10 Reasons Why Muhammad Ali Really Was The Greatest
3. Impossible Is Nothing
Fast forward to 1974 and the heavyweight division had a new unnerving overlord. George Foreman back then wasn’t the pudgy, jocular, perma-smiling purveyor of portable grills we know today; he was the stuff of nightmares.
Foreman ripped the heavyweight title from Joe Frazier in just two rounds, bouncing him off the canvas six times in all. Like Liston before him and Tyson since, Foreman’s stock-in-trade was intimidation. But Muhammad Ali never did scare easy.
Hustler-supreme Don King promised Ali and Foreman $5 million a piece and found it in the form of unscrupulous dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who bankrolled The Rumble in the Jungle to shine the world’s spotlight on Zaire.
It remains, without exception, the most famous fight of them all.
Ali landed a crisp right hand within seconds of the opening bell, and spent the remainder of the round dancing out of reach and scrapping in close. As he sat down at the end of the first round, Ali knew there was no way he could maintain such output and keep the relentless Foreman at bay.
So he went to Plan B.
In what would famously become known as the ‘rope-a-dope’, Ali retreated to the ropes and allowed Foreman to wail away, absorbing dozens of wincing blows as round followed round. Come the eighth round, Foreman had nothing left, and Ali cut him down with a spiteful combination.
Ali was the champion once more; he had achieved the impossible. But for some, impossible is nothing.