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Speaker 1: I'm Nico Ali Walsh.

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Speaker 2: I'm a professional boxer, and Muhammad Ali is my grandfather.

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Speaker 3: Following in his grandfather's footsteps, Nico Ali Walsh also chose

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Speaker 3: a life inside the ring.

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Speaker 2: Normal kids would have Spider Man shirts and Batman's shirts,

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Speaker 2: but my superhero was my grandfather. I saw comic book

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Speaker 2: where my grandfather beat Superman, so I was like, my

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Speaker 2: grandfather was the real superhero.

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Speaker 3: Being related to a real life superhero definitely has its perks.

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Speaker 3: Nico got to learn from the champ himself about perseverance

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Speaker 3: and being able to go the distance.

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Speaker 2: He would talk about roadwork NonStop, and that's something that

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Speaker 2: I personally implement literally every single day. I flipped a

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Speaker 2: page when I turned fro and I run every single

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Speaker 2: day now, and it's because of him. But whether I'm

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Speaker 2: training for a fight or not, I will run every

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Speaker 2: single day because that's what he said.

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Speaker 3: Road work is not only how a fighter trains his body,

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Speaker 3: but also his mind and soul. The road readies him

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Speaker 3: for the punishment he will face inside the ring. Roadwork

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Speaker 3: trains the lungs to burn, the legs to ache, and

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Speaker 3: the fighter to press on. In a way, it trains

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Speaker 3: a fighter to harness the raw will to win. Naturally,

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Speaker 3: Nico studied his grandfather's fights, especially the most famous ones

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Speaker 3: against Joe Frasier and George Foreman, but he also had

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Speaker 3: his grandfather to personally guide him to coach him. They'd

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Speaker 3: watch old fights together, typically on Nico's phone.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely I threw on all the fights with him.

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Speaker 3: It was at Joe Frasier fight that we didn't watch,

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Speaker 3: but there was one fight that stood out.

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Speaker 2: Our number one fight that we watched together was the

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Speaker 2: Rumble in the Jungle. That's one of the greatest fights

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Speaker 2: to meggie in heavyweight history. That fights like a Hollywood movie.

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Speaker 3: As we've heard throughout this podcast, the drama that was

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Speaker 3: Muhammad Ali's life and boxing career is something that could

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Speaker 3: never be dreamed up by a writer, even the most talented.

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Speaker 2: Just the story behind how Foreman destroyed Joe Fraser. Fraser

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Speaker 2: beat my grandfather, and my grandfather was supposed to literally

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Speaker 2: die in that fight, like they had the ambulance on

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Speaker 2: standby and everything.

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Speaker 3: It's true the world really thought they just might see

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Speaker 3: the end of Ali, but the people's champ. It also

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Speaker 3: seemed like he had all of Africa on his side.

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Speaker 2: How could he lose the fact that it was in

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Speaker 2: Africa and there were so many, hundreds and thousands of

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Speaker 2: people just chanting Ali.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to Rumble, the story of Ali Foreman and the

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Speaker 3: Soul Music of nineteen seventy four. I'm your host, Zarren Burnett,

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Speaker 3: the third iHeart Podcast and School of Humans. This is Rumble.

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Speaker 3: Previously on Rumble, people.

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Speaker 4: From the US hearing these contemporary African musicians and hearing

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Speaker 4: themselves in it.

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Speaker 5: Saya Cruz starts singing a Huang Tanamna and everybody started

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Speaker 5: singing with her like they knew it.

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Speaker 1: That's when I realized who Bill Woodles was.

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Speaker 6: James Brown played this amazing set, so athletic and the

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Speaker 6: musicality is wonderful.

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Speaker 1: When we finished playing, it was daylight.

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Speaker 3: After the Zai Year seventy four concert is over, the

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Speaker 3: festival directors, Hugh Masekela and Stuart Levigne fly off to

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Speaker 3: Nigeria to celebrate. The trip is Felakuti's idea. The legendary

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Speaker 3: afrobeat musician invites them back to his place and it

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Speaker 3: doubles as a spot for Hugh and Stu to wait

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Speaker 3: for the rescheduled heavyweight title fight. Here's the way. Selemma

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Speaker 3: Masekela remembers hearing the story from his dad.

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Speaker 7: Fella basically said to my dad and to Stewart, come

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Speaker 7: with me. So they went to Fella's house and chilled

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Speaker 7: for a few weeks, stayed at his compound, and it

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Speaker 7: was the craziest experience that my father and Stu ever had.

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Speaker 3: These are two guys who've seen some wild times. So

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Speaker 3: what made Fella Cooties play so damn extraordinary? Well, you

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Speaker 3: just had to be there.

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Speaker 7: My dad tells a funny story that they'd be hanging

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Speaker 7: out with him and like they'd be you know the girlfriends,

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Speaker 7: the women that are dead, and they'd be talking and

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Speaker 7: having a laugh, and then in the middle of the conversation,

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Speaker 7: Fella would be like smoke, just scream smoke, and then

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Speaker 7: someone would straight off and then boom came in able

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Speaker 7: to play with the joints, Like there's the smoke, and

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Speaker 7: they'd be like in the middle of conversation and then

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Speaker 7: you know, the food and they someone would run and

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Speaker 7: and then come back and then there would be a

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Speaker 7: play of food in the Dad and stew It just

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Speaker 7: be looking at each other like, yo, who is this dude.

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Speaker 3: But they were in the mood to celebrate. They'd done it,

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Speaker 3: They'd pulled off a miracle. Meanwhile, back in America, the

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Speaker 3: theme boxing announcer and personal friend to Muhammad Ali, Howard Kossel,

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Speaker 3: doesn't get to go to Zaiir. He must stay in

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Speaker 3: the US to cover Monday night football, but Cosel does

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Speaker 3: his own pre fight coverage of the Rumble in the

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Speaker 3: Jungle for the ABC show The Wide World of Sports.

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Speaker 3: At the end of his segment, Cosel says, quite candidly,

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Speaker 3: without hyperbole or exaggeration.

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Speaker 8: The time may have come to say goodbye to Muhammad Ali,

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Speaker 8: because honestly, I don't think he can be George Foreman.

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Speaker 8: It's hard for me as a reporter to be totally

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Speaker 8: objective in this case because Muhammad Ali has been a

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Speaker 8: significant factor in my own career. I thought, before he

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Speaker 8: was idled for three and a half years, he was

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Speaker 8: He's the best fighter I ever saw. I still think

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Speaker 8: he's a remarkable athlete and one can never put anything

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Speaker 8: beyond him. For that reason, maybe he can pull off

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Speaker 8: a miracle, but against George Foreman, so young, so strong,

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Speaker 8: so fearless, Against George Foreman, who does away with his

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Speaker 8: opponents one after another in less than three rounds. It's

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Speaker 8: hard for me to conjure with that even when he's

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Speaker 8: out of boxing, he'll be all that boxing has.

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Speaker 3: It feels like Howard Kosel gave Muhammad Ali's eulogy, doesn't it.

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Speaker 3: As Gary Stromberg notes, this was the common refrain at

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Speaker 3: the time.

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Speaker 6: Howard Cosell was an expert in fight analysis, and he

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Speaker 6: went on for five minutes talking about how fearful he

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Speaker 6: was for Ali. So we were scared to death for Ali.

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Speaker 6: The people who knew about boxing and cared about Ali

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Speaker 6: were really scared for.

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Speaker 3: That's also not hyperbole. Gary was afraid he'd watch his

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Speaker 3: hero get murdered in the ring.

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Speaker 6: If you listen to me Baal or up Plimpton or

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Speaker 6: Bud Shulberg, they all talked about how they were fearful

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Speaker 6: for his life. I thought George Foreman could kill him,

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Speaker 6: literally kill him.

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Speaker 3: However, through it all and for the months leading up

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Speaker 3: to the fight, Ali remains resolute.

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Speaker 6: He had this really intense belief that his God was

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Speaker 6: protecting him. I think that that was genuine, the belief

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Speaker 6: that he was fighting for God and for his people.

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Speaker 6: It was bigger than him.

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Speaker 3: President Mabutu was also convinced Muhammad Ali may lose the fight.

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Speaker 3: In fact, this concern was so serious that his photographer

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Speaker 3: Lynn Goldsmith recalls.

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Speaker 4: They dug a tunnel underneath the ring because they thought

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Speaker 4: that if George Foreman did win, because Ali had so

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Speaker 4: gotten the country against George Foreman, okay, And this was

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Speaker 4: also a way of psyching George Foreman out that should

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Speaker 4: George Foreman punch him out, which he could, okay, that

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Speaker 4: he needed to be able to get out of the

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Speaker 4: stadium a lot. And so a tunnel was dug underneath

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Speaker 4: the stage for George Foreman to be able to get

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Speaker 4: out without being killed.

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Speaker 3: Despite everyone's doubt in his long shot chance at victory,

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Speaker 3: Muhammad Ali invites Gerald Ford, the new President of the US,

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Speaker 3: to watch the title fight. Ali even sends a personal

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Speaker 3: note to the President by way of the US Embassy

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Speaker 3: in Zaiir.

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Speaker 9: It is my wish that you, your family and aids

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Speaker 9: have the opportunity to witness my championship fight with George Foreman.

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Speaker 3: Remember how President Nixon had a special feed installed in

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Speaker 3: the White House just so he could watch Ali lose

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Speaker 3: to Joe Frasier back in seventy one, and when Ali

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Speaker 3: did indeed lose to Smokin' Joe. As Ali biographer Jonathan

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Speaker 3: Ig documents, quote in the White House, Nixon rejoiced, cheering

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Speaker 3: the defeat of that draft dodger asshole. Ali offers President

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Speaker 3: Ford a new closed circuit TV broadcast feed, basically his

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Speaker 3: own pay per view stream, but Nixon's replacement, President Ford,

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Speaker 3: he doesn't care about the outcome of the rumble in

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Speaker 3: the Jungle. President Ford's appointment, Secretary Warren Rustin, replies to Ali,

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Speaker 3: the President has asked me to thank you for your

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Speaker 3: thoughtfulness in offering to arrange for a closed circuit telecast

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Speaker 3: to the White House. Unfortunately, the President will be traveling

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Speaker 3: outside Washington at that time and will be unable to

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Speaker 3: take advantage of your kind offer. But for the rest

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Speaker 3: of the world, Muhammad Ali still holds the power to

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Speaker 3: cause heads to turn his way and to watch to

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Speaker 3: see if he can reclaim his crown. But that is

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Speaker 3: very much in doubt since.

