The Rumble in the Jungle by Lewis A. Erenberg

Author:Lewis A. Erenberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press

6

ROPE-A-DOPE

They call it rope a dope, I was the dope.

GEORGE FOREMAN, “TOTAL FAILURE: HOW GEORGE FOREMAN’S LOSSES SHOWED HIM THE LIGHT,” NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, MAY 24, 2017

After the agonizing thirty-five-day delay filled with boredom and uncertainty, the official heavyweight champion of the world finally entered the ring against the “people’s champion” at Mai 20 Stadium on October 30 at 4 a.m. Before a crowd estimated between sixty thousand and seventy thousand—nearly all Zaïroises—the two formidable warriors prepared themselves to fight for the title under rain-threatening clouds on an early, hot tropical morning, with the temperature hovering at a sultry eighty-six degrees and humidity at 90 percent. Beamed by satellite all over the world to an audience of hundreds of millions in more than seventy-five countries watching via closed-circuit theater, free television, or tape delay, with more than five hundred journalists using typewriters with English, French, and German keyboards, the bout had become “the ultimate universal spectacle” that transcended sport. As Jack Welsh declared in Boxing Illustrated, “Now a fistic epic is at hand belying logic, defying sanity and stunningly boggling the imagination of even the ultra-extrovert, proving irrevocably for all time that man can reach for the stars and maybe get Mars.”1

In the overheated atmosphere of the Kinshasa night, could Ali achieve the impossible and redeem himself and his fans against impossible odds? Having cast himself into the mold of a classic hero, could the aging ex-champion—reconfigured as a defiant man of principle—come back from the effects of exile and adversity to triumph once again over a much-younger opponent? Only a small minority of the boxing community believed he would win. His trainer Angelo Dundee predicted a knockout, although he was clearly biased. Less so was sports columnist Jerry Izenberg. In a visit to Deer Lake to observe Ali’s fight preparations, Izenberg noticed that for the first time in years the challenger was hitting the heavy bag with power and authority, which he interpreted as a sign that Ali’s hands were in good shape and capable of powerful right hand punches, something which was not possible since his comeback. Still, most of Ali’s fans were pessimistic that their aging hero would come out of the fight without serious—even fatal—injuries. In this apocalyptic moment, the question remained whether he could survive the onslaught of a behemoth Foreman who was bent on his destruction.2

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