A Lukewarm Look At The Rumble In The Jungle (One sided?)

A sober gaze shall we begin?

ROUND 1

In the opening seconds of the bout MA rushes GF who has barely left his corner from the warm up and immediately gf goes to throw a right hook that starts from behind his body... the literal first attempted blow, fair to him he realised that wasn't clever but immediately after he's already fooled by an old trick... watch it back, Ali rushes him in an aggressive way then retreats straight away, walking it back, brining him to the ropes without either guy throwing anything... JCC Snr and Toney have done versions of this all the time.

Ali throws his first punch from the corner, it is a long left hook (he thought about this in the opening exchange) though its more "bent armed jab" then anything just a way of getting around the outstretched right hand... George takes it on the right shoulder but because he extends his right hand his weakness is withdrawing the right arm to throw a left hook it's stuck in that moment and Ali pops him with a right as he's unable to retaliate - to make you understand comrade try to throw a hard right hand with your left hand extended in front of you... where does your left go? it has to come home so refer to this later if needed.

Foreman seems hurt and initiates the clinch, Ali muscles him off pivoting off to his left and draws George back to the ropes throwing the same bent arm jab and right hand combo. GF intercepts the hook with his elbow / arm and looks to have either parried Ali's right or been out of reach... Ali knowing George wouldn't counter his hook to buy some time threw it out there to be blocked again but was pleasantly surprised when GF ducked under it not throwing anything and just allowed himself to be head locked.

Ref does his job and Ali backs straight up to the ropes with no guy really doing anything, Ali teases at a punch, Foreman postures / feints but Ali is going back on his own accord bouncing, finding his timing and angle for GF then unloads a straight right, George has no hands home to block it, he is trapped trying to parry everything and this peach slips through as he's readjusting to follow MA and it rocks GF the follow up left cross (left straight?) touches down too.

I can't tell what GF is trying to do next? clinch like last time he was hurt? but MA in a karma rich way for Frazier fan's shoves GF away resetting the space then it's straight back towards the ropes... GF and Ali play a game of patty cake, GF's created a wall of arms in that old school sort of way, GF sensing an opening when Ali raises his right arm throws a left hook to the body that lands I think near the kidney? hip area? I think Ali picked it off idk you tell me... (7min22 in the linked video) but the following right hook just winds up palming Ali's hip as he's octopussed and muscled into a quasi Thai clinch lol, GF tries extending his left arm to make space for a right hook... he's not strong enough to break the clinch and the right hook (as noted before) has no power because he can't get his left arm free, just harmless flailing.

Ali goes back towards the ropes again after the Ref does his job dealing with "Doc Oc" MA feint's a bit then leans off to the left to load his left hand, occasionally he'll break it up with a right hand (mostly an arm punch) to keep from getting predictable with his head movement he did this a lot with Lyle at 7:33 you can see the delay, it wasn't a hard punch the real goal was the left cross he loaded which GF stops right afterwards then Ali falls into the clinch, MA locks GF up and the ref separates them again...

A goofy exchange transpires after Ali dog walks GF to the ropes and tries to throw that looping hook jab, GF probably picking up on the gap in his guard pulls back and Ali is off balance! though still trying to land a right hand and funnily in GF's attempt at lever guarding it his left winds up crashing into Ali's face trying to intercept a silly looking right hand lol Ali Doc-Ocs him in a head lock and GF lands one of them harmless arm punches that we usually see in clinches.

Ali goes in a straight line to the ropes, unprovoked, just waltz's over... prodding ensues and at 7:52ish Foreman is walking straight at Ali with his left hand by his crouch and his right hand extended... so Ali does what he should and lands another right hand GF refusing to be stuck in Ali's vice in a drunk looking way (probably hurt) shoves Ali away, right after GF guards another looping hook and levers off Ali's right... so far Ali has pretty much done the same thing every time he wants a breather, he throws a left hook, GF never counters it and throws a right which GF lever guards letting Ali fall in and muscle him around except this time GF's the one holding on after intercepting the right hand... Ali's cool with this because "The doctor is in" asserts himself in the clinch and just let's the ref separate them.

