The man might have recently passed away, but every single one of us, even non boxing-fans, has heard of ‘the Rumble in The Jungle’. This is the fight that Ali won by using the “Rope A Dope”, largely relying on the ropes; thus, allowing the bigger Foreman to tire himself out by throwing punches that continually missed while Ali continually attacked with punches to the face, until a visibly swollen Foreman fell to the canvas in the 8th round, after receiving a 5 punch barrage, then a left-hook, followed by a right. Foreman did get up after 9 seconds, only to have the ref stop the fight. Ali would later complain that he missed “pretty girls and ice cream”.

Don King, the legendary promoter of the fight somehow did not have money to stage this fight, so he went searching for the money. Finally, the money came from Zaire’s (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who put up the prize money of $5 million to each fighter. The dictator, so eager to put his country on the map, made this into a 3-day celebration featuring legendary acts of the time, like James Brown and B.B King. Too bad this fight didn’t do for his country what it did for boxing.