Photograph by Neil Leifer

"He talked about leaving the stadium in Kinshasa as the dawn was beginning to break. Hundreds of fans were still in the stands and the ring had all these people in it, squaring off and acting out how Foreman had gone down...Invariably fighters arrive at the arenas in the last afternoon or in the early evening leaving daylight, and after the night's activity they come into darkness. In the car Ali kept remarking on it. It seemed so symbolically appropriate that on this occasion he should be coming out of darkness into light."

Text by George Plimpton
Issue Date: December 23, 1974

In 1974 Muhammad Ali regained the heavyweight title that was taken from him seven years before when he refused to register for the U.S. military draft. In January, Ali defeated Joe Frazier in a 12-round unanimous decision, to earn himself a shot against champion George Foreman. Billed as "The Rumble in the Jungle," the bout took place on October 30 in Zaire. Ali used his famous "rope-a-dope" strategy on the heavily-favored Foreman to score an eighth-round KO and win back the title.

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