George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali - BoxRec George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali From BoxRec Jump to: navigation , search 1974-10-30 : George Foreman 220 lbs lost to Muhammad Ali 216½ lbs by KO at 2:58 in round 8 of 15 Location: Stade du 20 Mai, Kinshasa, Congo (Democratic Republic Of The) 1.6 Sources The Rumble in the Jungle "The Rumble in The Jungle" was a historic boxing match which took place on October 30, 1974 in the May 20 Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). It pitted then World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman against former champion and #1 contender Muhammad Ali , who became the second fighter ever, after Floyd Patterson , to regain the World Heavyweight Championship. The event was Don King 's first big venture as a boxing promoter. He managed to get both Ali and Foreman to agree to let him promote the fight if he could get them $5 million each.

However, King did not have the money, so he began looking for an outside country to sponsor the event. Zaire's flamboyant president, Mobutu Sese Seko, asked for the fight to be held in his country, eager for the publicity such a high-profile event would bring. The fight was shown on closed-circuit television at about 450 locations in the United States and Canada and was seen in roughly 100 countries worldwide. The fight was scheduled to start at 4:00 a.m. in Zaire to accommodate audiences in the United States. Build up to the Fight Ali was stripped of the World Heavyweight Championship and suspended from boxing for three and a half years following his refusal to enter the U.S. Army in 1967. He was able to regain a boxing license in 1970 and promptly fought two comeback fights, against Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonavena . The following year, Ali fought Joe Frazier for the World Heavyweight Championship in a bout dubbed the Fight of the Century , which Frazier won by a unanimous decision. Over the next three years, Ali stayed active against other contenders while he campaigned for another title shot.

Foreman had quickly risen from his gold medal victory at the 1968 Olympics and into the top ranks of professional heavyweights. Although considered by many to be somewhat slow and clumsy, Foreman was greatly feared for his punching power, size, and sheer physical dominance. Still, Joe Frazier and his handlers believed that despite Foreman's ever growing list of knockout victories, he would be too slow and unrefined to stand up to Frazier's relentless attacks. This would turn out to be a grave miscalculation, as Foreman, a 3½ to 1 underdog, won the championship in grand fashion by knocking Frazier down six times in two rounds before the bout was stopped. Foreman further solidified his hold over the heavyweight division with a second-round destruction of Ken Norton , who was the only man besides Frazier (at that point in time) to defeat Ali (breaking Ali's jaw in the process). By the time Ali and Foreman met, Ali had avenged his losses to both Norton and Frazier, but Foreman was an overwhelming favorite against a slowing and aging Ali.

Foreman and Ali spent much of the summer of 1974 training in Zaire and getting their bodies used to the weather in the tropical African country. The fight was originally set to happen on September 24, but the fight was postponed after Foreman was cut during training. It was rescheduled for October 30. Ali was a very endearing figure to the people of Zaire and his mind games played out well, turning the Congolese people in his favor and against Foreman. A popular chant leading up to, and during the fight, was "Ali bomaye!," which means "Ali, kill him!" The Rumble Insiders say that Foreman and his handlers actually prayed in his dressing room before the fight that Foreman would not kill Ali, so high was the anticipation that Ali was simply no match for Foreman. Ali came out dancing in the first round and Foreman went right at him. Ali made good use of the right-hand lead, catching Foreman several times. When Foreman got close, Ali tied him up. Before the end of the first round, Foreman caught up to Ali and began landing a few punches of his own.

Foreman had been trained well to cut off the ring, preventing escape. At the beginning of the second round, Ali went to the ropes and covered up, letting Foreman punch at him. Ali would occasionally fire back with his own shots. The plan was to let Foreman punch himself out, a strategy Ali later dubbed the rope-a-dope. “Get away from the ropes,” Ali’s corner yelled. Angelo Dundee , Ali's trainer, later said, “When he went to the ropes, I felt sick.” At the end of the second round, Dundee implored Ali to stay off the ropes. Ali waved him away and said, “I know what I’m doing.” "I didn't really plan what happened that night," Ali said. "But when a fighter gets in the ring, he has to adjust according to the conditions he faces. Against George, the ring was slow. Dancing all night, my legs would have got tired. And George was following me too close, cutting off the ring. In the first round, I used more energy staying away from him than he used chasing me.

So between rounds, I decided to do what I did in training when I got tired." Foreman spent all his energy throwing punches (in an oven-like heat) that were mostly blocked by Ali or did not land flush. When Foreman did land flush, Ali was able to take it. "A couple of times, he shock me bad, especially with the right hand," Ali said. "But I blocked and dodged most of what he threw, and each round his punches got slower and hurt less when they landed." When the two fighters were locked in clinches, Ali consistently outwrestled Foreman. He leaned on Foreman to make Foreman support his weight, and he held Foreman's head down by pushing on his neck, a move which is both disorientating and can heighten the effect of punches since it causes a greater snap in the neck when a fighter is hit. Ali also constantly taunted Foreman, telling Foreman to throw more and harder punches, and an enraged Foreman responded by doing just that. After several rounds, Foreman began to tire.

Foreman was staggered by an Ali combination at the start of the fourth round and again near the end of the fifth, after Foreman had seemed to dominate much of that round. Although he would keep throwing punches and coming forward, after the fifth round, Foreman was very tired and he looked increasingly worn out. Ali continued to taunt him by saying "Hit harder! Show me something, George" and "That don't hurt. I thought you were supposed to be bad." Finally in the eighth round, Ali landed the final combination, a left hook that brought Foreman's head up into position so Ali could nail him with a hard right straight to the face. Foreman staggered, then twirled across half the ring before landing on his back. Foreman got up but not quickly enough. The referee counted to ten and waved the fight over. Ten years after upsetting Sonny Liston and seven years after being stripped of the title, Ali had finally regained the World Heavyweight Championship. Foreman later claimed that the reason he took so long to get up was that he was looking over at his corner, waiting for their signal to get up, but they were slow to do so.

"After the fight, for a while I was bitter," Foreman said. "I had all sorts of excuses. The ring ropes were loose. The referee counted too fast. The cut hurt my training. I was drugged. I should have just said the best man won, but I'd never lost before so I didn't know how to lose." "The Rumble in the Jungle" has since become one of the most famous fights of all time, due to Ali regaining the title in a huge upset and developing the rope-a-dope. It is shown often on the ESPN Classic network. Cultural Influence The events before and during the fight are depicted in the Academy Award winning documentary When We Were Kings (1996). Due to his Parkinsonism, Ali had trouble walking to the stage to be part of the group receiving the Oscar and Foreman helped him up the steps. The documentary also showed the musical acts (James Brown, B.B. King, The Spinners, and Bill Withers, among others) who performed during a three-day musical showcase staged in advance of the championship bout. The biographical movie Ali (2002) depicts this fight as the film's climax.

