Half a century ago, the “Rumble in the Jungle” became not just a fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, but a cultural touchstone.
The African nation of Zaire was elated. Its president, Mobutu Sese Seko, had struck a deal in 1974 for the country to host potentially the biggest boxing contest in history: Muhammad Ali, a legend seemingly on the decline, versus George Foreman, a ferocious, rising heavyweight world champion.
Mr. Mobutu, a brutal autocrat, saw a chance to introduce Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the world as a stable nation of 22 million people on the path to becoming a developed powerhouse.
Then, early in the promotion of the fight, Mr. Ali, who turned bravado into an art, delivered a threat to journalists who doubted him. In Zaire, “we’re going to put you in a pot and cook you,” he said, according to Gene Kilroy, his business manager.
A short time later, Mr. Kilroy said, they got a call from one of Mr. Mobutu’s aides.
“We’re trying to promote tourism, not kill it,” Mr. Kilroy recalled the aide saying, pushing back on the trope of cannibalism in Africa.
Mr. Ali’s provocations, however, helped transform the fight into a global spectacle that had implications far beyond boxing, one that reshaped the career and life of Mr. Foreman, who died on Friday at 76.
Mr. Ali won with a stunning knockout in the eighth round, after employing the “rope-a-dope” strategy of leaning on the ropes while Mr. Foreman exhausted himself with flailing punches.
