Was the Rumble in the Jungle fixed?

As if he didn't already? Lol

 

Loose ropes should've slowed down Ali's lightning bolt rights off them, yet weirdly didn't.

George himself has correctly pointed out that when the two of them stood flatfooted in mid ring, Foreman didn't have the straight punching or hand speed to compete.

I wish George had indeed gotten up to continue into round nine. That may have sent Foreman into permanent retirement.

So far as I know, a "perfect" fight night situation for Foreman wouldn't have saved him the title, according to what he has said himself. At the very least, he got a 16 foot ring, and it just didn't matter.

 

There is literally no proof that it was, lol.

 

Well Sonny definitely lay down in Liston 2 of that I’m in no doubt.
Whether the fix was in though is another matter.

 

I blame the witch doctor Ali saw

 

Ali had Foreman mentally from the start and knew it.

He ran psyops on Big George.

This content is protected

This content is protected

 

Liston explained that situation perfectly, no need to look for some tinfoil conspiracy theories.

 

no.

 

Very posssible(the water thing not the fight being "fixed") but it is impossible to prove so I don't bring it up. What we do know is how awful Foreman fought in that fight and how much of an outlier that it was.

 

he fought stupid. his performance would still have beaten most people.

 

I see it very differently. Ali once said if you’re not the best fighter in the world, lie to yourself that you are, or words to that effect. I don’t think Foreman doubted for a minute he would win during the lead up, & I don’t think Ali was doing anything different to the hysteria he showed when he was first going to face Liston - convincing himself against observable logic that he was better. Once in the ring, the situation changed, but beforehand? I’m not convinced though I suppose I can’t prove it.

 

His mindset was spot on and you can see it in a ton of prefight interviews: George Foreman’s never been in a real fight, he’s never been taken longer rounds by someone who was taking everything he had and coming back with their own … but I’m going to do that and he’s going get tired and he’s going to fold.

What happened? Ali took it to George in the first, absorbed Foreman’s wrecking balls, took him into deep water and then drowned him.

It wasn’t just ‘I’m better,’ it was ‘I’ve been tested, he hasn’t, and he’s going to find he doesn’t have the answers when I test him’ … which (a) steels him to wade through and weather the sheer hell George is going to rain on him, sets it in his mind that he’s going to have to take a perhaps inhuman beating to get to the point he needs to get to, and (b) sows seeds of doubts in George’s mind … because George knew it was true he hadn’t been tested like that. So when he starts to tire, when he sees Muhammad doing just what he said he’d do and weathering his storm, the self-doubt rises to the surface.

He didn’t say the same things about Frazier or Norton or anyone else that I recall. He lasered in on the small crack that he sensed in George’s facade and used it to break him.

 

I believe Foreman was still, unwisely dehydrating as at the Ali fight.

Even before being privy to Saddler’s practice of making Foreman reduce his normal water intake, I’ve always felt that Foreman’s face in Zaire looked somewhat puffy even before first bell.

Puffiness of course can be a symptom of lacking water - the body holding on to whatever water that still resides in the body which then causes the resulting puffiness.

Conversely, facially and bodily, Ali appeared to be in perfect condition for the fight. The absolute picture of health and, mentally, Ali was as loose as a goose.

Ali’s 5 mins or so of artistic shadow boxing whilst awaiting Foreman’s delayed arrival to the ring was something to behold - and it was in stark contrast to Foreman’s demeanour when George finally hit the ring.

Ali’s hand speed was in fine form - and his superiority over Foreman in that regard made a big difference during the fight.

Due to Ali’s Zaire fight weight (216 1/2 lbs) I’ve previously questioned Ali’s alleged pre med commitment to dancing.

Ali weighed notably less for the preceding Norton and Frazier fights (about 212 1/2 lbs) - a weight Ali himself called “dancing weight”.

If not mentally dispensing with movement altogether, I think Ali bulked up a bit and added weight for the Foreman fight in order to punch with more authority - so I don’t know how much Ali really planned to dance anyway.

Also, the perception of Foreman’s fatigue playing a big role in his defeat often overshadows the fact that Ali was hitting George very hard from go to whoa.

The accumulated punishment George absorbed during the fight would’ve certainly hastened the depletion of his tank also, among the other likely factors.

 

Ferdie Pacheco?

 

The Lyle fight is a pretty disingenuous example to use considering that it was an all out brawl.