Rumble in the Jungle 50 years on with George Foreman: ‘I was truly devastated to lose’

Exclusive: ‘Big George’ on Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope tactic, his German Shepherd and why time spent in then Zaire will never leave him

‘The Rumble In The Jungle’ pitting heavyweight champion George Foreman against Muhammad Ali on October 30 1974 – 50 years ago today – remains arguably the most watched and discussed boxing event of all time.
Foreman, now 75, recalled the extraordinary two months he spent in Zaire, the cut over his right eye which postponed the contest from September 25 to October 30, and why his next event was fighting five men in one night to “prove his strength” after a “devastating” first career defeat to Ali.
The iconic event was a moment in time in a golden era of heavyweights, bringing the two great fighters to Africa, heralding the emergence of shock-haired motor-mouth Don King as a promoter, played out under bizarre circumstances underwritten by Mobutu Sese Seko, the country’s autocratic leader, who wished to stage the greatest heavyweight contest possible. Mobuto opened his country to ‘The Greatest’ and ‘Big George’ – the most feared and destructive puncher on the planet at the time – in order to put Zaire on the map, with plans to make it a tourist destination.
Looking back on it all with Telegraph Sport, Foreman said: “Wow ! Fifty years ago. I’m just happy that I can remember it. Period. I have nothing but fond memories, but at the time, I was devastated at the defeat. I was 25 years old. I went into that fight undefeated in 40 fights, and I believed no one was capable of beating me. I felt invincible. I thought I was going to knock Muhammad Ali out in two rounds. To lose that fight I was truly devastated. I couldn’t understand why my tactics didn’t work and I didn’t knock him out.”
Foreman, the bookmakers’’ favourite against Ali, had won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Summer Olympics, turned professional a year later, and claimed the world title in 1973 with a brutal second round knockout of then-undefeated Joe Frazier, flooring him six times, and then stopped fearsome puncher Ken Norton, both of whom had beaten Ali. There were some voices fearing that Foreman would maim or even kill Ali.
With a $5 million purse each for the two prizefighters, Foreman and his 21-person entourage – plus his German Shepherd ‘Doggo’ – sojourned to Africa. They flew from San Francisco to Montreal, then Paris, and took over the First Class cabin of an Air Zaire flight bound for Kinshasa, with the cockpit open to tours with the pilots.
“It amazes me that it was 50 years ago and people are still talking about it, and the term ‘rope-a-dope’,” recalled Foreman to Telegraph Sport. “I love to hear about it. When you hear ‘The Rumble’ my name will come up…”
Indeed, in Foreman’s office, at his computer, the screensaver is still a picture of Ali standing over an exhausted Foreman down on the canvas in that infamous eighth round, where the champion was stopped, against the odds. Foreman, befuddled and fatigued by his rival’s tactics of lying on the ropes, as George punched himself into exhaustion, has meant his name has always been linked with Ali, who passed eight years ago at the age of 74, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
“You know, I was so confident, maybe over-confident,” recalled Foreman. “I really thought he would go two rounds and no more. I thought I’d have him out of there. When I looked up and we were in the fourth round… I did wonder what was going on…”
Reports suggest that a billion people watched ‘The Rumble’. At the time, Ali was the most famous sportsman in the world. “I wasn’t aware that it was a fight being watched by the whole world. Not at all,” explained Foreman. “Boxing for me was my sport, and I just loved getting in shape and letting my hands go and clubbing opponents… I never had the feeling of being famous or a celebrity. It was Muhammad Ali who loved being a celebrity.”
Yet eight days before the original scheduled date of the fight on September 10, 1974, Foreman suffered a cut above his right eye through an accidental elbow from Bill McMurray, one of six sparring partners.
Foreman’s cut required 11 stitches, and the date of the fight was pushed back five weeks to October 30. “After I got the cut, I wanted to go to another country but I had to stay there, and wait for the wound to heal,” recalled Foreman, who had wanted to leave Zaire.
Mobuto, fearing that they would not come back, refused to let Foreman have treatment, in spite of remonstrations by his trainers Dick Sadler and Archie Moore, and his manager Sandy Saddler.
Bill Caplan, now 89, Foreman’s PR man to this day, recalled to Telegraph Sport from his home in the suburbs of Los Angeles those events of half a century ago.
“I was there two months with George,” he said. “When the eye was cut, Mobuto said do not leave. George’s manager Dick Sadler wanted him to go to Paris to train. We were housed on the banks of the Congo River, so we moved into a hotel in Kinshasa.”
