were contests of global interest and maybe even consequence.

The scramble to acquire this property, quite possibly a vehicle of international improvement, was concluded quickly, when an African dictator named Joseph Mobutu, corrupt and maybe even homicidal, advanced $9.6 million from the national coffers to secure the promotion. This was an odd extravagance for Zaire, which was as often as not described as backward and impoverished (the average annual wage was $110). But Mobutu saw his involvement as a way to rebrand himself as something more than a run-of-the-mill postcolonial African dictator, or, as the French called him, “a bank vault in a leopard-skin hat.” Someone more important than that other corrupt and homicidal dictator, Uganda’s Idi Amin.

Mobutu had come to power during a 1965 coup, when the Belgian Congo was still enduring anarchy, civil war, and bloodshed. The country, which became known as Zaire under his rule, entered a period of stability, although its economic gains from vast reserves of natural resources tended to be channeled to his personal Swiss bank accounts, not capital improvements. He had palatial residences in each of Zaire’s eight provinces, as well as in France, Belgium, and Switzerland. He had the biggest swimming pool in Africa, which gave him a bit of an edge over Idi Amin in their imaginary rivalry. And he had his own national airline, Air Zaire, to ferry him and his family to Paris shopping trips (which proved disruptive to the airline’s schedule).

He was a man of some vanity, as you’d suspect of someone with nicknames such as “le Guide” and “le Clairvoyant,” not to mention one moniker that translated to “the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and will to win, will go from contest to contest, leaving fire in his wake.

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