In the movie Rocky III (1982), Rocky uses a strategy similar to the rope-a-dope in his rematch with Clubber Lang. Norman Mailer wrote a book, The Fight, describing the events and placing them within the context of his views of African American culture. George Plimpton covered the fight for Sports Illustrated and it is featured in detail in his book Shadow Box. The historical fiction novel, The Poisonwood Bible, mentions the fight. Johnny Wakelin wrote a song about the fight called In Zaire. The Fugees, A Tribe Called Quest, and John Forte wrote a song about the fight titled Rumble in the Jungle. The Hours also wrote a song about the fight titled Ali In The Jungle. The fight was ranked seventh in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments IN 2002. The fight was covered in an episode of ESPN Classic's The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame..., examining reasons why people shouldn't blame Foreman for losing. Awards 1974 Round of the Year (Round 8) - The Ring Quotes "George Foreman is nothing but a big mummy.

I've officially named him 'The Mummy.' He moves like a slow mummy, and there ain't no mummy gonna whup the great Muhammad Ali." - Muhammad Ali "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whup Foreman's behind." - Muhammad Ali "It will be a divine fight, a holy war...Armageddon on a miniature scale." - Muhammad Ali "All of my critics crawl! All of you suckers who write The Ring magazine, Boxing Illustrated ... all of you suckers bow!" - Muhammad Ali "I told you, all of my critics, I told you all, that I was the greatest of all times when I beat Sonny Liston. I told you today, I'm still the greatest of all times." - Muhammad Ali "I was the dope." - George Foreman on the rope-a-dope. Sources Project MUSE - “Rumble in the Jungle”: Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman in the Age of Global Spectacle Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman in the Age of Global Spectacle Lewis A. Erenberg † Abstract This essay explores the domestic and international implications of the 1974 title match between Ali and Foreman in Zaire.

Beamed across the world via satellite, the bout was a global spectacle of Black Power and Black Nationalism. Ali was a pan-African star whose Islamic religion and opposition to the Vietnam War made him a global champion in an era of colonial rebellion. The bout also dramatized the crumbling civil rights consensus in the black community, as Ali embodied Black Nationalism and sixties rebellion, while Foreman defended the establishment and liberal civil rights. His flag-waving gesture during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, made him a patriotic counter to black rebels in sport and a rescuer of an American belief in its national exceptionalism. Pan-African star Ali took advantage of the African setting to win over the African masses, who rooted for him as an anti-colonial hero. [End Page 81] O A li and champion George Foreman faced off in Kinshasa, Zaire, in a bout whose symbolic significance transcended sport. Not only was the bout’s $10 million purse the most lucrative prize on record, but it was also the first heavyweight title match in Africa and the most spectacular global media event in boxing history.

The “Rumble in the Jungle” represented a turning point in American culture as the contentious forces at home and abroad came to a head in global sporting events. Black Nationalism, civil rights, patriotism, and anti-colonialism had their sporting champions. Unlike earlier times when race, globalism, and nationalism were the province of black intellectuals, the fusion of sport and politics in global media spectacles in the 1960s and 1970s resonated with millions worldwide in the person of a pan-African hero who embodied nationalism at home and anti-colonialism abroad. The freedom movement and the Vietnam War transformed sport from an escapist playground to an arena where divisive social issues battled for supremacy. In this environment black boxers like Ali and Foreman became political and cultural symbols. Satellite communications made their fight a global confrontation carrying the hopes and fears of people worldwide as two black fighters clashed as symbols of rebellion and anti-colonialism versus patriotic nationalism and gradual racial progress. In a global media age, which narrative would prevail?

The match’s African setting transformed the bout into an international cultural and political spectacle, which boxing promoter Don King called “a symbolic black happening,” where the world will learn “that there is more to Africa than beads, bones, and beating drums.” Reporter Elombe Brath dubbed the fight “the most historic meeting of two internationally renowned men in the heart of Africa since Henry M. Stanley uttered those still famous words, ‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume.’” The 1960s and 1970s witnessed truly global spectacles, starting with the international cast of promoters: Americans Henry Schwartz and Don King, Britain’s John Daly, and Swiss-based Panamanian Risnelia, owned by the Zaire government. In the satellite era, title bouts took place from Jamaica to Zaire, where the fight was broadcast to over 120 nations, including African and Islamic countries. Technology was just one factor, though. The international closed-circuit theater phenomenon rested on Ali’s popularity. Home and abroad, Ali’s Islamic religion, defiance of white supremacy, and opposition to the Vietnam War made him a global anti-colonial symbol.

With Ali as the star, promoters could stage title bouts anywhere in the world and reach fans worldwide. 1 As usual, Ali shaped the bout’s drama, this time with international significance. “This is going to be a holy war,” he declared. “I’m the freedom fighter and Foreman will be fighting for the establishment.” Ali claimed to represent “all the African people who are fighting for their freedom and independence. . . . I’m looking at [Foreman] as a Belgian, he is the oppressor of all black nations.” He linked anti-colonialism to the plight of American blacks “who have no future, black people who are wine heads and dope addicts. I am a politician for Allah.” Steeped in religious enmity, Ali labeled the bout a Muslim crusade against Foreman, Christianity, and racist white America. 2 The match’s symbolism enacted the clash of American cultural and political values of the 1960s and placed them on a world stage. For many, the bout would determine that turbulent era’s winner.

To Ali’s supporters, the ex-champ sought vindication against a [End Page 82] boxing and political establishment that had unjustly taken his title, with Foreman embodying the forces that had made Ali an American pariah. Returning to Africa also resonated deeply. Just as Ali’s fans felt white America stole his title, the return to Zaire avenged the enslavement that had exiled blacks across the globe. That the roots of black America lay in a civilized Africa rather than a savage jungle served to criticize America as a land of slavery for black people. “Damn America,” Ali spit out, whose slavery and racism represented true savagery. Meanwhile, Foreman thanked President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society for allowing him into the American dream. Two visions of America and two visions of Africa stood in the ring in Kinshasa. Fans also divided over Vietnam. To Ali, America waged war on people of color at home and abroad. Silent on Vietnam, Foreman’s actions at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics made him an American patriot. While many whites rooted for him as a national hero, many blacks and younger whites sought his defeat.

