Reminiscences: “Rumble in the Jungle” at 50

It’s 50 years since Mohammed Ali shook the world when he took on former World Heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, modern day Zaire. 

It was about the biggest sporting spectacle in sports history. To mark the 50th anniversary of ‘Rumble in the Jungle’, BBC Sport spoke to some of the men who witnessed the before, during and after of this modern fairytale. A fairytale it must be, because it doesn’t seem real.

Foreman, 25 years old at the time, came in as clear favourite with a 100 per cent record boasting 40 wins and 37 KOs.

But he was upstaged by the legendary Ali in front of a 60,000-strong crowd in Zaire, now Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The former heavyweight king, who was 32 years old back then, was looking to reclaim his belts seven years after they were stripped from him for refusing to enlist in the Vietnam War.

Foreman came out after the first bell with his fists clenched and Ali hit him so hard in the jaw, it turned the lights out for four minutes. Foreman thought: ‘What is this?’ He couldn’t intimidate Ali and Ali became the bully.

George Foreman: He threw the first shot, but after that he was clever enough to hold. I kept hitting him, and hitting him hard, and he kept holding and holding. I hit him with some amazing punches that would have sent most guys to sleep. But when the bell went and he went back to his corner, he was like: ‘My God, I did it.’

“No-one practices missing punches on a punch bag – you’re not conditioned to miss, you’re conditioned to land. So when someone makes you miss, you’re running out of steam and you’re getting disheartened because you can’t land. So then you try to shorten your punches or punch in a different way and it messes up your game.”

Jim Brown: After the first round, Ali came over and said: ‘Hey big fella, what do you think now?!’

Colin Hart: The vast majority of boxing writers thought that not only would Ali be beaten, but there was every chance he would end up in hospital. I was the only British writer to pick Ali to win, because I’d been told Foreman had no stamina.

This fight was played out in 80 degree heat, with a great deal of humidity. And nobody had ever knocked Ali out. So I fathomed that he would dance and let Foreman tire himself out. I got the result right, the tactics wrong.

George Foreman: Muhammad Ali didn’t have the best punch, he wasn’t the strongest, but he was the toughest human being I ever had an encounter with. 

This I’m certain of.

He wasn’t saying a lot but in round three I hit him with a hard shot to the side and he fell on me and said: ‘That’s all you got, George?!’ That scared me, I knew there was going to be trouble then.

He had weathered the biggest storm I could have put on him and after the fourth round it was like I’d stepped into a bucket of concrete. I was all spent, I didn’t know what I was doing out there.

Roy Foreman: From the fourth round, it was like looking at a 100m runner in a 400m race. The punches got a little bit slower and you could see Ali’s confidence increase. I’d never seen George intimidated by anyone before, except his mother maybe.

Gene Kilroy: When we put the ring together we made sure the ropes were tight but they expanded in the heat. When he started leaning back on the ropes [Ali’s so-called ‘rope-a-dope’ tactics, external whereby Foreman was invited to pound away at him], we were afraid Ali would fall out of the ring.

So between rounds five and six, Pat Patterson [Ali’s bodyguard] got in the ring and tightened the ropes. Later George said we tried to loosen them so Ali could have more room, but that’s a misconception.

Colin Hart: Watching the fifth and sixth rounds, you could see Foreman clearly getting weaker and weaker. He was still punching but the punches weren’t hurting Ali like they were in the earlier rounds, he was running out of gas very fast indeed.

Carl Froch analysis

“When everybody thinks you can’t do it, you’re going to lose and your time is up, to then go in there and do what Ali did on such a big platform, that’s a fantastic performance. He took a beating, he got hit with a lot of hurtful shots. I didn’t realise what a tough man Ali was.”

And Ali was capitalising on it, as only he could, with brilliant counter-punching. It was around this time I thought: ‘There’s going to be a major upset here, my man’s going to do it.’ Foreman had shot his bolt by then, he had no strength left.

Gene Kilroy: I knew we had it after round six. Anybody can beat a heavy bag but when you’re getting hit back, being frustrated and abused, it takes your heart away. Ali came to the corner after round six and said: ‘I got him now, I got him now.

When the end came [Ali floored Foreman with a devastating combination at the end of round eight], Ali didn’t hit him as he was falling. I asked him afterwards: ‘Why didn’t you hit him on the way down?’ Ali said: ‘He’d had enough.’

Colin Hart: After the knockout, I did something that I was a bit ashamed of, because it was unprofessional. I tell young sportswriters: ‘No cheering in the press box.’ But when Ali won that fight I leapt out of my seat and punched the air.

Jim Brown: After the fight I went to Ali’s dressing room and there were all these people in there, you couldn’t move. I went to George’s dressing room and it was George, [light-heavyweight legend] Archie Moore, external and George’s dog.

Roy Foreman: Back then, being the heavyweight champion of the world was like being the president of the United States. Now George was the former president of the United States. Everyone from your girlfriend to your brothers and sisters don’t look at you the same, now you’ve got ‘ex’ in front of your name.

It took him eight to 10 years to get over the devastation. He’d made $5m, a lot back then, so he was buying this and buying that – another house, another car, getting this girl, getting that girl, trying to show everybody he was still the champ. But he wasn’t the champ, he was the chump now.

George Foreman: I just couldn’t believe I’d lost the world title. This was supposed to be an easy boxing match but it was the most embarrassing moment of my life. It went from pride to pity. That’s devastating.

I’d be ashamed to be alone with girls in a room. I’d think: ‘They know I’m not the man I was supposed to be.’ You think you’re going to walk away with $5m and everything is going to be OK. But you can’t buy back your pride. All you want is the chance to be champion of the world again.

I’ve watched the fight back a few times and sometimes I think: ‘I’m gonna win this time!’ Or I might wake up and think: ‘If only I’d done this or done that.’ But only once did I win the fight in my dreams…