‘Way he stopped his last punch was just respectful…Legend never dies…’: George Foreman vs Muhammad Ali – The fight was called Fight of the Year for 1974

George Foreman defends the Heavyweight Championship of the World for the third time against former Champion, Muhammad Ali. Ali at 32, had been given little change against the fearsome puncher who had knocked out both Frazier and Norton, whom both had beaten ali in the past, in 2 rounds. The fight took place in Kinshasa, Zaïre (todays Congo), and was put together by promotor Don King. This is considered by many as the most significent fight of Muhammad Alis career. The fight was called Fight of the Year for 1974.

On October 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali beat defending champion George Foreman to reclaim the world heavyweight boxing title. Ali referred to the fight, held in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), as the “Rumble in the Jungle”—and the name stuck. Although the fight took place in Africa, its participants both hailed from the southern region of the United States—Ali from Louisville, Kentucky, and Foreman from Houston, Texas.

Both had won gold medals representing the U.S. in the Olympics—Ali in the light heavyweight division in 1960 in Rome, and Foreman in the heavyweight division in 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Younger than Ali and undefeated in his professional career, Foreman entered the bout as the favorite. However, Ali prevailed using the “rope-a-dope” technique to dodge ineffective punches and tire Foreman out.

The third American who made the fight a reality was Cleveland-born promoter Don King. King convinced Mobutu Sese Seko, the dictator of Zaire, to sponsor the fight. Mobutu’s investment succeeded in attracting attention to Zaire. As many as one billion TV viewers worldwide tuned in to the fight, whose odd start time (around 4 a.m. in Kinshasa) corresponded to prime time in the United States.

The Rumble in the Jungle helped cement Ali’s reputation as “the Greatest.” Foreman retired several years after fighting Ali, but later returned to the ring and won another heavyweight title in 1994. King promoted other notable, including the “Thrilla in Manila,” between Ali and Joe Frazier.

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The “Rumble in the Jungle” (named by promoter Don King, who’d initially tagged the bout “From the Slave Ship to the Championship!” until Zaire’s president caught wind of the idea and ordered all the posters burned) was Africa’s first heavyweight championship match.

The government of the West African republic staged the event—its president, Mobutu Sese Seko, personally paid each of the fighters $5 million simply for showing up—in hopes that it would draw the world’s attention to the country’s enormous beauty and vast reserves of natural resources. Ali agreed. “I wanted to establish a relationship between American blacks and Africans,” he wrote later. “The fight was about racial problems, Vietnam. All of that.” He added: “The Rumble in the Jungle was a fight that made the whole country more conscious.”

At 4:30 a.m. on October 30, 60,000 spectators gathered in the moonlight (organizers had timed the fight to overlap with prime time in the U.S.) at the outdoor Stade du 20 Mai to watch the fight. They were chanting “Ali, bomaye” (“Ali, kill him”). The ex-champ had been taunting Foreman for weeks, and the young boxer was eager to get going.

When the bell rang, he began to pound Ali with his signature sledgehammer blows, but the older man simply backed himself up against the ropes and used his arms to block as many hits as he could. He was confident that he could wait Foreman out. (Ali’s trainer later called this strategy the “rope-a-dope,” because he was “a dope” for using it.)

By the fifth round, the youngster began to tire. His powerful punches became glances and taps. And in the eighth, like “a bee harassing a bear,” as one Times reporter wrote, Ali peeled himself off the ropes and unleashed a barrage of quick punches that seemed to bewilder the exhausted Foreman. A hard left and chopping right caused the champ’s weary legs to buckle, and he plopped down on the mat. The referee counted him out with just two seconds to go in the round.

Ali lost his title and regained it once more before retiring for good in 1981. He died in 2016. Foreman, meanwhile, retired in 1977 but kept training, and in 1987 he became the oldest heavyweight champ in the history of boxing. Today, the affable Foreman is a minister and rancher in Texas and the father of five daughters and five sons, all named George. He’s also the spokesman for the incredibly popular line of George Foreman indoor grills.