Top 100 momentsNo. 16
Rumble in the Jungle
Muhammad Ali, the underdog in Kinshasa, lets George Foreman punch himself out and takes the title back. Rope-a-dope becomes folklore.
George Foreman is champion and wrecking crew. Muhammad Ali is 32, exiled for the draft, and supposed to be too old. They fight in Kinshasa, Zaire, at 4 a.m. local so the U.S. can watch in prime time. Don King promotes it. The crowd chants Ali’s name as if the result is already decided.
Ali goes to the ropes and lets Foreman punch. Rope-a-dope. In the eighth he comes off the ropes and drops Foreman. The title comes back. The phrase enters the language. The fight film is still the best argument that boxing, at its peak, was theater, politics, and sport in one ring.
Ali had already been the most famous man in the world. Kinshasa made the legend look scientific: he knew something the puncher did not, and he waited him out in front of a continent.