Part 1 of a two-part story
The monsoon came 20 minutes after history was made. When 4-1 underdog Muhammad Ali recaptured the heavyweight title on October 30, 1974 – 50 years and counting – by knocking out Big George Foreman in the eighth round in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the skies opened up with end-of-the-world rain.
Noah would have been impressed.
“There was a tiny canopy over the middle of the ring,” remembered Jerry Izenberg. If the rain had come earlier? “There would have been no fight.”
Columnist emeritus for NJ.com (formerly The Star-Ledger), Izenberg, 95 years young, was the sports columnist back then. He had covered the first 53 Super Bowls, 54 consecutive Kentucky Derbies, but no truth to the rumor that he was ringside for David vs. Goliath.
The pre-fight hype was all about how Ali (44-2 with 31 KOs) could survive the Herculean punches of heavyweight champ Big George Foreman (44-0 with 37 KOs). Foreman had blown away Ali’s nemesis, Smokin’ Joe Frazier, and Ken Norton both inside of two rounds.
Besides, Foreman was 25 while Ali was seven years older. Were people worried for Ali?
“Absolutely. Anybody who knew him was,” stated Izenberg. Ali’s upset over Foreman – the Rumble in the Jungle – was as real as can be, and Izenberg was there with a surprising take after all these years. “The fight was nothing,” declared Izenberg from his home in Las Vegas. The biggest boxing spectacle for his money was Ali-Frazier III. “It was a guy with his hands up and another guy trying to go through the gloves, which he couldn’t do.
There was never a rope-a-dope. “I’m sorry to disillusion all the romanticizing of it. [Ali] got hit, he got hurt. He realized this guy could punch. He went back and told his corner to, ‘shut the … up. I know what I’m doing.’”
Yes, he did. He let Foreman punch himself out until Ali knocked him out. With the bout over, Izenberg and the late Dave Anderson of The New York Times weren’t happy with what they had written because of rushed deadlines and shrinking satellite feed time. They wanted more Ali.
The two boxing scribes got on a bus and went looking for the once again, heavyweight champion on the military compound that was their African home. “We go down to the river. Ali thought it was very mystical,” recalled Izenberg, author of 16 books, including “Once There Were Giants: The Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing.”
His next is a novel on baseball great Josh Gibson (Damn You Josh Gibson: A Ghost Story) due out in February (on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com). “He is standing at the water’s edge. He’s yelling. We can see his head going up and down. We can’t hear him.
“Finally, he raises both arms in the ‘Rocky’ pose. He sees us, and says, ‘Fellas, don’t ask me how I feel because I can’t tell you and if I could, you wouldn’t understand.”
Ali drew on the energy of the Zairian fans with their incessant chant of, “Ali boma ye!” (Ali, kill him!). He needed a villain for this fight, as he always did, and Foreman fit the bill perfectly.
“He had those people believing George Foreman was white,” chuckled Izenberg. Ali recaptured the heavyweight crown with skill, guile, and something earthlier.
“Ali never beat him,” exclaimed Izenberg. “No, Ali had an ally. The ally was Africa, and when I thought about him with his arms in the air … in that moment … he was king of the world.”
What a fight, Ali the master strategist, yes there was the rope a dope, but yes Ali got hit, and hit hard, however he came out on top.