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Speaker 10: Ali was not in favor. Alli wasn't anyone's goat at

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Speaker 10: that time. Ali was not thought of in the magnificent

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Speaker 10: way we think of him now.

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Speaker 3: For anyone who knew the fight the obvious seemed exactly that.

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Speaker 3: When it came to Ali.

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Speaker 1: This guy was done.

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Speaker 10: He was on the descent, and once you descend as

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Speaker 10: a fighter, it's steep.

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Speaker 3: All that was left to do now was for the

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Speaker 3: two boxers to step inside the ring and let fate decide.

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Speaker 3: Their heavyweight title fight is scheduled for fifteen rounds, far

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Speaker 3: longer than modern bouts. At the way in. Muhammad Ali

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Speaker 3: tips the scales at two hundred and sixteen pounds. Muhammad

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Speaker 3: Ali stands six foot three and has a seventy eight

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Speaker 3: inch reach.

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Speaker 1: The stage is set.

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Speaker 9: When I whooped this man, I want to be declared

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Speaker 9: by all as the greatest of all time. I'm thirty

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Speaker 9: two years old. My legs are gone. This man is strong.

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Speaker 9: You talking about how great he was. Now we gonna see.

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Speaker 3: George Foreman weighs in at two twenty He's barely four

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Speaker 3: pounds heavier than Ali, and he stands an inch taller

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Speaker 3: at six foot four. Foreman also had as a longer

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Speaker 3: eighty two inch reach.

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Speaker 11: I am the danger. I am the one to be

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Speaker 11: afraid of. Definitely, I'm the one who can hit you

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Speaker 11: and knock you unconscious.

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Speaker 3: Now the quotes you're about to hear are performed by actors,

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Speaker 3: and they all come straight out of the autobiographies of

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Speaker 3: our two great boxers, the record of how they remembered

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Speaker 3: it as such, it's through their words will tell how

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Speaker 3: their fight went down.

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Speaker 11: At four o'clock in the morning on October thirtieth, nineteen

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Speaker 11: seventy four, I awaited my fate in the locker room.

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Speaker 9: I wondered if it would feel strange to strip down

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Speaker 9: for a fight at four am and Zayia Africa.

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Speaker 1: But it feels the same.

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Speaker 9: As stripping down for a fight at nine pm in

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Speaker 9: Madison Square Garden, the corresponding time in New York, the

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Speaker 9: usual fight time.

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Speaker 11: Who'd ever fought at four am? But it wasn't four

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Speaker 11: in the morning where it count back home? There it

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Speaker 11: was prime time. And we will live be at satellite

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Speaker 11: the focus of the world's attention.

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Speaker 9: We're at the door has circled the editorial of a

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Speaker 9: magazine and reads it in my ear like a prayer quote.

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Speaker 9: So it boils down to this form and Ali five

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Speaker 9: million dollars each in a battle is Zaia Africa. Forget

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Speaker 9: everything else, every fight that has been won or lost before,

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Speaker 9: and all of those that will be contested in years

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Speaker 9: to come. Forget every battle of man against man, of

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Speaker 9: mine against mine, of soul against soul.

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Speaker 1: This is the one, This is the greatest.

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Speaker 9: A nod to him. Mundini's voice is husky. He then

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Speaker 9: cries out loud. The lambs come back to claim his crown,

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Speaker 9: get the pretender off his throne.

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Speaker 3: Meanwhile, there are all these small quiet thoughts, the inner

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Speaker 3: monologue only he can hear.

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Speaker 1: I feel chilly, nervous.

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Speaker 3: I want to pee, but now there is no time

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Speaker 3: for that, because it's finally time to go. Just as

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Speaker 3: he leaves his dressing room, a young Zayarean reporter asks

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Speaker 3: the People's champ.

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Speaker 9: What does the fighter think these last minutes? I think

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Speaker 9: of who I am and who my opponent is. Who

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Speaker 9: is he? He is white America, Christianity, the flag, the

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Speaker 9: white man, puck chops. But George is the champion, and

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Speaker 9: the world listens to the champion. There are things I

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Speaker 9: want to say, the things I want the world to hear.

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Speaker 9: I want to be in a position to fight for

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Speaker 9: my people. Whatever I have to do tonight, George will

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Speaker 9: not leave Africa the champion.

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Speaker 1: It's time.

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Speaker 3: Up from the bowels of the stadium, up through the

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Speaker 3: hallways and corridors. Ali makes his way.

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Speaker 1: They push and pull us through the door.

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Speaker 9: We're out in the hall now, and people jammed in

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Speaker 9: the corridor see me the chance start Ahli ahli whoomaye

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Speaker 9: ah ni ah ni bhoom ayek. The sound booms through

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Speaker 9: the corridor, stays with us until we make the turn

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Speaker 9: up the ramp to the opening into the stadium.

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Speaker 3: The People's champ emerges. He strides out into the state

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Speaker 3: for all to see.

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Speaker 1: It's a quarter to four.

250
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Speaker 9: The moon is still out, but the stadium is lit

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Speaker 9: up like how knew. Spotlights crisscross searching for my crew,

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00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:13,640
Speaker 9: and when the light finds them, the stadium explodes from

253
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Speaker 9: all sides.

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00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:17,800
Speaker 8: Ali whomayy Aimi whuma yay.

255
00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:22,920
Speaker 3: It doesn't take long for Ali to push through to

256
00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:23,320
Speaker 3: the ring.

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Speaker 9: I reached the four steps to the ring, climb up

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Speaker 9: to my corner and see the full sweep of the stadium.

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Speaker 9: People are on the walls, on the tracks, every space

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Speaker 9: is filled. They cheer, and I raise my hand and

261
00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:40,200
Speaker 9: salute them back. They respond as though we've been rehearsing

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00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:42,000
Speaker 9: together all of our lives.

263
00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,040
Speaker 3: As he waits for foreman to come out, Ali studies

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Speaker 3: the crowd.

265
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Speaker 9: I understand George's play. He thinks he will make me

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Speaker 9: nervous warm legend by the time the fight begins.

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Speaker 1: But he had given me an age.

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Speaker 9: I know how to take advantage of a chance to

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Speaker 9: study the crowd, to get to know their ego, their personality.

270
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Speaker 9: Crowds exert pressure on you. Every crowd feels stranger first,

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00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:11,280
Speaker 9: no matter who they cheer for.

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00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:15,520
Speaker 1: But when I warm up, I feel their good vibration.

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00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:17,360
Speaker 1: The post beats.

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Speaker 3: Also, most importantly, even more than his study of the crowd,

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00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:23,720
Speaker 3: there is the fact George.

276
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Speaker 1: Is giving me time to test the ropes and to get.

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Speaker 9: The feel of the distance between the center and the corner.

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00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:32,200
Speaker 9: I circle the ring instead of starting out cold. My

279
00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,320
Speaker 9: feet get the feel of the canvas, the soft spots,

280
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:36,240
Speaker 9: the firm spots.

281
00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:38,600
Speaker 3: All He takes his time to check the crowd. He

282
00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:40,720
Speaker 3: searches for specific faces.

283
00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:43,760
Speaker 1: I look around ringside, not the people I know.

284
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:49,320
Speaker 9: I see Jim Brown, Miriam mccamble, Lord Price, Bill Withers.

285
00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:51,400
Speaker 1: I nod to depress.

286
00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:55,640
Speaker 3: Finally, George Foreman emerges from the bowels of the stadium,

287
00:15:55,680 --> 00:15:59,200
Speaker 3: like a gladiator in ancient Rome, prepared to step before

288
00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:01,960
Speaker 3: the crowd and kill a man to give them all

289
00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:04,560
Speaker 3: a thrill. That's how he feels.

290
00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:09,280
Speaker 11: I climbed into the ring, accompanied by temperatures and scattered booms.

291
00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:13,040
Speaker 11: I looked over at Mohammed in his corner, clowning around.

292
00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:16,960
Speaker 11: When he wouldn't return my stand, I knew for sure

293
00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:18,720
Speaker 11: that he was afraid of me.

294
00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:22,640
Speaker 3: The fight game is all about ego. It's vitally important

295
00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:26,080
Speaker 3: that both fighters believe that the other boxer fears him,

296
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:28,840
Speaker 3: or at least the other boxer should.

297
00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:33,680
Speaker 12: Wow referees that Clayton gave us instructions. Mohammad finally looked

298
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:37,800
Speaker 12: me and die. We glad at each other. My only

299
00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:39,720
Speaker 12: thought was to knock him out earth.

300
00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:42,800
Speaker 3: That's when the People's champ looks for Himan dead in

301
00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:47,000
Speaker 3: the eye, and Ali begins talking mad trash. Once the

302
00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:50,680
Speaker 3: Louisville lip starts talking, well, he don't stop, chunk.

303
00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:54,280
Speaker 9: I say, with all the contempt, haking mustard, you're gonna

304
00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:57,080
Speaker 9: get yourself beat tonight in front of all these Africans.

305
00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:01,240
Speaker 3: The referee warns Ali about talking, but Ali just keeps

306
00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:03,800
Speaker 3: drilling his way into foreman's head.

307
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,280
Speaker 9: You heard about me for years, sucker, All your life

308
00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:09,040
Speaker 9: gonna be hearing about Muhammad Ali.

309
00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:11,040
Speaker 1: Now Trump, you're gonna face me.

310
00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:14,760
Speaker 3: The referee warns Ali again that he will disqualify it.

311
00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:18,920
Speaker 3: Ali backs off a bit, but he will keep talking

312
00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:20,320
Speaker 3: all throughout this fight.

313
00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:24,560
Speaker 1: I've never fought in the stadium like this. I feel at.

314
00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:28,239
Speaker 9: Home so much so I look across at George and

315
00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:31,400
Speaker 9: take his measurements as though I'm a undertak As Taylor

316
00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:34,520
Speaker 9: outfitting for the suit he's to wear in his casket.

317
00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:46,879
Speaker 3: Before the ring bell dings to begin the first round,

318
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:51,080
Speaker 3: Muhammad Ali reflects on something legendary fight trainer Cus Tomato

319
00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:54,600
Speaker 3: once told him about facing a bully like George Foreman.