Indeed, Foreman and his entourage moved from Mobutu’s personal compound at N’Sele, built for that country’s president by the Chinese, on the banks of the Congo River to the InterContinental Hotel, the most lavish establishment in the capital. Ali, meanwhile, stayed at N’Sele, rousing and entertaining the local people to his side.
Foreman and his team found camp on the banks of the Congo “interesting”, according to Caplan. They could hear lions roaring in the jungle; there were people hanging off trolley buses like cartoons.
There was no chaos. Everything was under the control of the Mobuto regime. When Foreman was cut, Mobuto called a press conference at the 20th of May Stadium, the fight venue.
Thousands of locals attended. “There were maybe 25,000 there. There was curiosity and the country was aware of the fight, but it was like there was an order with people compelled to be there rather than at work,” said Caplan.
Mbuto spoke that the fight would be postponed for six weeks. “We marched around the stadium, a running track on the outside of a soccer pitch, and they began to chant ‘Ali Bomaye’ [’Ali kill him’],” added Caplan. “You have to remember that Ali was the most famous person in the world at the time…”
When the media were given a tour of the Stadium, there were bullet holes where dissidents had been executed. Foreman was comforted having his German Shepherd with him. “Oh ‘Doggo’, he was a great dog. He gave me a lot of pleasure. He was there with me the whole time. Everywhere I went I took him with me.”
At times, though, remembered Caplan, not to the liking of the locals, who had less than favourable memories of the Belgian colonialists and their dogs. “As a matter of fact, it was the Zaire government who encouraged me to bring Doggo there,” explained Foreman. “Doggo made me feel at home, gave me comfort over those weeks. Doggo has long passed, but I keep a German Shepherd to this day … his name is King George.”
Foreman looks back on those two months in Africa with deep feelings, a chapter of his life never to be forgotten. “It was so different. The people representing the government had come to my home, and gave me the promise that they would pay me well. So I said ‘why not?’ In truth, I was thrilled to go to Africa. That visit, the event, even the fight, has never disappeared from my heart. Sitting there in the hotel, healing; going to the countryside, running and training every day, watching the people washing in the Congo River. It has special meaning in my heart, and it still lives on fifty years later. Africa. The Congo River. It’s still alive in me.”
Back at the hotel, there was no sparring. “I played ping pong every day with my PR guy Bill Caplan. I loved playing ping pong, I couldn’t beat Caplan, but I sure did try every day,” said Foreman, who, feeling trapped in Zaire, agreed only to speak to the media on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“Then I started running — sparring was out of the picture then. No one wanted to take a chance of opening the wound again,” he explained. “I didn’t spar any more. I’d just get in the ring and move around with the guys – no one could take the chance of hitting me.”
But on the night, it went disastrously wrong as Ali, rope-a-dope his method, Foreman his victim, became a three-time heavyweight champion. Foreman had a philosophy. But it did not work against Ali. “When I went to Africa, I didn’t think anyone could beat me, because they couldn’t take my punch. I’d just go in there, get my cornermen to take my robe, no instructions, no tactics… just loose me, and let me go…”
Yet Foreman was so “devastated” by his first defeat, he had to prove something to himself. Soon after succumbing to his nemesis Ali, he fought five men in one night, in Toronto. It was called “a farce” by presenter Howard Cosell, shown as it was US-wide on ABC television as an ‘exhibition’. “They were all rated guys too. They weren’t dragged in off the street,” remembered Caplan. “He beat all of them, and knocked three of them out…”
Why did Foreman feel the need to wipe out five men in one night ? “I was trying to prove that I was strong. Losing to Muhammad in Africa, it just put a shadow over my whole career and I wanted to prove that that was not the real George Foreman who lost,” Foreman insisted. “I went out there and proved my strength. I realised that I just got beat and that’s all there was to it.”
The story did not end there. Foreman remains unique in boxing. He stands alone in his achievements. He left the sport – retired for 10 years from the age of 27 to 37 – and came back and won the world title again 20 years later, extraordinarily, at the age of 45.
“I had 10 years off when I could eat what I wanted, go where I wanted, go horseback riding, and when I went back to boxing, everything was still there. I could still do it,” explained Foreman. “It was easy, because boxing for me, entering the ring and having a fight, came naturally to me. I had strength and power, and I never doubted myself.”
He is still the oldest world heavyweight champion in history, and one of the hardest punchers ever. He never drank, nor smoked. Physically, few could ever match Foreman.
Yet ‘Big George’ will forever be associated with and have a love for the late Muhammad Ali after their legendary Rumble in the Jungle.
“We became great friends. He had a great sense of humour, he loved being the star of the show, no matter where you went…he was a celebrity. He loooved being a celebrity. I loved being around him, he really made me feel good.”