Experience The Rumble in The Jungle Ali Vs Foreman October 30, 1974 Forty Years Later

The fight itself is overrated

 

Every time I watch this I see the same sloppy, dirty fight. Both fighters gassed after 3 rounds. Why do people keep claiming fighters in the 70s had superior conditioning?

 

Mainly because they see so many heavyweights like Arreola, Solis, Ruiz Jr show up in horrible shape. Then add the fact that Povetkin, Chisora, Peter, Fury, Perez, Stiverne and Helenius have all had issues with their weight and conditioning and on more than one occasion shown up looking overweight.

Fighters like Wlad and Vitali are a rarity it's one of the reasons why they have been so dominant, their professionalism separated them from a division of seemingly pre-diabetics.

 

Why is it though that Ali and Prime Foreman are huffing and puffing 5 minutes into the fight? I thought these 70s specimen athletes were something else? Looks like they had the same stamina issues like modern day HWs are alleged to have.

 

Re-watch the fight they are not huffing and puffing 5 minutes in. It may have looked like that but that's just because Ali was on the ropes so much we we all know now he was looking to make Foreman punch himself out.

But no doubt from about the 5th maybe 6th round on wards they were feeling the pace and showing fatigue. But then the fight was fought at a high pace in hot and humid conditions in Kinshasa and Ali had taken a lot of punishment to the body and Foreman had thrown a lot of big power punches.

In general I think fighters are in just as good if not better condition than back then but the heavyweight division now isn't a good example of that as it's filled with overweight or poorly conditioned heavies.

 

I agree with you there. I was taking a dig at the posters in classic who claim classic athletes were better conditioned across all weight-classes because they had a 'tougher upbringing' which I find ludicrous.

 

Ali's plan worked like a charm to tire out George .

 

Ali was 32 wtf. People act like he was 70!

Foreman would of knocked him out in a rematch. He kind of got lucky that George fought dumb

 

Yea, the significance of the fight is what makes it so famous, rather than the fight itself.

 

Not sure about the Rumble in the Jungle, but the Thrilla in Manila was fought in deplorable conditions. I think both guys in that fight showed good stamina considering the conditions they fought in.