320
00:17:55,119 --> 00:17:59,520
Speaker 10: Ali had great respect for custom model. Cuss was like

321
00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:03,840
Speaker 10: a lot of people in boxing, part visionary, part crack pot.

322
00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:05,320
Speaker 1: But Ali believed in you.

323
00:18:05,560 --> 00:18:09,280
Speaker 10: And before the fight, Ali calls and starts to pick

324
00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:12,240
Speaker 10: his brain. De Motto understands the psychology of a bully

325
00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:15,119
Speaker 10: and he tells Ali the first thing you have to

326
00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:17,840
Speaker 10: do is punched the bully in the mouth. Go hit

327
00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:20,680
Speaker 10: him with the right hand right off the bat.

328
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:24,680
Speaker 3: Ali plans to do exactly that, come out throwing blows.

329
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:29,000
Speaker 3: Foreman certainly won't expect that another person close to Ali.

330
00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:32,439
Speaker 3: His former manager Gene Kilroy, who was on the pre

331
00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:36,960
Speaker 3: fight call with Customatto and Ali. He told Mark Kriegel.

332
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:39,480
Speaker 10: This is the way Kilwoye tells me the story. You

333
00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:42,920
Speaker 10: must turn strength into a weakness. Your first punch must

334
00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:47,440
Speaker 10: be one of devastating tenacity. Mohammed So I asked Kilroy,

335
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:49,160
Speaker 10: like we shore like devastating Kanascius.

336
00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:49,760
Speaker 1: What did I say?

337
00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:52,440
Speaker 10: It's all offended, devastating tenacity.

338
00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,119
Speaker 13: Ali was not a knockout puncher, but I think he

339
00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:58,760
Speaker 13: wanted to, you know, send a message early on to foremantave.

340
00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:02,760
Speaker 10: Without question that strategy perfectly, and he's sending a message

341
00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:05,400
Speaker 10: to the bully. I'm not playing to the script.

342
00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:12,040
Speaker 3: Before the fight begins, Ali's great rival, Joe Fraser joins

343
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:16,080
Speaker 3: the announcer's table for a pre fight interview. Surprising no one,

344
00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:20,000
Speaker 3: Joe Fraser picks Foreman to win the fight, but surprising himself,

345
00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:22,760
Speaker 3: Joe Fraser agrees to stay at the announcer's table and

346
00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,879
Speaker 3: call the whole fight. He joins announcers David Frost, Jim Brown,

347
00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:30,359
Speaker 3: and Bob Sheridan. Joe Fraser is the rare man who

348
00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:33,800
Speaker 3: fought both Ali and Foreman, and he says of his

349
00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:36,600
Speaker 3: rivals quote, I think it should be a real good fight.

350
00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:41,560
Speaker 12: I fell open and bailed. Muhammed becomes a rabbit.

351
00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:45,840
Speaker 3: Following Customato's advice, Ali comes out and he lands the

352
00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:46,560
Speaker 3: first punch.

353
00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:51,080
Speaker 9: Move out and dance straight into George. Throw a fast left.

354
00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:53,480
Speaker 9: He's barren down on me, and I dance away.

355
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:55,760
Speaker 12: And flick out some more jabs. He flick a jab

356
00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:57,199
Speaker 12: at me and run me.

357
00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:01,760
Speaker 11: I rushed him like a tiger, hard shot after hard shot,

358
00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:05,399
Speaker 11: but he was one tough rabbit to catch even tighter.

359
00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:09,000
Speaker 3: Ali dances in close. He throws a right hand lead

360
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:12,720
Speaker 3: followed by a left jab. The combo causes the crowd

361
00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:15,320
Speaker 3: to erupt in the first big roar of the fight.

362
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:20,840
Speaker 3: Then Ali dances away. Foreman works Ali into a corner.

363
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,560
Speaker 3: Foreman raises his hands like a big cat raises its paws.

364
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:28,359
Speaker 3: Fighting from the corner, Ali throws a sloppy punch.

365
00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:31,480
Speaker 9: I say nothing for the first full minute, But if

366
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,200
Speaker 9: he thinks this is gonna be all work and no education,

367
00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:35,679
Speaker 9: he's mistaken.

368
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:39,560
Speaker 3: After the midway point, around one, Ali starts.

369
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,000
Speaker 1: Talking chun, now's your chance, show me.

370
00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:42,440
Speaker 12: What you got.

371
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:47,240
Speaker 3: Foreman comes after Ali. He throws his big, sweeping blows.

372
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:51,920
Speaker 3: Foreman uses his size and his brute strength. He pushes

373
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:56,359
Speaker 3: Ali around the ring, literally shoving Ali. Ali sneaks in

374
00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:00,480
Speaker 3: quick punches when he can, but Foreman counters with a powerful.

375
00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:03,880
Speaker 14: Left round one. Foreman comes out and looks like he's

376
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:05,080
Speaker 14: clabbering Ali.

377
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,000
Speaker 3: Any one of Foreman's punches could send a man to

378
00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:10,840
Speaker 3: the hospital for a six week stay. They may not

379
00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:14,760
Speaker 3: be pretty punches, but their fury cannot be denied. By

380
00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 3: the halfway point of the first round, Foreman's face is

381
00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:22,760
Speaker 3: this mask of anger. He throws lunging, angry punches. When

382
00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:26,960
Speaker 3: they do connect, Ali absorbs the blow, then clinches up.

383
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,440
Speaker 3: He locks up Foreman's arms. The furious puncher can't get

384
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,680
Speaker 3: his rhythm going. Instead, Foreman must wait for the ref

385
00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:34,640
Speaker 3: to separate them.

386
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:38,560
Speaker 11: Somehow, we always ended up on the ropes or in

387
00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,360
Speaker 11: the corner, with me wailing away and him covering up, and.

388
00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:45,359
Speaker 1: I Jam jail Jam.

389
00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 11: Didn't throw himself with knockout punches that couldn't find their back.

390
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,040
Speaker 3: When Foreman's thunderous punches do hit their mark, Ali winces

391
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:58,160
Speaker 3: in pain. Ali looks like he's getting hitting the gut

392
00:21:58,200 --> 00:21:59,240
Speaker 3: with a sledgehammer.

393
00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:04,080
Speaker 14: Several right hands to start the fight. Ali is backed

394
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:06,919
Speaker 14: against the ropes. He's backed into a corner for him

395
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:08,720
Speaker 14: and is cutting off the ring on him, and it's like,

396
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:11,959
Speaker 14: oh my god, Ali, I mean he could lose in

397
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:12,840
Speaker 14: the first round.

398
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,679
Speaker 9: George is executing what he's practiced for months. He's cutting

399
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,200
Speaker 9: the ring off and forcing me to move six steps

400
00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:22,680
Speaker 9: to his two, and he's doing it better than anybody

401
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:26,359
Speaker 9: I've been up against. I've had fighters chase me, most

402
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:29,200
Speaker 9: fighters chase me, but I make them match me step

403
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:33,159
Speaker 9: for step. George is the first fighter to consistently cut

404
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 9: me off. He corners me for a few seconds, and

405
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,119
Speaker 9: I find myself lying against the ropes.

406
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,800
Speaker 3: That is the worst place to be against jackhammer fisted

407
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:44,080
Speaker 3: George Forman.

408
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:48,520
Speaker 9: The champion, moves in throwing long rights and lets haymaker hooks.

409
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,240
Speaker 9: He's at the peak of his strength and he hurls

410
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,360
Speaker 9: one left his anywhere punch that strikes me and makes

411
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:57,199
Speaker 9: me feel exactly as boss Man Jones described it.

412
00:22:57,720 --> 00:22:59,480
Speaker 1: Dance champ Dance.

413
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:03,760
Speaker 3: Are desperate for Ali to escape. Foreman, He's getting killed

414
00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:04,200
Speaker 3: out there.

415
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:07,199
Speaker 6: Everybody was telling him that you better run. You know,

416
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:10,399
Speaker 6: that whole thing about dancing was all based on, you know,

417
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,760
Speaker 6: the idea that you better move or you're gonna get killed.

418
00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:16,360
Speaker 3: And he started off with that belief. However, once Ali's

419
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,240
Speaker 3: in the ring, things change.

420
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,440
Speaker 9: All during training, I had planned to stay off the ropes.

421
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:24,480
Speaker 9: Now I move off and circle the rings. But before

422
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:26,639
Speaker 9: the end of the round, I know I've got to

423
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:27,640
Speaker 9: change my plans.

424
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:30,920
Speaker 12: His only offense was that famous clicking jam.

425
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:34,480
Speaker 11: It comes so fast that you could barely see, let

426
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:36,560
Speaker 11: alone counter each time he threw.

427
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:38,080
Speaker 12: When I think, man, that's.

428
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,399
Speaker 3: A quick jam, it's also a calculated move. Ali is

429
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:45,440
Speaker 3: sizing up his opponent and hoping for one good targeted strike.

430
00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 11: I soon figured out that he was trying to open

431
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:52,040
Speaker 11: the cutover my eye, but I wasn't worried any minute.

432
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:56,640
Speaker 11: I knew he was going down, just as every other opponent.

433
00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:56,840
Speaker 12: Of mine had.

434
00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:01,080
Speaker 3: Foreman swaggering over confidence keeps him from seeing what's right

435
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 3: in front of him. Instead, he sees this fight is

436
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:08,360
Speaker 3: no different than his previous bouts. That's a mistake, and

437
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 3: the round ends.

438
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:12,320
Speaker 14: Everyone is like, oh, thank God, what's gonna happen in

439
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 14: the second.

440
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:15,680
Speaker 9: Round When the first round is over, When I'm back

441
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:18,320
Speaker 9: in my corner, Angelo's voice is urgent.

442
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:19,639
Speaker 12: Keep moving.

443
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 1: You got to stay off those ropes.

444
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:24,879
Speaker 9: The only thing my corner man see out there is

445
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:27,400
Speaker 9: that I need to move, But I see something else.

446
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 9: In his first three minutes, I felt George's power, and

447
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:34,360
Speaker 9: I understand how Fraser and Norton would.

448
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 3: Destroy Ali can feel it all through his body. Everything

449
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 3: already hurts. He knows he can't go fifteen rounds with

450
00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:47,080
Speaker 3: Big George Foreman. When asked, Joe Frazier scores the first round,

451
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 3: even as Lewis Ehrenberg points out this was always more

452
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:53,440
Speaker 3: than a fight between two boxers.

