Muhammad Ali’s victory over George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974 is one of the great demonstrations of strategy triumphing over all other factors.Foreman, then 25, was a giant of a man who would punch huge dents into the heavy bag during training in the lead-up to the fight, which was held in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). His power and strength far outweighed that of Ali, who was 32 at the time.Ali had won fame for his fast-paced dancing and hand-speed in the ring — as well as his fast-paced chirping and descriptions of himself as being “so pretty” and “The Greatest”. He was expected to “dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee” as he had in earlier bouts, when he was in his prime in the mid-1960s, before being stripped of his title in 1967 for refusing to be drafted to serve in Vietnam. (He famously said: “Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong. No Vietcong ever called me nigger.” )He did not fight again until late 1970.Before the Rumble in the...
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