GF seconds later shoves Ali after they flail at one another for a second of feint's, posturing etc Ali moves back and throws a bent armed jab... Foreman get's under it and at the same time throws a slap? (comically far behind his head lol) Ali would've been in trouble if it was a proper weave and left hook take the shot that recently dropped Inoue vs Ramon (watch that for how it's done) Ali shoves him back unaffected (good try though) they make space and GF throws a punch at 8:09 at literal behind his BUTT level LOL Ali leans back, GF falls in off balance Doc-Oc head lock silly games begin... ref does his job.

Ali literally glides straight back to the ropes... and walks him into a right hand, he get's his hands going with a feinted jab and POP... more Doc-Oc nonsense, GF wing's it during the vice and throws a punch while Ali is attached to the back of his head and Ali just steers him off balance (Frazier is smiling) Ali shoves him away again intercepting his uppercut lol... MA Parrys and Doc-Ocs again...

GF is freed from Ali's clutches and chases him to the ropes again (FFS) *jab* GF extends both hands on a feint and lunges into a weird jab only to be Doc-Oc'd on the ropes again...Ali is man handling him, controlling him with headlocks great tbh. At 8:40 GF does the worlds ugliest slip, Ali uses the missed jab to grab him again... and moves Foreman around to the point at 8:42 GF throws some weird arm punch from a goblin posture followed by a slap (this lands) Ali unhurt is trying to strangle Foreman with his forearm now and is just sticking to him as the ref pry's them apart.

Ali runs back to the ropes again... throws a looping left hand again (it's out of range) and lands a right hand by the ear (I think it landed because GF clinches right away? could've been blocked by the right shoulder) because Foreman won't counter his bent arm jab or adjust his stance (just put your hand at home man!) Ali just keeps doing this. Doc Oc stuff, ref separates....

I'm getting bored at this point, Ali octopus's Foreman and he tries 2 arm punches landing one, fair as the uppercut started at knee level and Ali should avoid that one (8:57)... followed by more ineffective clinching arm punches. Ref does the job and Ali goes right back to the ropes...

at 9:10 GF throws something whacky again, behind his head and Ali as he should sees it coming, Ali at the ropes Foreman lands two good body shots and Ali just headlock's and octopus's him leaving him to flail helplessly throwing more arm punches out of the clinch, first hook almost lands (I can't fully tell?) next one MA get's inside, MA also avoids an uppercut thrown from the clinch... they seperate and Ali goes back to the ropes again... flailing, octopus, separate and a slap is landed by GF then a jab is thrown at 9:26, he jabs with Ali and it looks good.

At 9:28 more of the same plays out, ropes, lead right, patty cake not anything hard landed, none by GF a little by MA. I'm bored at this point again and nothing happening worth covering continues to play out... Ali goes to the ropes and GF lands an arm punch in-between being Do-Oc'd and manhandled, best right's at 9:44 and I'm positive it was intercepted by Ali's shoulder but also just an arm punch again either way...

RIGHT so that's the first round where Ali knew he was in such harrowing danger he deployed the rope-a-dope??? he was doing it the whole round. This is a sucky fight and anyone who doesn't see this as so far (round 1) as unurgent and one sided is crazy to me. GF landed two pretty good body punches in the round and some arm punches in the clinch... right meanwhile Ali dominated.

I'll move onto rewatching round 2 after some discussion of this overrated fight but feel free to watch alongside with this as a sort of running commentary, it's a play by play not some crazy breakdown.

 

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Ali had dead leg's with or without the ring surface issues alleged to exist. MA withdrew from the start and brought Foreman to the ropes after tricking him in the opening seconds, it's an old trick... come out very aggressive maybe throw away some punches then see if they'll follow you, Foreman followed him and got popped for it half the time and as you note rag dolled the rest, Ali noted he appeared to be the stronger man. One sided bout from my memory way overhyped IMO.

 

@MarkusFlorez99

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