Rumble in the Jungle: 50 years since the most famous fight in boxing history

Over the last half-century, the world heavyweight title has taken an increasingly erratic and unfortunately inconsequential course.

It has paraded its colorful guise through broken casino towns and dead-end leisure centers, most recently in the Saudi desert, and has been contested in one false form or another on all five major continents.

It has endured so-called “bite nights” and interruptions from errant paragliders, and has been claimed by both those who deserve to be called all-time greats and others who, in the words of Larry Holmes, are not were able to wear their jockstraps.

Now, as the 58-year-old former champion prepares to cash in by donning the gloves against YouTuber Jake Paul, it may not be long before he has to endure the ultimate humiliation of being eliminated among social media celebrities to be.

In the thousands of rounds and hundreds of venues and a lot of hype and fanfare that have followed, the so-called “highest prize in sport” has never again reached the heights it reached on October 30, 1974 in the African country then known as Zaire.

This was about more than just Muhammad Ali’s bold and some say ill-advised attempt to become the first man to win the heavyweight crown for a third time, three years after his previous attempt in New York ended with a brutal 15-round defeat to Joe Frazier ended.

More than the expected appointment of a new superstar in George Foreman, the hard-hitting Texan who had scored a menacingly impressive second-round knockout of Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica the previous year to secure the world title.

More than the insane ego of a power-crazed dictator in Mobutu Sese Seko, a man so inclined to spend his country’s money that he would even build a Concorde-sized airstrip in the middle of the forest to make it easier for his wife to make her shopping trips there Paris.

More so than the outrageous, opportunistic vision of a fledgling promoter in the form of Don King.

It was the sum of all those parts and more: part sports competition, part cultural festival, part global statement of Black empowerment. It all added up to the “Rumble in the Jungle” – the most famous boxing match there has been and ever will be.

Leaving aside the extraordinary circumstances of the contest, the simple fact of the duel between Ali and Foreman would have been enough to attract worldwide attention.

After his conviction for conscientious objection in 1967 and his conversion to Islam, Ali was still divided. He had lost to Ken Norton the previous year – and suffered a broken jaw in the process – before a rematch victory and a grueling decision over Frazier in January 1974 justified his return to title contention.

The dour, brooding Foreman – at 25, seven years Ali’s junior – had left a trail of destruction through the heavyweight ranks since turning pro after winning a gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

Ali might have charmed the media pack that followed him to Zaire with his vow to float like a butterfly and his tall tales of fighting alligators and fighting whales, but few were willing to predict him to do otherwise as a painful career swan song was imminent at the behest of Foreman’s powerful fists.

Few, apart from the thousands of locals Ali charmed during a month-long delay in the competition because Foreman sustained a cut on his eye during a sparring session.

While they saw Foreman as a symbol of oppression – he made an indiscriminate visit with a German shepherd’s leash, the dogs holding back crowds under the country’s formerly hated Belgian rule – they embraced one of their own dogs in Ali.

“Ali – booma!” They chanted in unison – literally: “Ali – kill him!” as he raced across the dusty streets in the days and hours leading up to the required 4 a.m. start time to watch the fight live to transfer to the United States.

Millions of words have already been written about how Ali hit two right hands in the final seconds of the eighth round to send Foreman to the canvas and regain the world heavyweight title for a third time at the age of 32.

As if the magnitude of this feat were not enough, Ali’s rope-a-dope strategy drew astonished observers to describe his feat as one of the boldest and most ingenious tactical feats in sports.

Instead of trying to will his aging limbs to dance away from Foreman’s clubbing blows, Ali invited them in, seducing an increasingly frustrated Foreman into beating himself to a near standstill before pouncing on the most unlikely of victories.

Hours later, the rain began, subjecting the May 20th Stadium to such a sudden drenching that it seemed as if the elements themselves refused to play their part in such an unlikely night of drama.

Ali died in June 2016, aged 74, after struggling to live through the terrible fog of Parkinson’s disease for many years following his diagnosis in 1984. Meanwhile, the defeated Foreman made his fortune selling fat-reducing grills.

But the story of the “Rumble in the Jungle” has been passed down through generations and remains just as relevant and extraordinary – the night when, deep in the dark heart of Africa, Muhammad Ali cemented his status as “The Greatest.”