3 The fight also symbolized the fracture of the Cold War’s racial political consensus. In the battle against Communism, American officials feared Russian exploitation of U.S. racism to gain the allegiance of the world’s “colored” peoples. With the Red Scare, civil rights leaders and black cultural figures abandoned their linkage of colonialism with racism at home. Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois’ criticisms of domestic racism as part of Western imperialism led to government persecution. Celebrities like Jackie Robinson and Lena Horne had to disavow Robeson. The fight against racism continued but largely in the courts as a domestic institution. Control of world media convinced American officials that they could create a powerful narrative in which athletes and entertainers served as patriotic examples of national progress in race relations. At the Olympics and in State Department tours, black athletes exemplified America as an exceptional nation of freedom and success regardless of race. Ali’s charges that America oppressed blacks and that the Vietnam War was racist and colonial challenged this consensus and created a counter-narrative of national culpability and Black Power. In a divided Cold War world, Ali’s criticism of American democracy was seen as aiding the enemy.

4 While many Americans viewed Ali as a “symbol of the 1960s,” Foreman also represented powerful currents of that contentious period. Champion in 1974, he embodied a desire to revivify the official narrative of progress and freedom. With the war over and the Civil Rights movement waning, not only Ali sought vindication; it was the forces at war with each other during the 1960s and 1970s. In effect, Ali represented the rebellious narrative of the 1960s, which included athletes in revolt against racism, while Foreman symbolized the establishment and Cold War civil rights. A patriotic black athlete, Foreman demonstrated the strength and virtue of American manhood and society. Unlike Jack Johnson or Joe Louis who battled white hopes, the Ali-Foreman fight highlighted contrasting symbols of blackness and competing national narratives. The match reveals the lingering tensions of the 1960s between blacks and whites and amongst blacks themselves. This conflict occurred in global sports spectacles rather than among intellectuals and political activists suggesting that the sixties’ tensions still resonated worldwide in the 1970s.

5 [End Page 83] Muhammad Ali Both boxers represented different poles in the debate over the American narrative. Ali entered boxing as Cassius Clay, a fresh breeze in a mob-run sport. Initially, he followed the Cold War script after winning a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics by defending American racial progress to Soviet journalists. His good cheer invigorated a sport dominated by reclusive champion Floyd Patterson and sinister challenger Sonny Liston. Yet, Clay symbolized the sixties’ cultural explosion, revolutionizing the rules of boxing and the role of black athletes. Instead of slugging it out at ring center, Clay, though 6’3,” moved and danced like a welterweight, peppering opponents from every angle, holding his left low, leaning away from punches.

As novelist and boxing enthusiast Budd Schulberg argued, Clay’s “excessive mobility” was “a new psychological weapon” to “befuddle, frustrate, and tire the enemy before zeroing in.” Trainer Angelo Dundee noted, “[I]n promoting boxing, Ali made the fighter the main guy.” Clay challenged managers and promoters who viewed fighters “as brutes without brains”—seen but rarely “heard on any issue or idea of public importance.” Clay abandoned the expectation that black athletes should be modest, often boasting how and when he would dispatch his opponents and ridiculing them in rhyme, using the black verbal art of the dozens. Proclaiming “I am the greatest,” he took charge of his identity. 6 Clay’s rule breaking resonated with the 1960s cultural ferment. His upset victory over Liston in their 1964 title fight was viewed as a youth rebellion against “The Bear,” a ponderous relic of an older generation. After his sixth round TKO, Clay confirmed that he was a Muslim. “I believe in Allah and in peace. . . . I’m not a Christian anymore.” Exclaiming, “I don’t have to be what you want me to be.

I’m free to be what I want,” he declared himself free of white expectations. Bragging “he was pretty,” he echoed nationalist beliefs that black was beautiful. Rejecting the term “Negro,” he defined himself as black and insisted that his new name “freed me from the identity given to my family by slave masters.” Ali’s flamboyant style, Black Nationalism, and the dramatization of his fights as cultural performances fused the personal and the political and made him a counterculture icon. 7 The Muslim claim that black athletes only existed to entertain whites resonated with his Olympics experience. Initially, Ali proudly represented “America on a world stage.” Honored by Louisville’s mayor, he was introduced to visiting dignitaries as a patriot who believed “Negroes” were better off in America than in Russia or in African “mud huts.” Ordered out of a segregated restaurant after the meeting, however, “[w]hatever illusions . . . [he had]built up in Rome as the All-American Boy were gone.” He grew critical of black athletes who did not follow his path. “The whites make ‘em rich and in return they brainwash the little Negroes walking around.” They lived in white neighborhoods.

“I can live in the Fontainebleau, anywhere I want, but I live here (Miami) in a slum with my people.” Accepting the Muslim belief in racial separation, Ali challenged the idea that black athletes should succeed as individuals and lose their identification with the black community. 8 As a Muslim, Ali no longer fit the accepted model of the black athlete. Speaking out, he represented a younger generation no longer desirous of placating whites. “I said things [End Page 84] that black people thought, but were afraid to say.” Older sportswriters and the boxing establishment condemned the Muslims as worse for boxing than the mob. Jimmy Cannon wrote, “This is the first time it has been turned into an instrument of mass hate. . . .

I pity Clay and abhor what he represents.” Ali’s Nation of Islam link was the dirtiest “since the Nazis” proclaimed Max Schmeling “as representative of their vile theories of blood.” Before removing Ali’s title, the World Boxing Association (WBA) Commissioner demanded Clay choose between being champion “or the fanatic leader of an extraneous force which has no place in the sports arena.” Ali complained, “I don’t steal, abuse anyone or go around snatching pocketbooks, taking dope . . . but they are trying to take my title away. They are angry with me because I discarded the slave name, Cassius M. Clay for Muhammad Ali.” 9 Many older blacks were dismayed too. Most black sportswriters viewed sports as an equal opportunity arena, in which victories on the field by model black athletes would result in greater equality in American life. Hence, they were appalled by Ali’s conversion. Muhammad Speaks columnist Charles P. Howard argued that the opposition went deeper. As one of the new assertive cocksure Afro-Americans, Ali “shakes up the good white people as well as the ‘correct’ cullud people.” Deep down, “they are frightened and shocked at Muhammad and . . .

young Afro-Americans for having the crust to break away from everything white and embrace everything black.” 10 While Ebony noted that whites condemned his religion “because it preaches the superiority of the black man,” it concluded that many Negroes abhorred Cassius because “his beliefs are a deterrent to the civil rights fight” for “equal citizenship for all Americans.” 11 Modest Floyd Patterson, a Catholic and civil rights supporter, embraced these tensions, saying he wanted to “reclaim the title for America” from a champion who “might just as well have joined the Ku Klux Klan.” In response, Ali called Patterson an Uncle Tom, vowing to “put him flat on his back/So that he will start acting black.” 12 Despite the attacks, Ali’s religion made him a pan-African hero of the global black awakening. Declaring “I’m champion of the whole world,” at the United Nations he embarked on a tour of Africa and the Middle East to meet foreign leaders. No American sportsman had ever contemplated such autonomous action.