453
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:58,080
Speaker 14: The emotional sense of that the audience is like death.

454
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,719
Speaker 14: I mean, this is is the hero of the moment,

455
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 14: the great freedom fighter, the person who would challenge American policy,

456
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:12,879
Speaker 14: represent freedom for African Americans, fighting against the guy who

457
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 14: waved the flag, who supported American policy, etc. Anyway, Foreman

458
00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 14: is just pounding Ali.

459
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,240
Speaker 3: After that first round. The future is still up for grabs.

460
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:33,800
Speaker 1: Lay round you. I moved to the center, Jeb and dance,

461
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 1: and Jeb.

462
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:38,119
Speaker 14: Foreman comes out. Ali tries to rush into the center

463
00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:38,679
Speaker 14: of the ring.

464
00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:41,160
Speaker 1: But I know that my danger is in the dance.

465
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:42,960
Speaker 1: Is six death to Georgia's.

466
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,720
Speaker 14: Three and he just he can't find a way to

467
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,120
Speaker 14: get off. Foreman is much better at cutting off the ring.

468
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 14: Ali's back on the ropes and it's like, oh, no

469
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:52,199
Speaker 14: more of this.

470
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 3: Foreman keeps his gloves up at head height. With his

471
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,639
Speaker 3: guard up, it makes it near impossible for Ali to

472
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 3: get in close, and Ali does Fororman just shoves Ali

473
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 3: around the ring. Foreman treats Ali like he's a pile

474
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 3: of laundry.

475
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 11: I unleashed a torn of punches, none of which really

476
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 11: found its mark.

477
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 3: But Foreman still can't land that knockout punch.

478
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 12: Muhammed was a master covering.

479
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:24,880
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, all these cornermen keep shouting at him.

480
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,520
Speaker 9: But I've moved into a corner and my back is

481
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:32,000
Speaker 9: against the ropes. George eagerly comes in after me for

482
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:34,719
Speaker 9: the first time in all my fights. I decide to

483
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 9: not wait until I'm tied to play the ropes, but

484
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,399
Speaker 9: to take the corners while I'm fresh and strong, to gamble.

485
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 1: On the ropes all the way.

486
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 3: Thirty seconds into the round, Foreman lands a brutal left

487
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,879
Speaker 3: right combat. It whips Ali's head back, but again the

488
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 3: boxers clinch and wrap up. The ref steps in separates

489
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 3: them Ali looks dazed.

490
00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,920
Speaker 9: George just blows, exploding into my kidneys, my rigs, my head.

491
00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:03,280
Speaker 1: I lean that, I slip and slide.

492
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 9: I catch some of my arms off my elbows, but

493
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 9: I stay on the ropes, get off the ropes, jamp move.

494
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:12,439
Speaker 1: But they don't know what I know.

495
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 3: Ali relies on his elusive speed and his ability to

496
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:21,439
Speaker 3: dodge punches. But he's not young anymore, and any one

497
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,920
Speaker 3: of Foreman's head hunting punches can knock out Ali. If

498
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 3: Foreman can turn his jaw, if he can catch him

499
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:32,160
Speaker 3: on the temple, that's it. Lights out. Ali must keep dodging,

500
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:35,160
Speaker 3: deflecting knockout blow after knockout blow.

501
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,879
Speaker 10: At some point you ask yourself, who would be willing

502
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 10: to take that? Your brain, cells, your kidneys, your liver.

503
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 10: What's the price of that?

504
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:46,920
Speaker 3: Finally comes relief.

505
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: When the bell rings. I go back to my corner.

506
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 9: I see concern, confusion, and fear in the eyes of

507
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 9: my corner man. They have strong advice about what I

508
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 9: should do, But my head is on the line.

509
00:27:58,240 --> 00:27:58,640
Speaker 11: Not this.

510
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:03,720
Speaker 9: The hot breadth of the monster, and they do not

511
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 9: know what I know.

512
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:07,240
Speaker 3: What could Ali possibly know?

513
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 12: Well?

514
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:12,119
Speaker 9: He knows this in the gym practicing year after year.

515
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 9: I've discovered something that heavyweights usually burned down when the

516
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,640
Speaker 9: wide open opportunity to punch and punch is in.

517
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 12: Front of them.

518
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:23,919
Speaker 9: But this is a gamble now because George is the

519
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:25,679
Speaker 9: strongest heavyweight in the world.

520
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,200
Speaker 3: It's one of the greatest gambles in professional sports history.

521
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 3: Ali is literally risking death.

522
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 6: When he stopped running after the first round and decided

523
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 6: to lay on the ropes against everybody's I mean, as corner.

524
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,040
Speaker 6: Nobody knew that he was going to do that. He

525
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 6: didn't know that he was going to do that. But

526
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 6: when he started to do that and was taking this punishment,

527
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:50,600
Speaker 6: it was fearsome, just fearsome.

528
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 14: And this continues to the third round.

529
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:57,720
Speaker 3: Despite the risks, Ali is fully convinced of his strategy

530
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 3: to go the distance. Also, Alli knows something that George

531
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:04,880
Speaker 3: Foreman doesn't, something he learned from losing.

532
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:10,400
Speaker 9: George has twenty three knockout victims behind him. It's gotta

533
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 9: be hard for him to believe that the same methods

534
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 9: he used on the others will not make me the

535
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 9: twenty fourth. Can I make George the victim of his

536
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 9: own fantastic success? In a few seconds, the bell for

537
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 9: round three will ring.

538
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 1: George has not had to go beyond round three in

539
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 1: five years.

540
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:29,640
Speaker 9: He will come to me now with all He's got,

541
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 9: Everything in his ego and his psyche is at stake now.

542
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,480
Speaker 14: Third round Ali starts to fight back, and there's a

543
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 14: sense in the audience. I mean, I remember, I felt

544
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 14: it like, you know, he's losing, but he's not being

545
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:47,560
Speaker 14: knocked out.

546
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 12: What's going on again?

547
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 3: Foreman backs Ali into the ropes, but Ali keeps landing punches,

548
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 3: sneaking in those flicking jabs.

549
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: I move quick and shoot jabs with steam. Pow pow pow.

550
00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 9: George blinks but moves forward like a big tank. He

551
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 9: controls the center of the ring as though he expects me.

552
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,040
Speaker 1: To challenge him. But I go back to the ropes

553
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 1: in the corner and I call to him, all right, sucking,

554
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 1: this is where you want me. Come on man.

555
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 3: Nearly a minute into the third round, Ali lands a

556
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:23,240
Speaker 3: super fast right hand lead that makes Foreman's head whip back.

557
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 14: Ali, you know, could get under anybody's skin, and he

558
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 14: got under Foreman's. I mean, Foreman is just you know,

559
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,800
Speaker 14: throwing bombs, and all he's saying is that all you got?

560
00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 14: And Foreman is thinking, I'll show you what I got,

561
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 14: and he unloads more bombs that you know don't do

562
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:39,400
Speaker 14: the job.

563
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:45,080
Speaker 3: Foreman's anger is causing him to throw lunging punches off balance.

564
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:46,400
Speaker 3: Desperate to connect.

565
00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 9: I lean back, but he stays on top of me.

566
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:52,200
Speaker 9: I'm amazed at how he can pack power into every punch.

567
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 9: Every punch is a haymaker. I blocked him from my head.

568
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 12: Not until the third round that I lay in a

569
00:30:58,800 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 12: solid baker.

570
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 3: When he does, he lands one hell of a blow.

571
00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 3: He nearly knocks Ali out.

572
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 9: Suddenly he switches comes up from the floor with a

573
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 9: number cut and that seems to blow my jaw.

574
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,800
Speaker 11: Muhammed looked at me as if to say, hey, I'm

575
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 11: not gonna take that off for you now.

576
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:16,360
Speaker 12: That made me happy.

577
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 11: Because I thought then that he finally stand told of

578
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:22,760
Speaker 11: told with me, his pride getting the better of his intelligence.

579
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 12: No way could he win a slugging match to me.

580
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:28,640
Speaker 3: We both knew back Foreman's finally done it. He's stunned

581
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 3: and surprised. Ali.

582
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 1: I'm hurt.

583
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 9: I try to hold on get off the rope stirs

584
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:36,040
Speaker 9: tip starts.

585
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:38,959
Speaker 11: He backed into the ropes and began covering up to

586
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:40,040
Speaker 11: avoid another.

587
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 12: Barage of heavy shots.

588
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:43,560
Speaker 1: I try to move off, but he pushes me back

589
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 1: like a rag dog.

590
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:49,479
Speaker 3: George Foreman can smell blood. He circles closer, looking for

591
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 3: that killer knockout shot.

592
00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 11: I beat on him mercilessly, trying to connect with one

593
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:56,120
Speaker 11: of those home run punch.

594
00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 6: I just sat there watching round after round of him

595
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 6: taking this kind of abuse, thinking at any moment that

596
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 6: he could get seriously hurt.

597
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 3: The relentless violence starts to take a toll on Ali.

598
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 3: He can barely think straight.

599
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,360
Speaker 9: The tune and four in my head is humming. I've

600
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 9: got to hold on. I've got to keep him from

601
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 9: following up. George senses that I'm hurt and he's coming

602
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:19,920
Speaker 9: for the quille.

603
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:22,240
Speaker 12: I block, move back, and weave.

604
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:25,480
Speaker 1: It's the longest round I've ever fought in my life.

605
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 9: But near the end my head begins to clee.

606
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 3: As self defense, he throws a flurry of left and rights.

607
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 3: Old as he is, Ali still has the same stunning

608
00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 3: hand speed.

609
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 9: The crowd roars. They come to life, as if they're

610
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 9: seeing me rise from the dead.

611
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:47,640
Speaker 3: When the round ends, both fighters retreat to their corners.

612
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 3: George Foreman realizes just how close he came to knocking

613
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 3: out Ali.

614
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 11: At the sound of the bell and in the round, Muhammad's

615
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 11: face looked like he'd just seen a maer.

616
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 12: He hanged his own some he was still on his feet.

617
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 3: If he's honest with himself, that's exactly how Ali feels.

618
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 9: But the round of my execution is over, and all

619
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,719
Speaker 9: I do now is plot the time when my turn comes,

620
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:15,600
Speaker 9: I take a deep swig from my water bottle and

621
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:17,000
Speaker 9: wash the blood out of my mouth.

