The Rumble in the Jungle

George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali (The Rumble in the Jungle) was a boxing match that took place on October 30, 1974, at the 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire. The match took place between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Foreman was the undisputed champion, holding the WBA, WBC, and The Ring championships. He was also undefeated leading up to the fight. Ali came into the fight as the underdog.^[1] The crowd was very much behind Ali leading up to the fight. They would chant "Ali, bomaye", meaning "Ali, kill him" in English.^[2]

Ali avoiding a punch by Foreman

The fight would go to eight rounds and Ali would knockout Foreman with a right punch. The referee would then stop the fight and Ali was declared the winner with judges scoring it 68–66, 70–67, and 69–66.^[3] During the fight, Ali would lean against the ropes and let Foreman exhaust himself with punches, a technique that would later be refered to as the rope-a-dope technique.^[4]

The match has been highly praised and has been refered to as "arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century".^[5] The match was one of the most watched events in the history. It was reported that around one billion people watched it, making it the most watched live television broadcast at the time.^[6]

A documentary titled When We Were Kings was released on October 25, 1996. It won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 69th Academy Awards in 1997. Both Foreman and Ali joined to accept the award with Foreman helping Ali up the stairs since Ali was suffering from Parkinson's disease at that point.^[7]