The rope a dope was “on the spot”?

Of course it was spontaneous. Ali himself said after the first round that he realized he could not stay on his toes for an extended period and he punctuated the fact that he was a thinking fighter by coming up with a plan that did not expend much energy and allowed him to counter off the ropes. Even in blocking shots, however, that will take a toll on the body down the road. But in the Foreman fight in particular, I realized after the 5th round what Ali was doing. And if I saw it, what was Dick Sadler seeing? Clearly they had only one way of fighting and couldn't adapt the way Ali did.

 

Being "experienced" and Ali are two completely different things, I don't really see anyone else being able to take that kind of punishment from Foreman and then finish him like that, literally hundreds of body shots from Foreman with the worst intentions

 

Boxstat has 56% of Foreman's hooks/crosses landed with "most" to the body

 

J, I'm only repeating what Ali said about his fight plan after the first round and his expenditure of energy. He himself said it was an ad-hoc plan after that.

 

In 1974, a matter of hours after Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle, Hugh McIlvanney, who wrote for the Observer for more than 30 years up to 1993, headed to Ali’s villa and was granted an extraordinary two-hour audience with the world champion …

....

“The trick was to make him think he was the baddest man in the world and everybody had to run from him. Truth is I could have killed myself dancin’ against him. He’s too big for me to keep moving round him. I was a bit winded after doin’ it in the first round, so I said to myself: ‘Let me go to the ropes while I’m fresh, while I can handle him there without gettin’ hurt. Let him burn himself out. Let him blast his ass off and pray he keeps throwin’. Let it be a matter of who can hit who first, and that’s me.’ This was a real scientific fight, a real thinkin’ fight. For me it was. Everythin’ I did had a purpose.

“There he was wingin’ away and all the time I was talkin’ to him sayin’: ‘Hit harder, George. That the best you got? They told me you had body punches but that don’t hurt even a little bit. Harder, sucker, swing harder. You the champion and you gettin’ nowhere. Now I’m gonna jab you.’

“Then pop! I’d stick him with a jab. ‘I’m gonna jab you again sucker,’ I’d say and there it’d go. Pop! ‘Nothin’ you can do about it, sucker.’ He didn’t like gettin’ hit with those punches. You see his head go on his shoulders, you see it turn every time I connected? And when did I miss?

“I’d jab, then give him a right cross, then finish with a jab. Nobody expects you to finish a combination with a jab. Those punches took the heart away from George. Joe Frazier mighta taken them but they sickened George. When he did all that talkin’ about concentratin’ on his defence because he was scary about takin’ punishment, people thought he was just a big man kiddin’ along. But he really don’t like punishment and I proved it.

“By the fifth round, you remember when I leaned back on the ropes and gave him all the free shots he wanted and he couldn’t do nothin’ to bother me, by then I knew George had shot his load. I knew he was through.”

Ali’s eyes lifted suddenly and he smiled at Aunt Coretta and Lanna Shabazz, who had winced and drawn in their breath as he talked of that fifth round. “Were you scared when I let him punch away at me like that? It weren’t nothin’. He weren’t hittin’ no spots, no place vital where he could hurt me. I was leanin’ back over the ropes with my head out of the way and my arms was savin’ me from real damage on the body. If he’d hurt me I’d have moved. I knew what I was doin’. You know I wouldn’t go in there to let no street fighter mess me around.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/05/hugh-mcilvanney-muhammad-ali-rumble-in-the-jungle

 

Archie Moore saw what was going on. He talked about it for Sports Illustrated's story about the fight. Bob Sheridan saw it too around the fifth round as he was doing blow by blow announcing. By then it was too late.

 

I saw the interview with Ali after the fight. Ali said that Foreman couldn't punch. Ali wasn't tired, and didn't have a mark on him. The only thing he mentioned was that GF thumbed him once. I think Ali took the steam off most of the body punches by controlling the distance by pushing/pulling GF, the others he blocked or moved with. GF stood square, threw wide body punches that Ali could see coming, the same type punches GF was throwing at the heavy bag that impressed Mailer, who knew nothing about boxing. I bet when Ali saw GF on the heavy bag, he knew it was going to be an easy fight. A fighter would have to freeze up and close his eyes to get hit with those punches.

 

"If you're in top-notch shape and experienced" stood out for me.

That quote is mostly easier said than done. I mean, damn.. Ali took that to the highest level is all. No big deal.. EZ PZ. Just fight Liston and Frazier a couple of times and you're good to go.

 

James Toney would have done it better