622
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 11: Back in my corner, Saddler and Archie Moore insisted that

623
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,080
Speaker 11: I keep up the pounding, but I was nearly exhausted.

624
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 11: I couldn't understand why I fought only three rounds yet

625
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:30,440
Speaker 11: felt like I'd gone fifteen.

626
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, over in all Lee's.

627
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:37,200
Speaker 1: Corner, Bundini is crying, Jim, he gotta move. He got

628
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:39,800
Speaker 1: a stick and move. He wants you on the ropes.

629
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:42,720
Speaker 1: Don't let him. Angelo is desperate.

630
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 9: I rarely ask for advice from my corner and seldom

631
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:49,640
Speaker 9: accept what they say. And now, more than any time,

632
00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 9: I know they do not understand what's happening out there.

633
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 3: While his cornerman don't see it, the crowd does.

634
00:33:57,080 --> 00:33:58,840
Speaker 1: The stadium crowd is all.

635
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:06,440
Speaker 9: I'm listening to Ali boo manaye, Ali Boomaye. They chanting lengala,

636
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:09,800
Speaker 9: but I know that bou maye means knock him down,

637
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 9: kill him dead.

638
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:14,520
Speaker 1: They've seen me take the worst shilling I've had in

639
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,840
Speaker 1: my life, and they still believe I can take the fighter.

640
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:20,839
Speaker 1: It's like a charge of electricity.

641
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:24,920
Speaker 3: This is the spark. Ali desperately needs the people's love.

642
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 3: Then he spots one of his friends.

643
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:32,080
Speaker 9: I remember looking down at ringside, my eyes meet Jim Brown's.

644
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 9: Brown has publicly predicted George will knock me out. I

645
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,440
Speaker 9: lean out of the ring. Jim Brown, You've been on

646
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 9: the wrong horse this second. Don't have a chance.

647
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: You lost your money. He can't find no better than

648
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 1: you can.

649
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:48,800
Speaker 3: Act with that. Ali is ready for round four.

650
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:52,040
Speaker 14: From then on, the fight became pretty clear.

651
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,360
Speaker 12: In the next round, we continue playing predator and pray.

652
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:02,160
Speaker 14: Foreman comes out. He backs Ali to the corner of

653
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:06,720
Speaker 14: the ropes or Ali retreats quickly, and they're playing lethal

654
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 14: patty cake.

655
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:11,520
Speaker 3: Early in the fourth, Ali lands a quick combo. It

656
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 3: staggers Foreman eyes blank. He's stunned.

657
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:17,840
Speaker 11: He'd hit me with one shot, usually the jack, but

658
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 11: sometimes the right didn't run. He had to because when

659
00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 11: he faced me, I placed my left foot between both

660
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:27,959
Speaker 11: of his feet. That meant his alternatives were to either

661
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 11: stand in front of me and fight or move back,

662
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,200
Speaker 11: So of course he moved.

663
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:34,399
Speaker 12: Backwards and cover it up.

664
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 3: In response, Foreman keeps closing off the ring, working Ali

665
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,799
Speaker 3: back into a corner where Foreman can throw haymakers and

666
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,239
Speaker 3: terrifying uppercuts.

667
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:46,920
Speaker 10: And he hits one right hands all night, right hand leaves,

668
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:50,279
Speaker 10: and they're beautiful, I mean, in a brutal sort of way.

669
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,440
Speaker 14: Foreman is pounding away right in front of Ali, and

670
00:35:53,480 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 14: Ali is dodging, slipping, sliding, moving, punching, slipping, sliding, moving, punching, punching,

671
00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:03,600
Speaker 14: and you know, Foreman is getting tagged, and Foreman is

672
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 14: looking a little tired.

673
00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 11: In the fourth round, I was finally able to land

674
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:10,080
Speaker 11: a thunder and right on the back of his neck.

675
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:12,799
Speaker 11: It weakened, and I knew if I could land another

676
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:14,440
Speaker 11: one like that, he go.

677
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:15,399
Speaker 12: Down and down.

678
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,560
Speaker 3: Foreman finally lines up Ali the way he'd been waiting

679
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 3: to a clean shot at his head.

680
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:25,520
Speaker 11: But when I loaded up the weapon and cocked it,

681
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:29,399
Speaker 11: I saw something that made me pull back instead. It

682
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,160
Speaker 11: was the face of a friend sitting at ringside who

683
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:33,840
Speaker 11: happened to be directly.

684
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 12: In my line of vision.

685
00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 11: Between when I threw the first shot and prepared to

686
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:41,880
Speaker 11: throw the second, he began waving his arms wildly and screaming.

687
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:46,279
Speaker 12: Bull He hit him behind the neck. He's cheating a

688
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 12: man I considered family was rooting against me.

689
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:51,800
Speaker 11: In a state of shock, I couldn't deliver the punch

690
00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 11: that probably would have ended the fight.

691
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:58,280
Speaker 3: Right there Foreman doesn't take the shot. He misses his moment?

692
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:04,200
Speaker 3: Why because he's sensitive. His big tough act is surly mask.

693
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 3: His imitation of Sonny listing it all fails him in

694
00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 3: the moment he needs it most.

695
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:14,080
Speaker 11: My hurt and disappointment and that thinking lessen whatever power

696
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 11: I had left, and there wasn't much of it.

697
00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:18,520
Speaker 3: Now he's in his head.

698
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 12: I wondered what happened to my stamina.

699
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 3: Indeed, his legs start to go rubbery. The fight announcer

700
00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:28,600
Speaker 3: questions Foreman's endurance. He isn't alone.

701
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 5: Man.

702
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:30,480
Speaker 1: I was tired.

703
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:34,520
Speaker 11: I could barely get off the store between rounds. Even so,

704
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:39,239
Speaker 11: Sadler was instructing me to continue my fearsome attack. This

705
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:43,880
Speaker 11: contradicted his usual advice which was to slowly, carefully build

706
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:44,600
Speaker 11: to the knockout.

707
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:48,400
Speaker 12: Get him. He said, he can't last another round.

708
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:53,840
Speaker 3: When round five begins, with all the might he has left,

709
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 3: Foreman continues to hammer away at all these arms, his body,

710
00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 3: haymaker after haymaking. He's desperate now to get Ali to

711
00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 3: drop his arms, to lower his defenses. It's Foreman's only

712
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:10,440
Speaker 3: hope to set up a knockout shot. It's clear that

713
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:14,240
Speaker 3: Foreman can't last fifteen rounds fighting this way. But Ali

714
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:17,080
Speaker 3: doesn't look like he can go the distance either. He's

715
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,759
Speaker 3: no longer dancing. His feet are now planted flat on

716
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 3: the canvas, his back lying against the ropes. Ali just

717
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:27,440
Speaker 3: absorbs blow after blow.

718
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,879
Speaker 10: If you look at the body shots that Ali took

719
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:34,400
Speaker 10: in round five, the will and the ego that's required

720
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:37,319
Speaker 10: to stand through that no one else had been able

721
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:40,080
Speaker 10: to stand through, that Ken Norton couldn't stand through, that

722
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:42,239
Speaker 10: he didn't last too. Here we are in five and

723
00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:45,360
Speaker 10: Foreman is wailing away in his body.

724
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:49,240
Speaker 9: George keeps driving all like a one way tank, every

725
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:52,480
Speaker 9: ounce of his two hundred and twenty pounds behind his blows.

726
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 9: I'm draining him, but it's coming near time. When I've

727
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,759
Speaker 9: got to go all out before he gets his second win.

728
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,440
Speaker 9: Tied as he is, it will take the heaviest blows

729
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:04,040
Speaker 9: I've ever thrown to bring him down.

730
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:07,520
Speaker 10: Look, there's not that much size difference between the two guys.

731
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:12,400
Speaker 10: We think of them differently, and they move differently, and

732
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:13,719
Speaker 10: Ali is much more.

733
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 1: Fluid and beautiful in the way that he moves.

734
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:17,640
Speaker 3: But he's not really that.

735
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:18,880
Speaker 10: Much of a smaller map.

736
00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:23,000
Speaker 3: But he was certainly the more strategic fighter, and that

737
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:27,239
Speaker 3: made all the difference. As Foreman sees it, Ali was.

738
00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 11: Helped by an apparently loose top rope, which allowed him

739
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:31,600
Speaker 11: to lean.

740
00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:34,120
Speaker 12: Way out of the ring, his head beyond my reach.

741
00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,240
Speaker 11: No one in my camp had checked the ropes before

742
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 11: the fight, why bother For years now, my fight playing

743
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:44,080
Speaker 11: had been to take off my rode, get a quick knockout,

744
00:39:44,239 --> 00:39:47,279
Speaker 11: put the rode back on, and return to the dressing room.

745
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:51,879
Speaker 11: Who worried about toughness and slackness of the ropes. Now

746
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 11: Mohammed was the beneficiary of that lack of attention to detail.

747
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:57,880
Speaker 10: First of all, if you ever lean against the ropes,

748
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:01,120
Speaker 10: it's not like they're made of steal hard barrier. They

749
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:03,799
Speaker 10: get He's a big guy. You can lean far back

750
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:06,239
Speaker 10: on a rope, especially if you're close to like you

751
00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:07,239
Speaker 10: know two twenty five.

752
00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:08,040
Speaker 12: I think that the.

753
00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:10,920
Speaker 10: Ropes may have helped him evade some of the functions

754
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 10: or absorb some more. But look, he had to catch

755
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 10: those shots anyway. And if you look at the body

756
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:20,080
Speaker 10: shots he's taking, it's like a cartoon with these big

757
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:23,719
Speaker 10: wind up shots the foreman is hitting with around the

758
00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 10: mid section. In the fifth, he's not hitting the ropes.

759
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:31,719
Speaker 3: Despite how well the ropeodope is working for ali foreman's

760
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 3: corner doesn't change tactics.

761
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:36,359
Speaker 11: They could have said to back off around or two,

762
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:39,480
Speaker 11: catch my breast and let him come to me. He'd

763
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,359
Speaker 11: have to if you wanted to win, because by then

764
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 11: he was far behind on points.

765
00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 12: But because these guys counseled me to attack, attack, attack,

766
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:54,760
Speaker 12: I did. Their job was to give me advice. Mine

767
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 12: was to take it.