Ali’s travels propelled him into the Black Atlantic, which Ali biographer Mike Marqusee argues “shaped him and which he helped to shape and ultimately to project into popular consciousness as never before.” Cold War civil rights leaders downplayed their links to African independence movements and took an America-first approach to social change. In Ghana and Egypt, however, Ali arrived as a hero critical of the U.S. government. Eager to “see Africa and meet my brothers and sisters,” he announced, “I haven’t been home for four hundred years.” Thousands cheered him and held signs aloft: “Ghana is Your Motherland.” He was “glad to be back home to see things for ourselves . . . and then go back” home “and tell our people that there” was more “in Africa than lions, tigers and elephants.” Impressed by Ghana’s black modernity, unlike America where “everything is white—Jesus, Moses and the angels,” he was “with my true people.” President Kwame Nkruhmah became the first head of state to receive him; in Cairo huge crowds welcomed him as a defender of Islam.

“Every individual wants to express his love to this faithful believer champion,” noted Cairo’s Republic, a man who “asks for prayers from every Muslim in our country.” Ali blamed the world’s ignorance of Egypt on “imperialism, because the imperialists know [End Page 85] that Egypt is the cradle of Islam and that if its beauty is rightly portrayed it will give a positive image to other Islamic countries.” These meetings worried the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation since both nations spearheaded the non-aligned movement critical of U.S. foreign policy, and Ali’s statements countered what American officials wanted the world to see about America. The trip proved transformative. “There was like a beating of drums,” in rural Ghana. “Then people showed up,” chanting “Ali! Ali!” noted a traveling companion. “I saw the birth of a new human being. . . . Cassius Clay came to an end and Muhammad Ali emerged.” Ali’s travels helped him fuse sports and black pride into a global, pan-African popular culture. 13 Ali’s religion was controversial, but opposition to the Vietnam War made him an outcast at home while increasing his popularity worldwide. Instead of serving his country, he claimed that Islam allowed fighting only in just wars.

In 1966 a judge ruled that Ali’s appeal was religiously based and recommended conscientious objector status, but the Department of Justice, beset by mounting criticism, pressured the Kentucky Appeal Board to deny the claim. L. Mendel Rivers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, declared: “If that great theologian of Black Muslim Power . . . is deferred, you watch what happens in Washington. . . . [W]hen a man . . . regardless of color, can . . . advise his listeners to tell the President when he is called to serve in the armed forces . . . .‘I’m not going.’” Ali held fast. “I’m a 1000% religious man,” he declared. “If I thought goin’ to war would bring freedom, justice and equality to 22 million Negroes, they wouldn’t have to draft me.” The draft issue put him at war with the government and most whites but made him a hero among antiwar youth. 14 Ali’s stance challenged the belief that heavyweight champions represented the nation’s fighting manhood and had a patriotic duty to put country before race.

In February of 1966, shortly before the Ernie Terrell bout in Chicago, he told reporters, “Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong,” inflaming public opinion. Columnists attacked Ali as an ungrateful, unpatriotic draft dodger, symbolic of everything wrong with modern youth. Red Smith equated “Cassius” with those “unwashed punks who picket and demonstrate against the war.” He represented, declared Jimmy Cannon, “the Beatle movement:” juvenile delinquency, long hair, naked orgies, and student revolt. Criticizing the war outraged the public. Ex-champion Gene Tunney, “the Fighting Marine,” fulminated that Ali had “DISGRACED THE AMERICAN FLAG,” and demanded that he “APOLOGIZE FOR YOUR UNPATRIOTIC REMARK OR YOU’LL BE BARRED FROM THE RING.” The Chicago Tribune condemned the Terrell match, Mayor Richard J. Daley and Gov. Otto Kerner called Ali a traitor, and the American Legion threatened a boycott. Those “denouncing me so bitterly had never said a single word against the injustices or oppression inflicted on my people in America.

I felt they were saying they would accept me as the World Heavyweight Champion only on their terms. Only if I played the role of the dumb, brute athlete who chimed in with whatever the Establishment thought at the moment even if it was against the best interest of my people or my country.” Whites who disliked his religion and cockiness now had “the one thing they could get together on: a holy, patriotic, crusade.” 15 When Ali refused induction in 1967, the New York State Athletic Commission took his license, the WBA his title, the State Department his passport. However, Ali’s stand [End Page 86] boosted the anti-war movement. As champion, he could not easily be dismissed as “unmanly;” as an African American he legitimated black anti-war feelings and helped erode the movement’s lily-white image. His standing rose as a principled man willing to challenge the U.S. government.

Ali linked civil rights to his anti-war position, refusing to go “ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters” of the world’s “darker people.” Warned he would lose millions, he replied, “The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my people and my religion . . . by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality.” Sentenced to five years and fined $10,000 by an all-white jury, he confirmed his place as an anti-establishment symbol of the 1960s and a global voice against racism and imperialism. 16 George Foreman While Ali’s career languished, Foreman emerged as a patriotic symbol of the American Dream. Born in 1949, George grew up desperately poor in Houston’s “Bloody” Fifth Ward, where “anger and hunger shaped my youth.” His father’s desertion forced his mother to work two jobs, seven days a week. George developed tremendous rage, which his mother failed to beat out of him.

Barely literate, he quit school at thirteen to run the streets, drink wine, and smoke marijuana. His mother hoped religion might save him, but George despised the church as suitable only for “[m]en who couldn’t hit back anymore, women beaten by life.” Trapped by race and poverty, already 6’1,” he turned to robbery and violence. “Using my fist, I got the satisfaction of seeing my man fall.” Backing down meant losing “manhood” and “identity.” He was “King of the Jungle.” 17 Lyndon Johnson’s Job Corps saved him. A Jim Brown-Johnny Unitas television advertisement for the Job Corps in 1966 showed him a way out. The Corps sent him to rural Oregon to be trained in construction, build roads and houses, and learn something. Still, Foreman continually beat up his campmates until one kid said, “If you think you’re so bad, why don’t you become a boxer?” Six months later Foreman transferred to Pleasanton, California, to earn his high school diploma and enter the camp’s boxing program run by Charles “Doc” Broadus. Broadus gave Foreman discipline and a strong role model.

