My View from the Corner by Angelo Dundee & Bert Randolph Sugar

Author:Angelo Dundee & Bert Randolph Sugar [Dundee, Angelo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
Published: 2007-10-21T22:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

"The Rumble in the Jungle": October 30, 1974

Copyright © 2008 by Angelo Dundee and Bert Randolph Sugar Click here for terms of use.

The George Foreman–Muhammad Ali fight was penciled in for the fall of 1974. But, as it turned out, the pencil used must have been a very light one because the fight was almost a "no-go" before it was a "go."

Ali was in place. He had already signed a contract calling for $5 million, plus $400,000 in training expenses and $100,000 as a good-faith advance. But there were problems with Foreman's end, as well as with the money to underwrite the fight.

To go back, within a year of becoming the new heavyweight champion Foreman had defended his title twice—once in Tokyo against a nobody named Joe "King" Roman, annihilating him in a single round, and the second time in Caracas against Ken Norton, coldcocking him in two. After Foreman had finished stepping over the prone body of Norton, he headed for the Caracas airport. From what I heard, the Venezuelan authorities reneged on their promises to the promoters, Video Techniques, and the two fighters to grant them tax-free status. To enforce their demands, the government refused to let anyone leave the country until they had paid an 18 percent tax. And to ensure they would receive their extorted amount, both Foreman and Norton were put under what amounted to house arrest and all of Video Techniques' equipment was impounded. And although Video Techniques posted $250,000 to "ransom" him, Foreman held Video Techniques responsible for his being held captive. Foreman was furious and vowed to have nothing to do with Video Techniques even though they now held an option on a Foreman-Ali fight.

While negotiations with Foreman had come to a standstill, other plans were afoot, including Ali considering Jerry Quarry, who was loudly proclaiming that black fighters were "boycotting" him. But even though promoter Bob Arum made an offer for a third Ali-Quarry fight, Herbert Muhammad turned him down. Then others made a run at a potential Foreman-Ali fight, including the promoter of the first Ali-Frazier fight, Jerry Perenchio.

But, in the end, it was Video Techniques' vice president, Don King, who pulled their chestnuts out of the fire and the fight together by getting Foreman to agree to a contract. Putting what he called "my well-known talking machinery to work," King chased down Foreman, finally cornering him in a parking lot, and challenged him to sign a contract by telling him that "until you beat Ali, the world will never recognize you as the champion. As long as he's fighting and you don't show the world who's the best, they'll look at Ali as the master." That sealed the deal and Foreman signed.

Still, there was a problem with money. Or, more correctly, no money. To underwrite a bout of this magnitude, Video Techniques had to find someone to put up somewhere in the neighborhood of $11.5 million dollars, $5 million for each fighter and another $1.5 million for up-front money.

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