768
00:40:56,719 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 3: The bell rings for round six. Both fighters are winded,

769
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 3: their backs glistening with sweat, their faces beginning to swell

770
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:09,720
Speaker 3: from all the punches to their heads. They dig down

771
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:11,439
Speaker 3: into their will to go on.

772
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:15,400
Speaker 14: And it continues this way through the fourth through the

773
00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:16,320
Speaker 14: seventh round.

774
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,319
Speaker 11: The sad part was that my blows, which numbered at

775
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 11: least five to one over his, were met by the

776
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:23,360
Speaker 11: crowd with utter silence.

777
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:25,480
Speaker 12: Each one of Mohammad's.

778
00:41:24,840 --> 00:41:28,880
Speaker 11: Little jams brought tumultuous crimes. I was winning these rounds,

779
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 11: but Muhammad Ali owned their hearts and minds more completely

780
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,920
Speaker 11: with every punch he absorbed for them.

781
00:41:36,239 --> 00:41:40,640
Speaker 12: This had become a morality play. Muhammad was good and

782
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:41,400
Speaker 12: I was evil.

783
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 3: The narrative Ali created months if not years before, takes

784
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:51,000
Speaker 3: hold inside that ring in Zaiir. But Foreman still can't

785
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 3: understand why he isn't the hero of the people.

786
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 11: It was because of me, as a champion that this

787
00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:02,120
Speaker 11: fight had been staged in Zaire. George Foreman, not Muhammad Ali,

788
00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:05,800
Speaker 11: had tried to do something grand for Africa, had brought

789
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:08,960
Speaker 11: the television cameras to show off Africa to the world,

790
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:13,919
Speaker 11: had made the Africans proud of themselves. I wanted them

791
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:18,040
Speaker 11: to love me too, and for some reason they didn't.

792
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:22,360
Speaker 3: There's nothing he can do. The people love Ali because

793
00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:25,960
Speaker 3: they know he fights for them. They can feel it.

794
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 3: And when Ali needs them, all he has to do

795
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:30,800
Speaker 3: is raise his fists.

796
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,280
Speaker 10: There's a moment in the fight where he no longer

797
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:38,360
Speaker 10: has to taunt forman. After the sixth round, he turns

798
00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:42,560
Speaker 10: to the audience and he starts exhorting the audience, waving

799
00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:44,840
Speaker 10: to the crowd, and you can hear the chant go

800
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,600
Speaker 10: up and it's almost like the final act has begun.

801
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:02,280
Speaker 3: Between rounds, Joe Fraser gives his assessment of the fight.

802
00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 3: He says, foreman his quote fighting foolish. I don't think

803
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:08,560
Speaker 3: he's in bad shape. I think he's fighting real foolish.

804
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 3: I made the statement earlier. Anything can happen. This man

805
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,359
Speaker 3: has got experience, this man has got youth. It all

806
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:18,320
Speaker 3: depends on how he's trained for him. And Ali is

807
00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:22,440
Speaker 3: fighting smart. What started as a contest of speed versus

808
00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:27,000
Speaker 3: strength now in the seventh round, morphs into an endurance contest,

809
00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:29,959
Speaker 3: which begs the question who can outlast the other.

810
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,480
Speaker 11: In the seventh round, Muhammed noticed that I was getting tired,

811
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:40,239
Speaker 11: that my shots weren't hurting as much. He said, come on, George,

812
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:43,000
Speaker 11: show me something. Is that all you got?

813
00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:43,640
Speaker 2: Man?

814
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:46,960
Speaker 9: I talked to him like an old friend, louder and louder.

815
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:50,319
Speaker 9: You gone sixth round, sucker, and you ain't hit me yet?

816
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,279
Speaker 9: Who said you can hit? Come on, I'll give you

817
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:55,360
Speaker 9: a chance. Swing, sucker swing.

818
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:57,640
Speaker 3: In the seventh round, there's no doubt.

819
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:01,799
Speaker 14: Ali looks stronger, and he's still in danger. He's still

820
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:04,400
Speaker 14: on the ropes. But in the audience there's a sense of,

821
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:07,160
Speaker 14: wait a minute, something weird is going on.

822
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:12,440
Speaker 3: That something weird was the flow of momentum switching directions.

823
00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:16,200
Speaker 1: I clinch him tightly, and I give him my best advice.

824
00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:20,000
Speaker 9: You got eight more rounds to go, Sucker, eight more rounds,

825
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:20,920
Speaker 9: and look at how.

826
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:21,520
Speaker 1: Tired you are.

827
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 9: I even got started yet, and you out of breath,

828
00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 9: look at you, out of gas, and I'm whipping you.

829
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:32,680
Speaker 11: I figured, okay, I'm just going to play around man,

830
00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:35,080
Speaker 11: catch him talking and let him try to hit me.

831
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:37,680
Speaker 11: When he tries, I'll knock him out.

832
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:41,320
Speaker 3: So Foreman keeps trying to set up his lethal knockout shot.

833
00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:43,800
Speaker 3: That's Foreman's only plan at this point.

834
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:49,000
Speaker 11: But then Angelo Dundee Mohammed's training must have divined my plan.

835
00:44:49,480 --> 00:44:52,720
Speaker 11: He yelled out, don't play with him, sucker, don't play.

836
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 11: He understood the damage I could do. Angelo's warning seemed

837
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,880
Speaker 11: to sober Muhammed a little. He stopped playing around and talking.

838
00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:04,759
Speaker 9: He throws a long, almost slow motion swing, Hai, and

839
00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:06,800
Speaker 9: I block it and come in.

840
00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:09,360
Speaker 1: With two quick jabs to his face.

841
00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:14,839
Speaker 3: All of Ali's roadwork helps him to last, gives him

842
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:17,880
Speaker 3: the legs and the endurance that he can trust.

843
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:21,760
Speaker 1: But still the bell rings and I feel the pain

844
00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:22,480
Speaker 1: all over me.

845
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:27,200
Speaker 3: The question is can Ali keep taking all that pain?

846
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:31,240
Speaker 9: Even my corner man now saying something is being turned around.

847
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:35,520
Speaker 9: I sit down, but I feel uneasy. The pace is

848
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:38,880
Speaker 9: killing George, but it's also taking a heavy toll on me.

849
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:42,200
Speaker 9: I've got to go for the kill before he gets

850
00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:45,759
Speaker 9: his second win. I know the champion is more exhausted

851
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:47,440
Speaker 9: than I am, but how long.

852
00:45:47,239 --> 00:45:48,920
Speaker 1: Can I stand under this barrage?

853
00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:53,400
Speaker 9: I remember catching the eye of a tall African girl

854
00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:57,200
Speaker 9: walking by flashing the number of the upcoming round.

855
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:02,440
Speaker 1: She winks at me. I'll wink back and feel better.

856
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 3: While it's shocking that Muhammad Ali has lasted seven rounds

857
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:12,000
Speaker 3: against big George Foreman, the people clearly believe their champ

858
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:16,560
Speaker 3: will win this bout somehow, but Ali, he's not so sure.

859
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:20,319
Speaker 3: Ali can feel his body starting to fail him, the

860
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:23,960
Speaker 3: hot pain with each breath, the humidity that's making it

861
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:28,200
Speaker 3: hard to breathe. However, when Ali looks across the ring,

862
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:31,400
Speaker 3: he sees Foreman is worse off than him. That gives

863
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:34,680
Speaker 3: Ali new hope, same as the wink did.

864
00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:36,279
Speaker 1: Clear brown it.

865
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:42,440
Speaker 9: George storms out, still only one thing on his mind, knockout.

866
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:46,279
Speaker 9: But now his blows come slower, take longer to reach me.

867
00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:50,080
Speaker 9: I know fine pain are inside his stomach and lungs,

868
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:51,680
Speaker 9: and every breath.

869
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:53,920
Speaker 1: Is torture, just as it is for me.

870
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:57,080
Speaker 9: I see him draw back for a mighty swing, all

871
00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:00,560
Speaker 9: his power, and I slip aside as he tame himself

872
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:02,960
Speaker 9: in the ropes sucker.

873
00:47:03,280 --> 00:47:06,560
Speaker 1: I say, you miss me, Byma, you look bad.

874
00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:11,680
Speaker 3: Hum Lewis Ehrenberg remembers, well, how for Foreman.

875
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:16,840
Speaker 14: In the eighth He's desperate, He's out of gas, he's hurting,

876
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:21,080
Speaker 14: he's winded, and Ali looks fresher and fresher.

877
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:22,960
Speaker 6: In the eighth round. All of a sudden, I can

878
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:25,720
Speaker 6: just see there's something changing here. Ollie was still standing.

879
00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:29,719
Speaker 6: There was miraculous that he was still standing there. And

880
00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:32,520
Speaker 6: then I'd seen Ali turn the tide really quick on

881
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,359
Speaker 6: other fights, so I knew that he had the capability

882
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 6: if he had anything left, and remarkable that he still

883
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:39,160
Speaker 6: had that left.

884
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,120
Speaker 1: I keep my eyes pinned on his eyes. I never

885
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:46,000
Speaker 1: even blink. I don't want to miss anything his face

886
00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:49,160
Speaker 1: might say, and his eyes tell me. Every day, as

887
00:47:49,200 --> 00:47:50,880
Speaker 1: I watch him pull himself back.

888
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:55,400
Speaker 9: Into the rings, I suddenly think of Joe Frasier. Have

889
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:58,040
Speaker 9: I been treating George like he's another Fraser?

890
00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:02,240
Speaker 3: For Ali? Joe Frasers his measure of a true fighter,

891
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:05,560
Speaker 3: a man like him who's prepared to die in the ring.

892
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,440
Speaker 9: If you knock down Fraser, he'll almost get up before

893
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:11,520
Speaker 9: he hits the canvas and come back at you.

894
00:48:12,360 --> 00:48:13,640
Speaker 1: His heart is a lion.

895
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:17,160
Speaker 9: When Fraser comes at you, his blood and marrow and

896
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:18,680
Speaker 9: muscles all scream at you.

897
00:48:19,080 --> 00:48:21,160
Speaker 1: If you can't kill me, get out of my way,

898
00:48:21,239 --> 00:48:22,000
Speaker 1: or I'll kill you.

899
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:23,799
Speaker 12: He'll fight way.

900
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:25,840
Speaker 1: Beyond exhaustion and still come on.

901
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:30,240
Speaker 9: Even when his lungs are tired and burning, every ounce

902
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:32,200
Speaker 9: of blood is drained.