Only 5’5”, Doc’s martial arts black belts made him fearless, just the skills necessary to teach his obstreperous charge “right from wrong” and how to channel his rage into boxing. The Corps made him “somebody,” a junior high dropout who now read books and had factory skills. After graduating in May of 1967 this “poster boy for the Job Corps” returned to Houston, but finding no jobs, he hit the streets and was arrested for assault. Again Doc saved him. Broadus brought Foreman to Oakland, hired him to help coach boxers at the Pleasanton Job Corps center, and trained him for the Olympics. Nineteen months later Foreman qualified for the Mexico City Olympics. 18 The 1968 Olympics propelled Foreman into the international spotlight and transformed him into a redeemer of the Cold War narrative. At the height of the Cold War, he won the heavyweight gold medal by TKO-ing a Russian boxer and celebrated by waving a U.S. flag. “It was more than ordinary patriotism,” Foreman declared.

“I was letting everyone know who I was at the same time saying I was proud to be an American.” His gesture was taken as a response to the gloved fist protest mounted by black sprinters Tommie [End Page 87] Smith and John Carlos after winning gold and bronze in the 200 meters, which was aimed at “the regaining of black dignity” in racist America. In retribution for this globally televised treasonous act, they were expelled from the games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). 19 The Olympic protests capped a turbulent year in sport, and both Ali and Foreman played central roles in the drama. Ali’s principled stance and the injustice he suffered inspired many young black sport activists. Further, 1968 witnessed the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy and urban rebellions and violent anti-war protests. Amidst this turmoil, no aspect of American culture went unquestioned. The athletic revolt, noted black activist Harry Edwards, was a reaction to the racism that produced the Birmingham church bombing and the murder of prominent black leaders. The black athlete, he added, had a responsibility to aid in the struggle.

“He is for the first time reacting in a human and masculine fashion” to the gulf between the artificial glory of sport “and the real world of degradation, humiliation, and horror” confronting most blacks. Edwards’ call for an Olympic boycott roiled international sport. His Olympic Project for Human Rights demanded the return of Ali’s title, a ban on South Africa and Rhodesian Olympic participation, and more black Olympic coaches. Long seen as a rung on the ladder of opportunity for blacks and a bridge to the white world, sport itself was now suspect as another racist aspect of American life. 20 Given his role in sparking the athletic rebellion, Ali supported the boycott while Foreman stressed his allegiance to America. “Giving up a chance at the Olympics and a gold medal is a big sacrifice,” Ali said. “But anything they do that’s designed to get freedom and equality for their people, I’m with 1,000 per cent.” While Foreman knew of the boycott, only college men were asked to join. Their worlds were different. “How could I protest the Establishment when it had created the Job Corps for guys like me?” Foreman noted.

“I’d been lifted by an airplane out of poverty into a place where for the first time I ate three hot meals a day and learned everything I needed to begin learning on my own.” Though not initially outraged by the controversy, after the expulsion of Smith and Carlos, “I thought about going home myself.” Still, Foreman proudly wore “The Fighting Corpsman” on his robe. The significance of his actions sank in when he returned home, read numerous letters of praise and condemnation, and heard both presidential candidates laud him. He presented a plaque to President Johnson at the White House “in appreciation for fathering the Job Corps Program which gave young Americans like me hope, dignity, and self-respect,” and a similar memento to California Gov. Ronald Reagan, who declared him “proof that the American dream is just as real as it was 192 years ago.” 21 Delighted by Foreman’s patriotic gesture on international television, IOC President Avery Brundage appeared with Foreman and the U.S. boxing team “to erase the bad impression left by Track and Field athletes,” while Sports Illustrated hailed Foreman’s symbolism as “a fitting tribute to a surprising U.S.

Olympic Team.” The Chicago Tribune named the Olympics the sports story of the year and printed a picture of Foreman “waving the American flag.” Young blacks, however, acted as if he had “betrayed the cause.” A Houston dashiki saleswoman insulted him about the flag incident, while posters of Smith and Carlos graced college dorms. The conflict between the two gestures struck even moderate Jackie Robinson, who saw the sprinters’ act “the greatest demonstration of personal conviction [End Page 88] and pride that I’ve really seen.” They expressed, “I’m proud, my blackness.” Then, “you see a guy running around the ring waving a flag and you get sick inside. . . . I go[t] sick when I saw Foreman run out waving a flag.” 22 However, Foreman’s Olympic symbolism made him a prize figure in the heated presidential campaign. Richard Nixon lauded him as a patriot unlike the un-American dissenters, but Foreman supported Hubert Humphrey because he “helped to start the Job Corps.” Wearing his medal at personal appearances for Humphrey, Foreman endorsed Great Society liberalism.

In an era of Black Nationalism, he was derided as an “Uncle Tom” and honored as an estimable black American role model who symbolized America’s Cold War commitment to improving the lives of blacks at home. 23 Despite the controversy, the Olympics propelled Foreman to the heavyweight title. He turned professional in June of 1969, rose through the ranks with an awesome display of power, and at twenty-three obliterated Joe Frazier in two rounds in January of 1973 for the title. As champion, he lost his direction, wasted his money, and saw his marriage fall apart. He became, a “stereotypical heavyweight champion—surly and angry.” Overshadowed by Ali, he yearned “to be the King of the Jungle” by killing an opponent. By March of 1974 in Caracas, Foreman was at his meanest, smashing Ken Norton—who broke Ali’s jaw and defeated him a year earlier—to the canvas three times in the second round and winning by TKO over his senseless foe. Spotting Ali at ringside, Foreman declared, “I’m going to kill you.” 24 Pre-Fight Build-Up Ali’s presence was no accident.

By the time Foreman became champion, the Supreme Court had overturned Ali’s conviction. He had spent three-and-a-half years exiled from boxing and was older, slower, poorer, but eager to regain his title. After beating Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonavena, Ali fought Frazier for the title in March of 1971. Many whites wanted Ali beaten because of the draft and his religion, but for many fans he was the first free black champion up against the “house nigger of the white chauvinist pigs.” Public opinion shifted in Ali’s favor. Most young blacks, white activists, and 75 percent of the populace opposed the war. Ali was the anti-war hero, “the symbol of national dissent” against the establishment. His narrow loss against “The White Folks’ Champion” devastated fans worldwide.

A British Black Nationalist declared, “Tonight the black world weeps that their king has passed away.” Whites wanted the king dead, “but it took the might of the most powerful, the most designing judicial system in the world to bring the king down.” On March 31, 1973, he suffered his broken jaw loss to ex-Marine Ken Norton, another patriotic hero, and most fans assumed he was through. However, Ali soon defeated both Frazier and Norton in rematches. A showdown loomed between Foreman and Ali. 25 Promoter Don King turned “The Rumble in the Jungle” into a poster for Black Power worldwide. King signed both fighters to the first heavyweight title match in black Africa and suffused the bout with black pride. An ex-Cleveland numbers boss convicted of manslaughter, King embodied Black Power. With mob ties, a gift of gab, and a hustler’s will, he struck gold when the Video Techniques Company hired him to land the Frazier-Foreman fight. King felt hustler “a mediocre word when applied to my talents. . . .

