I quessed that it was an early period of what we called "a technical fight" when Ali beat Forman by way of KO in round 8 in South Africa 1974. However, he developed the technic "Rope a Dope" to beat Foreman by studying the tape of Foreman fight (Sorry, I forgot the name of Foreman's opponent since it was long long time ago). I mean that Ali didn't 100% make it by his own idea. I know that noone can take anything away from Ali's greatest victory and I'm not trying to discerdit him but I just wanna tell you the truth. Correct me if I'm wrong and welcome your views and thoughts about this. BTW, If you know the name of that opponent of Foreman who gave Ali the idea of beating Foreman please tell me. Thanks.
Foreman fought an awful fight. He was burnt out by all the surrounding stuff going on, including the delay of fight cause of cut, when Zaire dictator would not let him leave country to go back to states to recover. They were afraid Foreman would not come back for fight, so they barred him from getting on plane.
Ali's thugs drugged Foreman, Foreman has said many times how he felt all dizzy and powerless after he drank from a bottle of water that tasted like medicine before entering the ring. The way he gassed out so quickly was abnormal even for Foreman's poor stamina standards. In the final round of the match he was so ridiculously tired that he was about to collapse by himself, if Ali didn't put him down first The overly quick 8 second count, the fact that Ali never gave Foreman a rematch, and other fishy things, everything points out to Foreman being cheated
Whatever the reason, Foreman really sucked that night. He was walking forward, one foot in front of the other at times, and had hands outstretched a lot, like a guy working his way through a dark room.
Nah, Foreman has said (wrote it in his book also?) that he thinks he was drugged. Could have just been exhaustion from the heat though.
My favorite Foreman excuse was "I was about to knock Ali out but got distracted when I saw my friend betray me by rooting for Ali".
Lol at the rope a dope ali whipped his ass all night had him hurt several times.. acrually watch the fight and see it for ur self. He would lay back the shoot combos at him all night. Ali is all wrong for foreman, who wasnt mentally tough enough. He wasnt used to people being able to stand up to his pressure.
Yep, the story of Ali just taking a shellacking on the ropes and merely showing his toughness until Foreman fatigued is revisionist history. Of course Ali showed great toughness. He also landed the cleaner shots upstairs all fight long and was consistently landing to Foreman's face throughout.
Exactly, I mean antbody that faced a young foreman was gonna go to the ropes but how ali fought off the ropes was amazing at times. He was really kicking his ass at times lol
