Interesting distortions
This morning, I rewatched “When We Were Kings”. I think I've seen it three times and it's still terrific. But for the first time, I decided to see if I could watch the actual fight afterward: Ali vs Foreman, in The Rumble in the Jungle, in Zaïre, in 1974.
In the movie, they (especially, Norman Mailer and George Plimpton) romanticize the rope-a-dope – Ali's strategy of tiring out Foreman by leaning on the ropes to get away from his punches, which Ali definitely did a lot of.
But watching the actual fight was kinda wild, because I think Ali wins every round. He spent most of the earlier rounds absorbing Foreman’s body shots and slipping nearly all of his head shots. Then, whenever Ali had openings, he absolutely punished Foreman with his extremely quick combinations, almost all to the face/head.
Maybe Foreman won a round or two, but those were surely close. Regardless, it was an incredible fight, definitely worth all the hype at the time, but not so accurately represented in the documentary. I'm glad I watched it.
I’ll have more comments about 1974 sporting events coming soon….