I am a [End Page 89] solitary black man up against the weapons of the white power structure, a bow and arrow against an atom bomb.” Black Enterprise noted, “Until King, there had never been any Blacks who had major roles, behind the scenes, in the closed-door rooms where the deals are made and the power lies.” Black athletes rebelled against being bodies without minds; King proved that a black boxing entrepreneur could negotiate complex business deals with heads of state. At a time of global black consciousness, King persuaded Foreman that black promoters would “show all blacks around the world that we can succeed like no one has ever believed we could. I am black and this is my promotion. No white man gonna rip you off.” King convinced Herbert Muhammad, Ali’s manager and Elijah Muhammad’s son, to “remember the words of Elijah. . . . You have to help the black man. . . . And it’s being put together by me. A black man.” 26 King constructed an African setting for one of the century’s great international spectacles, packed with huge symbolic baggage. In King’s hands, the bout became black America’s return to its homeland at a time when many blacks sought roots in Africa.

“I yearn for my homeland with great intensity,” he declared. “I am going home, and I am taking my brothers with me.” President Mobutu Sese Seko wanted an international spectacle to promote Zaire, formerly the Belgian Congo, as an example of black liberation from European colonialism. Eager to showcase its independence and modernity, Zaire sought prestige as the first African nation to mount a “Fight of the Century,” with the richest prize in boxing history. “The gladiators,” noted the New York Times, “will serve as the most expensive public relations men in the history of world government.” Starting in the 1970s, developing nations sponsored heavyweight title fights to promote their countries. Zaire underwrote a sport spectacle not for tourism but to draw foreign investment to its mineral wealth, showcase Mobutu as the enlightened leader of a civilized nation, cement his control over a vast nation, and help him outshine his rivals for African leadership. Mobutu spent $15 million to refurbish the stadium, build a new airport, install stadium lights and a parking lot, link 100 phones to the satellite station fifty miles away, and build a highway from the airport.

Noted a television executive, “he converted a shithole into a first-class facility, a modern stadium that rivaled anything in a developed nation. And he did it in six months.” 27 Given Mobutu’s input, symbols of Black Power and anti-colonialism were broadcast worldwide. Atop the stadium stood a 30×15-foot poster of him in leopard hat and scarf, symbols of his office. Huge billboards hid squatter’s shanties, proclaiming in French and English the regime’s modernity and linking Africans and African Americans versus white supremacy. “BLACK POWER IS SOUGHT EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD,” announced one sign, “BUT IT IS REALIZED HERE IN ZAIRE.” Other billboards amplified the message. “A fight between two Blacks in a Black nation, organized by Blacks and seen by the whole world; that is a victory of Mobutuism.” Another protested colonialism: “The country of Zaire which has been bled because of pillage and systematic exploitation must become a fortress against imperialism and a spearhead for the liberation of the African continent.” 28 King’s epic sporting event included a three-day music festival that showcased African Diaspora culture.

Partially financed by the Liberian government, the festival featured Americans James Brown, B.B. King, Bill Withers, the Spinners, the Jazz Crusaders, Sister [End Page 90] Sledge, and Price; Cuban and Puerto Rican artists Celia Cruz and the Fania All-Stars; South Africans Hugh Masakela and Miriam Makeba; and Zairois performers. The meeting of black performers highlighted cultural ties among blacks everywhere. The artists stressed that their culture’s African roots helped them survive American slavery and oppression. African drums “kept us together,” noted B. B. King, while Ali declared blacks had created a distinct musical culture. Now, like Zaire, they “want to be independent.” Unfortunately, the festival proved disappointing. Foreman suffered a cut in training days before September 24, the original fight date, resulting in a five-week postponement. Contractual obligations required that the festival continue. Few tourists arrived, and high prices deterred locals. The stadium filled only the last night when Mobutu gave away tickets.

Keeping with the theme, though, the Spinners performed “Africa,” and James Brown belted “I’m Black and I’m Proud.” 29 While Foreman’s cut sidelined the fighters and Zairois officials detained them, the global media feverishly contrasted the two combatants. At twenty-five, unbeaten at 40–0, Foreman faced a thirty-two-year-old Ali who had barely redeemed himself against Frazier and Norton. Ali was known primarily for speed, Foreman for his devastating punch. Outwardly, Ali appeared confident that speed would trump power. Because of Foreman’s lumbering pace, Ali dubbed him “The Mummy” and vowed to be “the Mummy’s curse.” Days before the match, he berated the press for being “impressed with Foreman because he looks like a big Black man and he hits a bag so hard.” He told them a secret: “Colored folks scare more white folks than they scare colored folks.

I am not afraid of Foreman.” To Norman Mailer and other Ali supporters, however, “defeat was in the air.” 30 Eager to reclaim his title, Ali claimed a mandate from people of color worldwide as the “People’s Champion.” Every champion since 1967 operated in his shadow, especially Foreman. To legitimate himself, Foreman had to beat Ali, insisted King. “As long as he’s alive and fighting and you don’t show the world who’s the best, they’ll look at Ali as the master.” The need to distinguish himself from Ali fed Foreman’s anger. “There was a time in my life when I was sort of unfriendly,” he noted, “I was going to knock Ali’s block off.” His surliness, however, offended the Zairois. While Ali traveled the countryside befriending people, Foreman stewed in seclusion. He was the return of Liston, capable of only one thing: brutally destroying his opponent. 31 The wait heightened their stark political and cultural differences. “There are occasions when George Foreman seems to be a man from another age,” noted one sportswriter. The Olympics made him popular among whites hungry for an end to racial and political turmoil.

At an all-white Lions Club in Vacaville, California, a Governor Reagan representative thanked Foreman for “raising sportsmanship to its highest ideals.” Urging students to stay in school, Foreman received a plaque for his “great example for the young people of America.” One guest remarked, George “has a clean mind. . . . He’s a credit to the country,” a phrase sportswriter Wells Twombly found “redolent of the condescending ‘credit to his race’ that was bestowed on Louis.” His success story was compelling, but mainly to whites. At Berkeley High, one black athlete inquired what he would do for blacks. Foreman responded he would eat well. Realizing “he might be old-fashioned,” he added that he could help blacks by doing his best and “being the very best person that I can be.” Foreman suffered by comparison with the more politically committed Ali. Another [End Page 91] Berkeley student said, “I wish they’d get Ali here.

