Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman - the importance of fetching the ring

I think the ropes, the heat of the fight, and Ali having a fanatical crowd cheering for him all worked against Foreman. If the ropes were up to standard, Ali would have a much harder time leaning back and taking steam off those punches.

To say the fight would be harder and have played out a little differently had the ropes been up to par is a fair statement.

 

From 'On the Ropes' interview with Angelo Dundee.
Regarding Ali’s victory over George Foreman:
“Well you know, when I heard I was going to be on your program—On the Ropes—I said to myself they’re going to ask me about the ropes in Zaire. (laughs) And I’m going to tell you, I tightened those stinking ropes at four o’clock in the afternoon but the fight wasn’t until 4am the next day. And you know what happened—the heat stretched the ropes. They were brand new hemp ropes. I didn’t want those ropes to be loose. People try to say that I designed the’ rope-a-dope’. I thought Muhammad was a dope to be on the ropes. If Foreman hit him with a forearm he would have went through the ropes. That ring was like six feet up in the air—he would have broke his back, the fight would have been all over but thank God it didn’t happen. He was so agile, and so quick, and so smart—he really did some good stuff.”

 

The ropes may have been a factor that helped Ali in Zaire, but I also wonder if Foreman's conditioning was an issue. I heard that when Foreman arrived in Zaire he was somewhat overweight. When Foreman's eye was cut by his sparring partner the delay while the cut healed gave Foreman more time to lose the weight. If he actually had any previous excess pounds they were gone by fight time. He looked very trim and solid on the night of the fight,but when he was knocked out he remained conscious and nearly got up in time to beat the count. He seemed to more tired than hurt. Getting down to an ideal weight is one thing and training for stamina is another

 

That night, Muhammad Ali would have found a way to win, loose ropes or no loose ropes...in my opinion.

 

Thank you.

 

I think the result would've been much closer, most likely Ali by UD. It wasn't just the ropes. As huge and powerful as Foreman was, he was slow and lumbering, while Ali was fast and agile. Even though not at peak form, he still had adequate enough speed to tire Foreman out. I think Ali would always win, Big George is made for him, much like Frazier was made for Foreman.

 

Pretty much any version of Ali from 64 until Manila would beat Foreman.

Also, if Foreman couldn't beat Ali with Ali being a big ****ing stationary target right in front of him, how is he going to beat Ali?!

 

The ropes being tighter would have made little or no difference to the result. Ali would have beaten Foreman on that night regardless.

 

WTF had Dundee got to do with it ?

The rope-a-dope was not Dundee's strategy.

He kept yelling at Ali to GET OFF the ropes.

 

I think we all agree on that. So what ?

Maybe Angelo is a Martian.

Maybe Ali put a spell on Big George.

Maybe lots of things.

But the preponderance of evidence is that Ali invented the rope-a-dope without Dundee and that Dundee did NOT approve of the strategy.

He was ahead on the scorecards and winning at the time of stoppage.

I wouldn't go as far as McGrain who claims that Ali was "kicking the **** out of him" but I had Ali comfrorably ahead.

Ali certainly had it in him to move around and use his superior ring generalship. That would require stamina, but then so did taking eight rounds of Big George's hardest shots.

Is that what you see as the only two options ?

Rope-a-dope or brawl ?

Did he brawl his way to victories in all of his wins pre-Foreman.

No he would not have brawled.

He was much faster and more cunning than George and IMO, would have outboxed him without the rope-a-dope.

 

If Ali had his back against tight ropes, those lightning bolt rights would have been coming even faster at Foreman's head. George's punches lacked snap and crispness, and he wasn't able to stun Muhammad the way he was getting stunned himself. Ali is supposed to have said after round five that he was going to have a little "fun" with Foreman before knocking him out. If the ropes had been tight, Muhammad may have gone for the kill in round six, and he would have succeeded.

Ali had gone 12 rounds in five consecutive fights, while George hadn't been extended beyond two rounds in years. The loose ropes did not prevent Foreman from teeing off on Muhammad's exposed body, to no avail. Ali's punching power was respectable at this stage of his career. In his previous outing, he stunned Frazier with a wicked second round right, he would hammer down a well trained and rugged Wepner with a sustained championship round assault in Cleveland, then knock Lyle silly with a single straight right reminiscent of the one he used to drop Foreman. In Kinshasa, he was simply better prepared. George had let himself get fat after Norton, while Muhammad had stayed in shape after Frazer II.