When it comes to the big show and the question of who is really the very best, hardly any sport shys away from the lure of money. This is what happened to Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, who, on October 30, 1974, at the behest of the windy but also skilful gold chain promoter Don King in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire (today: Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the slipstream of the dictator Joseph-Désiré Mobutu stepped into the ring against each other. Tax-free income was the reason for choosing the venue.
Ali was a shadow of himself long ago, even if the glow that made him a living legend for many years shone even in defeat. He wanted his world title back – and competed against the icy George Foreman, who had previously sent ten opponents in a row after no more than two rounds on the boards. The ‘Rumble In The Jungle’ with a surprise ending (Ali won by a knockout after eight rounds) was watched by millions worldwide; There is hardly a boxing match that has carved itself into people’s memories as much as this one.
Norman Mailer and “The Fight”
The boxing match was also observed by America’s star author Norman Mailer, who turned the events into a report that was not sparing in wonderful exaggerations, which metaphorized the boxing match in every respect and wrested ideas from him that went far beyond the sober reality of sports operations.
A new book (Norman Mailer. Neil Leifer. Howard Bingham. “The Fight”, bags, 80 euros) juxtaposes Mailer’s slightly abridged text with the glorious images that sports photographer Neil Leifer and Ali iconographer Howard L. Bingham sweated to pull out of the camera that day. A resourceful foreword comes from Mailer expert J. Michael Lennon and straightens out some of the author’s historical ambiguities and literary quirks.
We present a first excerpt from the massive illustrated book, which is now available for the first time in an affordable, non-limited edition.
All images: bags
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