He’s a really good fighter.” Not accidentally, Sport called Foreman, “The Great White Hope.” 32 By contrast, Ali assumed the mantle of worldwide Black Nationalism and anti-colonialism while painting Foreman as the white oppressor. This theme erupted at the Boxing Writers banquet when Foreman received the “Fighter of the Year Award” and his title belt. Playful scuffling turned rough, and Ali denounced Foreman as “white America, Christianity, the Flag, the White Man, Pork chops.” Adding an anti-colonial element, he noted the fight would be “in the Congo. In Lumumba territory. When Foreman see my Mau Mau boys he going be afraid to show up for the fight. . . . Africans like me better than George.” Ali planned to wave the Zaire, Organization of African Unity, and United Nations flags in the ring to stress his worldwide popularity and make fun of Foreman’s American loyalty, but Bundini forgot them. 33 Ali’s camp constantly derided Foreman as a “White Hope.” In fact, until his arrival, most Africans assumed Foreman was white. His Belgian shepherd, a symbol of brutal colonial rule and police oppression, further tarnished his image.

As the fight neared, Foreman realized Zaire was “Ali country.” Most Zairois rooted for Ali; George was “the goof who’d waved the American flag.” Comfortable as a pan-African figure, while Foreman resented being stuck in Africa, Ali declared his love for a black-run country. “In America we’ve been led to believe that we can’t do without the white man, and all we know about Africa is jungles,” but “we in America are the savages.” 34 The Fight Despite Ali’s being a 2:1 underdog at fight time, from all over Africa cards and telegrams arrived, thanking Herbert Muhammad for supporting Black Africa against South African apartheid and identifying their fight with Ali’s. As Ali entered the ring, the crowd went wild. Ali’s doctor Ferdie Pacheco recalled, “I felt a completely unique surge of love and excitement come pouring over the ring. People were chanting the Ali chant and singing, laughing, and some crying.” Foreman made Ali wait ten minutes, but this ploy allowed Ali to whip up the fans with chants of “Ali!

Bomaye!” Finally, Foreman appeared to polite applause “that seemed even more sparse in contrast.” Still, when he removed his robe, his huge muscles dwarfed Ali’s. Ali had come full circle, facing “a fresh, young, powerful, taller, stronger Liston.” As the referee began his instructions, Ali whispered, “You’re gonna get yourself beat tonight in front of all these Africans.” Foreman remained impassive, convinced Ali’s talk covered a ton of fear. “My only thought was to knock him out early.” 35 As expected, Ali came out dancing and jabbing. Rushing to ring center, he threw a hard right to Foreman’s forehead; fifteen seconds later, he landed another, followed by a straight left and right. Foreman, however, “responded like a bull,” cut off the ring, and forced Ali to the ropes, where, to everyone’s surprise, Ali let Foreman pound away, blocking shots, but perilously close to Foreman’s power.

Like a black trickster, however, Ali led Foreman to destruction “as surely as the big cartoon wolf, licking his chops, is tricked into some extravagantly ghastly trap laid by a sly mouse.” Foreman threw heavy punches, Ali blocked them. George was unconcerned. “Any minute, I knew, he was going down, just as every opponent of mine had.” At the bell, Ali came off the ropes with quick punches that began to puff up Foreman’s face. His corner implored him to stay off the ropes. In charge, Ali replied, “Don’t talk. I know what I’m doing.” 36 [End Page 92] The rest of the fight was similar. Noted sportswriter George Plimpton, it was “the hugely terrifying and unique process of seeing a man slowly drained of his energy and resources by an opponent swaying on the ropes, giving him . . . ‘a lot of nothing.’” Foreman pressed, hitting Ali constantly on the ropes, while periodically Ali staggered his opponent. Yet Ali was absorbing punishment and losing. In each round Foreman landed solid shots, but to no avail.

By the fifth Foreman was shocked he “couldn’t deliver” the KO punch. His power ebbed, aided by Ali’s goading. Ali proved adaptable, but Foreman did not change tactics; following his corner’s instructions he single-mindedly pounded away like “the mummies of Ali’s beloved horror films.” As Foreman’s punches weakened, Ali came off the ropes in the last thirty seconds to throw twenty hard, accurate shots. By the sixth and seventh rounds Foreman was arm weary. In the eighth, a spent champion pinned Ali on the ropes, punching ever slower. Suddenly, Ali lunged off the ropes, throwing rights and lefts that knocked Foreman down. The crowd surged into the ring, chanting for Ali. “Muhammad Ali has done it,” declared television announcer David Frost. “This is the most joyous scene ever seen in the history of boxing. . . . The place is going wild.” 37 Foreman was devastated, losing “what defined me as a man,” while Ali’s entourage was triumphant. Against all odds and in dramatic fashion Ali reclaimed his title. Cast into exile, he proved he was “the greatest.” The way he won was just as important.

In a morality play rooted in black folklore, the weaker hero outwitted a much stronger foe. “A bee battered a lion” noted the New York Times’ Dave Anderson, with, as Ali had predicted, “brains.” Wit and style beat, as Time described Foreman, “a human battering ram” who stalked opponents “like a robot with gloves.” Ali called him “a mechanical man” because Foreman relied on his corner’s instructions. As Ali told the press, “Don’t ever match no bull against a master boxer. The bull is stronger but the matador is smarter.” 38 Aftermath David’s victory over Goliath also vindicated fans who, like Ali, had opposed governmental injustice. A reticent Foreman represented the flag-waving “silent” white majority eager to shut Ali’s mouth, but like government and boxing officials he failed.

Ali linked boxing and politics: “You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned/Wait till I whup George Foreman’s behind.” Ebony agreed in its coverage of Ali’s Louisville homecoming celebration, where he was honored by “the big shots who shied away from him in the old days when he was considered a traitor and a bum” for refusing military service and “changing his name.” The crowd greeted him as a folk hero, “for whom black people have gained profound respect—for refusing to knuckle under.” It was also symbolic “(what a slap in the face it would be to those American ‘patriots’ who took away his title), to arrange to triumph in Africa,” where whites had oppressed blacks. At Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Arena nearly all 17,000 black fans rooted for Ali, because, noted a doctor, “he was black man enough to stand on his own two feet and suffer the consequences.” When he won, everyone “walked out filled with pride and brotherliness and black self-love.” 39 As an international spectacle the fight publicized the sixties’ narrative linking domestic racial oppression and white imperialism to a global constituency.