903
00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:35,200
Speaker 1: Out of him. He still keeps coming, whatever the price

904
00:48:35,480 --> 00:48:38,799
Speaker 1: you'll pay it. George looks like King Kong when he

905
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:41,640
Speaker 1: comes at you. But does he have the heart.

906
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:45,400
Speaker 9: Of a Joe Lewis Rocky Marciano a Joe Fraser?

907
00:48:45,719 --> 00:48:49,200
Speaker 3: This is the real question of the moment. Does George

908
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:53,800
Speaker 3: Foreman have the heart to outlast, to persevere? He thinks

909
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 3: He just needs one good punch.

910
00:48:56,560 --> 00:48:58,480
Speaker 9: Only a man who knows what it is to be

911
00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:01,760
Speaker 9: defeated can read down to the bottom of his soul

912
00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:04,560
Speaker 9: and come up with the extra und to power it

913
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:07,640
Speaker 9: takes to win. When the match is either I know

914
00:49:07,719 --> 00:49:11,400
Speaker 9: George wants to keep the champion's crown. He wants the crown,

915
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,520
Speaker 9: But is he willing to pay the price? Would he

916
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:15,680
Speaker 9: lay out his life?

917
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:19,560
Speaker 3: How far is foreman willing to go to remain world champion?

918
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:25,080
Speaker 3: At this point, Ali knows it's.

919
00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 9: Time to go all out, toe to toe.

920
00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:29,120
Speaker 3: He's up and he's ready.

921
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:33,040
Speaker 1: Now I gotta go lay it all down on the line. Now.

922
00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:35,480
Speaker 9: Look, if the price of winning is to be a

923
00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:40,520
Speaker 9: broken jaw, a smash nose, a crack skull, a disfigured face.

924
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:44,720
Speaker 3: Ali is prepared to pay whatever price he must for glory.

925
00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:47,799
Speaker 9: If you want to wear a crown, you could play

926
00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:50,640
Speaker 9: it careful only until you meet a man who will

927
00:49:50,719 --> 00:49:54,720
Speaker 9: die before he lets you win. When that happens, well

928
00:49:55,239 --> 00:49:57,040
Speaker 9: then you have to lay it all down on the

929
00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 9: line or back down and be damned forever.

930
00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:05,160
Speaker 3: Muhammad Ali ain't about to be damned forever. He has

931
00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:08,760
Speaker 3: Allah on his side. He has the crowd on his side.

932
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:12,080
Speaker 3: Ali feels the eyes of the world watching him.

933
00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:16,719
Speaker 9: The crowd eggs me on Ali, Ali, who by it.

934
00:50:19,200 --> 00:50:21,640
Speaker 11: In the eighth round, I tried to entice Muhammed to

935
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:24,920
Speaker 11: come to me, dropping my hands and I followed him

936
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:27,560
Speaker 11: around the ring as if daring him to step into

937
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:28,000
Speaker 11: my wear.

938
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 12: There was no way he could hurt me.

939
00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:34,319
Speaker 14: Foreman is exhausted. He has thrown so many punches, some

940
00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:37,880
Speaker 14: of them gotten through, but Ali is countered just about

941
00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:40,120
Speaker 14: every one of them from the fifth round on, and

942
00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:45,000
Speaker 14: Foreman cannot get off his major knockout cloths.

943
00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:48,600
Speaker 3: At one point, Foreman nearly falls out of the ring

944
00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:51,920
Speaker 3: over the loose ring ropes. Ali sort of catches him

945
00:50:51,960 --> 00:50:54,319
Speaker 3: and keeps him from falling into the front row. The

946
00:50:54,400 --> 00:50:58,640
Speaker 3: ref separates the fighters. Foreman follows Ali right back to

947
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:00,600
Speaker 3: the ropes like a dope.

948
00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:03,920
Speaker 12: When he neared the ropes, I began pummeling him again.

949
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:07,600
Speaker 11: He was knocked backwards near the corner, then bounced to

950
00:51:07,640 --> 00:51:08,280
Speaker 11: the side.

951
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:10,839
Speaker 3: With less than thirty seconds left to go. In the

952
00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:14,920
Speaker 3: eighth round, Foreman lands a solid shot to Ali's face.

953
00:51:15,440 --> 00:51:18,520
Speaker 3: Foreman corners Ali, cutting off the ring. He starts to

954
00:51:18,560 --> 00:51:19,320
Speaker 3: work the body.

955
00:51:19,800 --> 00:51:23,640
Speaker 14: Ali is on the ropes. Foreman is now stumbling after him,

956
00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:27,400
Speaker 14: trying to knock him out, and he stumbles a little

957
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:28,680
Speaker 14: bit off balance.

958
00:51:29,200 --> 00:51:31,880
Speaker 12: I turned to follow him and was leaning his way.

959
00:51:32,440 --> 00:51:34,080
Speaker 14: His footwork is off.

960
00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:37,839
Speaker 3: Ali sees it. He throws a series of rights. Each

961
00:51:37,880 --> 00:51:43,359
Speaker 3: one is targeted, each one connects. Foreman is dazed. He stumbles.

962
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:47,600
Speaker 3: He tries to defend himself. Ali lands a devastating left

963
00:51:47,719 --> 00:51:48,960
Speaker 3: right combo.

964
00:51:49,800 --> 00:51:52,799
Speaker 11: When he threw a left right combination whose power was

965
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:55,200
Speaker 11: multiplied by my leaning toward him.

966
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:59,040
Speaker 12: I tried to rebalance myself a right.

967
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 1: Hand George trying to lumber back to regain his paws.

968
00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:07,160
Speaker 14: He turns and Ali just unloads on his chin.

969
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:09,879
Speaker 1: I should have straight right to his jaw, with all

970
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:13,400
Speaker 1: the snapping power that's in me. I strike him almost

971
00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:14,239
Speaker 1: flush on the chin.

972
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:20,920
Speaker 9: Another think you're right.

973
00:52:15,680 --> 00:52:21,919
Speaker 11: An as the combination struck ground zero on my chin.

974
00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:26,160
Speaker 11: I remember thinking, boy, I'm going down.

975
00:52:26,560 --> 00:52:29,359
Speaker 9: I'm ready to follow through with the combination, but I

976
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:30,840
Speaker 9: see he slowly falling.

977
00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 1: A day's look in his eye.

978
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:37,080
Speaker 11: Mohammed, I'm sure it was a surprised as album.

979
00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:39,880
Speaker 14: There's the famous picture. At least to me, it seems

980
00:52:39,920 --> 00:52:44,600
Speaker 14: faintness of forming pirouetting slowly to the canvas, while Ali

981
00:52:44,719 --> 00:52:48,239
Speaker 14: looks like looking down on him like I did that.

982
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:54,640
Speaker 1: George is down. He's listening to the tuning forks coming

983
00:52:54,719 --> 00:52:55,359
Speaker 1: into his head.

984
00:52:56,040 --> 00:52:59,960
Speaker 9: Matt's blowing saxophones, alligators, whistling, neon signs, blinket.

985
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:02,520
Speaker 1: The referee begins the count.

986
00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:11,200
Speaker 12: Though I could have, I didn't get up immediately, because

987
00:53:11,239 --> 00:53:14,040
Speaker 12: in the days when there were no standing eight counts

988
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:17,320
Speaker 12: that would allow a boxer to clear his senses before

989
00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:20,839
Speaker 12: re entering the fray, the custom developed to stay down

990
00:53:20,920 --> 00:53:24,759
Speaker 12: until eight. Instead of watching the referees count. You were

991
00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:28,799
Speaker 12: supposed to look for your cornumin sigma. Even as I did,

992
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,040
Speaker 12: I could hear Zach Clayton's count.

993
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:38,040
Speaker 9: I watch every lift of the referees on. I remember

994
00:53:38,080 --> 00:53:41,480
Speaker 9: thinking again a Frasier, he would never lose the crown.

995
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:42,480
Speaker 1: Lying on the floor.

996
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:45,480
Speaker 9: No referee could count over his body as long as

997
00:53:45,480 --> 00:53:46,319
Speaker 9: he had blood in it.

998
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:52,240
Speaker 1: Six, seven, eight. George is slowly turning over.

999
00:53:52,600 --> 00:53:56,680
Speaker 11: He said eight, and Saddler motioned me up. I stood

1000
00:53:56,680 --> 00:53:59,400
Speaker 11: at once, but Clayton waved me off with a quick count.

1001
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 11: Ten became one word to me.

1002
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:06,080
Speaker 1: Nine. Ten George is on his feet, but it's over.

1003
00:54:09,680 --> 00:54:13,000
Speaker 3: Foreman did not get up in time. He miscalculated the

1004
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:15,120
Speaker 3: ref's count, and that's how.

1005
00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:16,879
Speaker 14: Foreman is then counted out.

1006
00:54:17,280 --> 00:54:20,759
Speaker 1: It was over. The referee raises my head in.

1007
00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 12: Victory, Ali and the crowd began to celebrate.

1008
00:54:24,200 --> 00:54:28,359
Speaker 15: This most joy of thing ever seen in hing.

1009
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:32,200
Speaker 8: The place is going wildham and Ali has once the

1010
00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:32,919
Speaker 8: thing he.

1011
00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:33,960
Speaker 1: Said was impossible.

1012
00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:38,960
Speaker 14: His Ali is a chairman. People are going nuts. Ali

1013
00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:43,840
Speaker 14: Ali Ali Bo my Ali Bo my a my god.

1014
00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:45,280
Speaker 6: It was over.

1015
00:54:46,080 --> 00:54:47,160
Speaker 12: It was really.

1016
00:54:47,520 --> 00:54:57,600
Speaker 3: Over, like a controlled demolition. Everything comes down all at once.

1017
00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:01,440
Speaker 3: Then Foreman feels the full way of it. What all

1018
00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:02,680
Speaker 3: he's just lost.

1019
00:55:03,239 --> 00:55:05,799
Speaker 12: The magnitude of the loss began to hit me.

1020
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:09,320
Speaker 3: The loss in zai ear before all the world marks

1021
00:55:09,360 --> 00:55:13,280
Speaker 3: the beginning of a long, dark chapter in Foreman's life.

