The Rumble in the Jungle
George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali, billed as The Rumble in the Jungle, was a heavyweight championship boxing match on October 30, 1974, at the 20th of May Stadium (now at the State Tata Raphaël) in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), between undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. The event had an attendance of 60,000 people and was one of the most watched televised events at the time. Ali won by knockout in the eighth round.
Poster promoting the fight | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | October 30, 1974 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Stade Tata Raphaël, Kinshasa, Zaire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBA, WBC, and The Ring heavyweight titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ali wins via 8th-round KO | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
It has been called "arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century" and was a major upset, with Ali coming in as a 4–1 underdog against the unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight is famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic.
Some sources estimate that the fight was watched by as many as one billion television viewers around the world, becoming the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time. This included a record estimated 50 million viewers watching the fight on pay-per-view or closed-circuit theatre TV. The fight grossed an estimated $100 million (inflation-adjusted $600 million) in worldwide revenue. Decades later, the bout would be the subject of the Academy Award winning documentary film When We Were Kings.