Ali proclaimed that he won for Islam and people of color struggling for liberation: Allah “gave him the victory.” After the fight he praised Zaire as a counter to white supremacy by introducing his black [End Page 93] Zairian pilot to Louisville’s mayor. “You white folks still think Africans live in trees. Well, this man here ain’t no tom-tom beater, he’s a highly-skilled pilot who can fly a jumbo jet as good as any white man!” Trumpeting African civilization, Ali fed the Third World view that America represented racial imperialism. Nigerian Olu Akaraogun noted that Ali’s greatness lay in identifying “with the exploited and downtrodden Black masses in Africa and wherever else.” As a supporter of global Black Power, Ali “embodies and at the same time shares the aspirations and hopes of Black people everywhere.” 40 Many black artists and intellectuals hailed Ali’s triumph as a victory for 1960s radicalism. Poet Quincy Troupe declared, “The joy caused by his victory was felt throughout the world,” but he was surprised that young whites heartily agreed.

In depressing 1974, with the Symbionese Army shootout, the oil crisis, a recession, and anti-busing riots,” Ali’s win, like Nixon’s resignation, was “a spiritual victory” for all. Like Ali, protestors were “silenced by murder and jail sentences, or shouted down” as “irresponsible and radical—‘un-American.’” The victory, however, vindicated the dissenters and their narrative of events, proving that the forces of law and order were bankrupt. If “Ali represents anything, it is those new and spiritual forces that will not give way in the face of tremendous adversity.” Retaking the title he “spiritually and symbolically represented the millions and millions of people who, also in the face of heavy odds . . . had said ‘No.’” 41 In a battle between two black heavyweights, moreover, one black image triumphed. For young radicals Ali was a cultural hero who symbolized the cultural explosion of the sixties and black vernacular culture with his verbal agility, poetry, bragging, and toasting.

In many ways Ali became a folk hero “of mythic proportions.” Playwright Clay Goss noted, blacks “recognize in Ali our own struggle for dignity, beauty and survival in a hostile America. He has been a mirror image of our own collective struggle for freedom and dignity in this racist-to-the bone, hypocritical country.” Despite his flaws, Ali vindicated the black and white political and cultural dissent of the 1960s. 42 While the victory confirmed Ali’s place in boxing history, the “Rumble in the Jungle” brought to a head the conflicting domestic and international forces in global sporting events. The bout fused sport and politics in new ways, and in worldwide view challenged traditional Cold War assumptions, embodied by Foreman, that America was an exceptional nation of freedom and regardless of race. Rather, this global satellite event highlighted the counter narrative of the 1960s. While previous black activists and intellectuals linked domestic racism to international imperialism, Ali in the global sports arena brought these themes to center stage.

The global anti-colonial thrust was a major current of the 1970s; Ali was hero and stimulant to anti-colonialism from South Africa to Iran, and a bold voice of racial de-colonization at home. This egalitarian attack on imperial hierarchies continued sixties’ narratives into the 1970s. Yet, growing international egalitarianism merged with a second theme: the triumph of market relations. Significantly, Don King triumphed too. The fight boosted his prestige and his monopoly over a generation of black heavyweights enthralled by his talk of black pride. New black players now entered boxing, but as unbridled capitalists. Similarly, the bout helped legitimate Mobutu’s brutal dictatorship, which reaped the profits but oppressed his people. Despite the triumph of market forces, however, the fight’s African setting brought home to blacks and whites that American Negroes were not just becoming black, they were also becoming African American [End Page 94] with an understanding on a mass scale that their roots lay partly outside America’s white cultural ideals.

For colonized peoples, the old Western regimes were dying, and they would have to choose between replicating Western values or political and cultural decolonization. In 1974, it looked like de-colonization might be the future for blacks at home and abroad. 43 Lewis A. Erenberg Correspondence to lerenbe@luc.edu . Footnotes †. The author thanks Jesse Erenberg, Susan Hirsch, Lary May, Daniel Platt, Steve Riess, and Basil Saleem for their assistance on this article. 1. King quoted in “George Foreman VS Muhammad Ali,” Sportsworld, September 1974, p. 11; Elombe Brath, “Ali-Foreman Fight Shaping Up As Battle of Armageddon,” New York Amsterdam News, 26 September 1974, sec. A, p. 1; for international promotion see “The Cash,” Sportsworld, September 1974, p. 10. 2.

Dave Anderson, “Chant of the Holy War: Ali, Bomaye,” New York Times, 28 October 1974, in “Ali” vertical files, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, New York. 3. When We Were Kings, prod. and dir. Leon Gast, DAS Films, David Sonneberg Productions, Polygram Filmed Entertainment, 1997, 89 mins. 4. Mary L. Dudziak, “Desegregation As a Cold War Imperative,” Stanford Law Review 41 (1988): 80–93; Penny Von Eschen, Race against Empire, Black Americans and Anti Colonialism (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1997); Thomas Borstelmann, The Cold War and the Color Line (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001); Christina Klein, Cold War Orientalism, Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003); Ronald A.

Smith, “The Paul Robeson-Jackie Robinson Saga and a Political Collision,” Journal of Sport History 6 (1979): 5–27. 5. For Ali as sixties symbol, see Mike Marqusee, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties (London: Verso, 1999); and Budd Schulberg, Loser and Still Champion: Muhammad Ali (Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday, 1972). For athletic revolt, Amy Bass, Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002); Harry Edwards, The Revolt of the Black Athlete (New York: Free Press, 1969); Douglas Hartmann, Race, Culture and the Revolt of the Black Athlete, the 1968 Olympic Protests and Their Aftermath (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003); and Othello Harris, “Muhammad Ali and the Revolt of the Black Athlete,” in Muhammad Ali, The People’s Champ, ed.

Elliott Gorn (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995), 54–69. 6. For Ali and Dundee see Thomas Hauser, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), 39; Muhammad Ali with Richard Durham, The Greatest (New York: Ballantine Books, 1975), 146–147; and Schulberg, Loser and Still Champion, 33–36. 7. For Ali as a sixties rebel, see Jeffrey T. Sammons, “Rebel with a Cause: Muhammad Ali as Sixties Protest Symbol,” in Gorn, ed., Muhammad Ali, 160–164; Ali quoted in Ali, The Greatest, 147; and Marqusee, Redemption Song, 8–9.

For Liston bout see David Remnick, King of the World, Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero (New York: Random House, 1998), 183–204; Ali quoted in Jack Olsen, “Learning Elijah’s Advanced Lessons in Hate,” Sports Illustrated, May 1966, p. 38. 8. Ali, The Greatest, 24, 55–80; Ali quoted in Olsen, “Learning Elijah’s Advance Lessons,” in ibid., p. 43. 9. On name, Robert Lipsyte, “The Champion Looks Down at His Title,” New York Times, 24 March 1964, p. 4; Hauser, Muhammad Ali, 102 [1 st quotation

Question: Which American author wrote 'The Fight', a novel based on "The Rumble In The Jungle" boxing match between Ali and Foreman?
Answer: NORMAN MAILER