It was a heavyweight championship held on October 30, 1974, which was hailed as the greatest sporting event of the 20th century. In that era when communication was not yet developed, the live broadcast of this game set a record of 1 billion viewers worldwide and watched online at the same time. This shows that in that era when television sets were not yet widespread, about 1 in 4 people in the world watched the game of the day at the same time. In the UK alone, 26 million people watched the livestream through the BBC, and these viewers accounted for almost half of the total population of the UK at that time. This is the famous jungle battle in the history of boxing.
George Foreman has a deep eyes like the god of death, facing his opponent, his face has never had the slightest pity and sympathy, his fists, in every contact with the opponent's body, almost every time he sees blood, he is the heavyweight, indestructible god of strength. Even as powerful as Joe Fraser, the man who beat Ali for the first time, was knocked down 6 times in just two rounds when he faced Foreman.
Ali, who had unified heavyweights seven years earlier, was banned for three and a half years for refusing to perform military service, and after his return to boxing, he quickly gained the opportunity to challenge the undefeated boxer Fraser, which allowed Fraser to send him the first defeat of his career. Meanwhile, the rapidly rising Foreman destroyed all the aura on Fraser's head in just two rounds. In the later defending battle, Foreman used almost the same method, two rounds to easily get Ali's other nemesis, Ken Norton. The latter was also the only man besides Fraser who had ever defeated Ali before that victory, and he also broke Ali's jaw. Later, after several twists and turns, Ali finally got the opportunity to sprint against the boxer, and this time, he met the more powerful heavyweight overlord Foreman.
Zaire, a small landlocked country in Africa, has also become the center of attention of the world for a time because of such a boxing match that can be compared to the Olympic Games. Fuhrman, 25 years old before the game, has played 24 consecutive KO opponents, and the last 8 games have all been easily completed in two rounds. This includes the two biggest nemesis who have previously defeated Ali, Fraser and Norton. Therefore, in this game, people are generally not optimistic about the 32-year-old Ali, and even well-known media predicted before the game that "Ali's era is over" before the game. Including Foreman himself, before the game, he was also full of confidence that Ali was just another piece of hob meat in his hand. However, Ali relied on his tenacious ability to resist blows and his superb tactical level, and laughed until the end. At the moment when he knocked down Foreman, he also seemed to be announcing to the world with his fists that the ali who had been once was back.
This game has created more than 100 million US dollars in revenue, and Ali's appearance fee alone is as high as 5 million US dollars. And all this happened 47 years ago. You can imagine how amazing his influence was at the time. This game successfully allowed Ali to return to the top after many years, and a year later, he successfully defeated Fraser as a challenger in the defending battle, and shamed himself. It wasn't until a upset defeat to Spinks in 1978 that he lost the title. However, only a few months later, he successfully took revenge and regained the boxing throne in the second battle between the two. Becoming the first and only person in the history of heavyweight boxing to reach the top of the world three times.