1022
00:55:13,520 --> 00:55:17,400
Speaker 11: In short order, I would become depressed beyond recognition, and

1023
00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:21,879
Speaker 11: this fight would go down in boxing history. No less

1024
00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:24,759
Speaker 11: than Norman Mayler wrote an entire book about it.

1025
00:55:25,239 --> 00:55:27,520
Speaker 3: This is a fight that he would dwell on for

1026
00:55:27,719 --> 00:55:28,720
Speaker 3: years to come.

1027
00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:32,000
Speaker 12: I would be sorting it out for a long time.

1028
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:38,719
Speaker 10: The reason we think of I'll leave the way we

1029
00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:42,960
Speaker 10: do is because, more famously than anyone whoever boxed, he

1030
00:55:43,160 --> 00:55:46,080
Speaker 10: beat the bully. The first was Listen. You know, Listen

1031
00:55:46,160 --> 00:55:48,840
Speaker 10: was supposed to reign for decades. Same thing with Foreman.

1032
00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:51,440
Speaker 10: He was going to be there forever, and I'll leave

1033
00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:52,319
Speaker 10: beat both of them.

1034
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:57,440
Speaker 14: He had proved himself after a very difficult career isolation,

1035
00:55:58,000 --> 00:56:01,600
Speaker 14: losing his right to fight. This guy who had been

1036
00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:04,440
Speaker 14: written off, just like he'd been written off with his

1037
00:56:04,520 --> 00:56:09,680
Speaker 14: stand on Vietnam, had triumphed over tremendous odds. I mean,

1038
00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:15,239
Speaker 14: Ali just seemed like a god, a sporting god who

1039
00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:16,960
Speaker 14: now had to be taken seriously.

1040
00:56:17,600 --> 00:56:21,080
Speaker 10: Every once in a while, you see what is the

1041
00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:25,479
Speaker 10: best about an individual soul on full display in the ring.

1042
00:56:26,040 --> 00:56:29,239
Speaker 10: I think that that Knight in Zair happened to be

1043
00:56:29,320 --> 00:56:33,680
Speaker 10: one of them, probably the greatest, most famous example. You

1044
00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:38,000
Speaker 10: saw what was most noble in Ali's soul, and the audience,

1045
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:41,040
Speaker 10: you know, one billion people around the world, a quarter

1046
00:56:41,120 --> 00:56:44,759
Speaker 10: of the Earth's population probably came to that conclusion on

1047
00:56:44,920 --> 00:56:47,399
Speaker 10: mass Holy shit, Look what he did.

1048
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:52,960
Speaker 3: Ali reclaims his stolen crown. He is now the undisputed

1049
00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:56,440
Speaker 3: world champion the goat, and.

1050
00:56:56,320 --> 00:57:00,920
Speaker 13: It's overlooked just how brilliantly he fought when he wasn't

1051
00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:03,680
Speaker 13: throwing punches. And of course we all know that the

1052
00:57:03,760 --> 00:57:06,600
Speaker 13: robodote was successful, but we also should remember that the

1053
00:57:06,640 --> 00:57:09,040
Speaker 13: rope a dope was not really a proven technique. It

1054
00:57:09,080 --> 00:57:12,960
Speaker 13: was improvised and it was a move of desperation. It

1055
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:15,400
Speaker 13: was an act that he felt like was the only

1056
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:17,560
Speaker 13: way he could win. It's one of all these most

1057
00:57:17,560 --> 00:57:19,520
Speaker 13: brilliant fights tactically.

1058
00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:23,800
Speaker 10: What this fight did, especially for the people who had

1059
00:57:23,880 --> 00:57:28,640
Speaker 10: been predisposed to dislike him or to hate him from

1060
00:57:28,680 --> 00:57:31,920
Speaker 10: way back, you could no longer argue.

1061
00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:32,520
Speaker 3: With his heroism.

1062
00:57:32,920 --> 00:57:35,560
Speaker 10: It was right there to see. If you watch the

1063
00:57:35,560 --> 00:57:38,520
Speaker 10: fight in zai ear, you can no longer hate him,

1064
00:57:38,560 --> 00:57:41,200
Speaker 10: and he could not have been remembered in the way

1065
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:45,240
Speaker 10: he is. There is no greatest of all time without

1066
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:46,000
Speaker 10: that fight.

1067
00:57:46,600 --> 00:57:50,240
Speaker 3: All that Cashus Clay endured, and all that Muhammad Ali

1068
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:53,960
Speaker 3: was forced to endure, all the pain and humiliation, the

1069
00:57:54,040 --> 00:57:58,320
Speaker 3: lost relationships, the lost time, the constant doubts, the anger

1070
00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:01,720
Speaker 3: and viterly all the condescension and it insults. All of

1071
00:58:01,760 --> 00:58:07,000
Speaker 3: it led to and prepared Ali for this his crowning moment.

1072
00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:10,840
Speaker 13: Ali has been defeated by Frasier, and he's coming back

1073
00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:14,880
Speaker 13: as an underdog, and he's also become a hero to

1074
00:58:15,040 --> 00:58:20,080
Speaker 13: oppressed people everywhere. He's become the symbol of opposition, of rebellion.

1075
00:58:20,680 --> 00:58:22,320
Speaker 13: He's the man who had the courage to stand up

1076
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:24,720
Speaker 13: to the most powerful government on earth and to take

1077
00:58:24,760 --> 00:58:28,560
Speaker 13: their shots, to take their punishment. He's the baddest Black.

1078
00:58:28,360 --> 00:58:29,000
Speaker 14: Man on earth.

1079
00:58:29,280 --> 00:58:35,240
Speaker 7: The sheer joy and pride of the African peoples in

1080
00:58:35,400 --> 00:58:42,360
Speaker 7: celebrating this symbol of strength and power and greatness and exceptionalism,

1081
00:58:42,600 --> 00:58:47,240
Speaker 7: like Black African exceptionalism. That was Ali, and that anyone,

1082
00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:52,320
Speaker 7: any Black people's anywhere across the diaspora could see themselves

1083
00:58:52,920 --> 00:58:56,040
Speaker 7: in him was just magic.

1084
00:59:00,320 --> 00:59:04,280
Speaker 3: After the title bout ends, Norman Mahler fights and squeezes

1085
00:59:04,320 --> 00:59:07,400
Speaker 3: his way into the New Champs dressing room. He's the

1086
00:59:07,440 --> 00:59:11,040
Speaker 3: only reporter to shove his way inside. For this moment

1087
00:59:11,120 --> 00:59:12,400
Speaker 3: of celebration.

1088
00:59:13,360 --> 00:59:15,480
Speaker 15: Ali sat on the rubbing table with his hands on

1089
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:19,320
Speaker 15: his knees, looking like a happy and tired host after

1090
00:59:19,400 --> 00:59:23,120
Speaker 15: a good party. His face was unmarked except for a

1091
00:59:23,160 --> 00:59:27,040
Speaker 15: small red bruise on his cheekbone. Maybe he never appeared

1092
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:30,760
Speaker 15: more handsome. He stared out like a child. I have

1093
00:59:30,840 --> 00:59:34,280
Speaker 15: stolen the jam, said his eyes, and it tastes good.

1094
00:59:35,440 --> 00:59:38,280
Speaker 15: Light twinkled in those eyes all the way back to

1095
00:59:38,320 --> 00:59:44,080
Speaker 15: the beginning. Truth he looked like a castle all lit up.

1096
00:59:52,560 --> 00:59:55,480
Speaker 3: Next time on Rumble, the Legacy of the Rumble in

1097
00:59:55,520 --> 00:59:56,400
Speaker 3: the Jungle.

1098
00:59:56,760 --> 01:00:00,840
Speaker 14: Foreman is a guy who didn't have much for him,

1099
01:00:00,840 --> 01:00:03,640
Speaker 14: but he had boxing, and he had his strength, and

1100
01:00:04,280 --> 01:00:05,600
Speaker 14: he is just undone.

1101
01:00:06,000 --> 01:00:08,320
Speaker 13: And that's why he continues to say that he was drugged,

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Speaker 13: that he didn't lose the fight.

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Speaker 9: Legitimately, that's when he went home and sat down by

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01:00:13,040 --> 01:00:16,760
Speaker 9: himself and realized that he had become somebody that he

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01:00:16,800 --> 01:00:17,600
Speaker 9: did not want to be.

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Speaker 10: Everyone's cheering and he's shaking, lighting the Olympic torch. That's

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Speaker 10: the price.

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01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:25,880
Speaker 12: They could still play the Trouble out, And I'll always

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01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:29,480
Speaker 12: be amazed that would I die. I will leave something here.

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Speaker 7: Who's going to have the stones to tell the stories

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01:00:32,520 --> 01:00:35,160
Speaker 7: and to make the music and to write the things

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01:00:35,200 --> 01:00:37,600
Speaker 7: that give people no choice but to feel.

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Speaker 5: Rumbell is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.

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Speaker 5: Rumbell is written and hosted by Zaren Burnett. The third

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Speaker 5: produced and directed by Julia Chriscal. Sound designed by Jesse

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01:00:51,200 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 5: Niswanger and scoring by John Washington. Original music composed by

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01:00:55,880 --> 01:00:59,919
Speaker 5: Jordan Manley and TJ. Merritt series concept by Gary Strong.

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Speaker 5: Executive producers are Jason English, Sean Titone, Gary Stromberg, Virginia Prescott,

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01:01:07,920 --> 01:01:11,160
Speaker 5: el C. Crowley, and Brandon barr Our. Senior producer is

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Speaker 5: Amelia Brock. Production manager Daisy Church, fact checker Savannah Hugley.

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01:01:16,320 --> 01:01:21,320
Speaker 5: Legal services provided by canoel Hanley PC. Additional production by

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01:01:21,320 --> 01:01:26,000
Speaker 5: Claire Keating, Casting director Julia Chriscau. Casting support services provided

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01:01:26,040 --> 01:01:30,760
Speaker 5: by Breakdown Express. Episode twelve cast Abraham.

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01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:35,480
Speaker 16: Amka as Muhammad Ali, Anthony Brandon Walker as George Foreman,

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01:01:35,720 --> 01:01:40,200
Speaker 16: Wayne j As Howard Cosell, Jonah Weston as Norman Mahler.

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Speaker 16: If you like the show, let us know, like subscribe,

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01:01:44,440 --> 01:01:48,320
Speaker 16: leave five star reviews. It really helps. Also check out

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Speaker 16: our show notes for a full list of reference materials.