When We Were Kings (2002)

When We Were Kings is a documentary of the boxing match for the Heavyweight Championship of the World in Zaire (now known as The Democratic Republic of the Congo) on October 30 1974 between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. This fight is one of the most famous fights of all time because it resulted in Ali, against overwhelming odds, regaining the championship title against a younger and stronger Foreman. The film won numerous awards including the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 1997.

The fight was promoted by then unknown Don King who managed to get Ali and Foreman to sign sign contracts for $5 million each for the fight. However, King did not actually have the money. In spite of the many others who sought to promote the bout, King found an outside country to sponsor the event and was able to secure the $10 million purse through an arrangement with the Zaire government. Mobutu Sese Seko, the country's president, put up the $10 million purse for the boxers, $5 million each for Ali and Foreman. President Mobutu believed that the boxing match would raise the profile of his country internationally, creating a more positive attitude towards the state, thereby attracting investment and commerce. Mobutu knew that the eyes of the world would be on Kinshasa the capital city for the fight. If he was to achieve a good return on his investment of $10 million, the world must see a happy, safe and sophisticated image of the city. In the week before the fight, Mobutu ordered the arrest of over 1,000 known criminals and the execution of some of them. As a result, the streets were free of violence and crime throughout the period that the foreign press was in town.

Defending champion George Foreman was the overwhelming favorite to win the fight. Younger and stronger than Ali with an awesome record of 40 wins, 0 loses with 37 knockouts and a punch that felt like a freight train hit you, many felt Muhammad Ali (44 Wins, 2 Loses with 29 knockouts) had no chance against Foreman and would probably be knocked out in one of the early rounds. However, Ali said he had a secret plan for Foreman.

Almost right away in the second round, Ali started lying on the ropes and letting Foreman punch him, without any attempt to attack Foreman himself (a strategy Ali later dubbed the rope-a-dope). As a result Foreman spent all his energy throwing punches (in Africa's oven-like heat), that either did not hit Ali or were deflected in a way that made it difficult for Foreman to hit Ali's head, while sapping Foreman's strength due to the large number of punches thrown by the champion. This loss of energy was the key to Ali's "rope-a-dope" technique.

Ali seemed to do little to resist, except to occasionally shoot straight punches to the face of Foreman. This quickly began taking a toll on Foreman's face and it was soon visibly puffy. When the two fighters were locked in clinches, Ali consistently outwrestled Foreman, using tactics such as leaning on Foreman to make Foreman support Ali's weight, or holding down Foreman's head by pushing on his neck. Ali also constantly taunted Foreman in these clinches, telling Foreman "is that all you got, George?" to throw more and harder punches, and an enraged Foreman responded by doing just that.

After several rounds, this caused Foreman to begin tiring. As Foreman's face became increasingly damaged by the occasional hard and fast jabs and crosses that Ali threw, his stamina looked to be draining from him. The effects were increasingly visible as Foreman was staggered by an Ali combination at the start of the fourth round and again several times near the end of the fifth, after Foreman had seemed to dominate much of that round. Although he would keep throwing punches and coming forward, after the fifth round Foreman was very tired and he looked increasingly worn out. Ali continued to taunt him by saying "they told me you could punch, George!" and "they told me you could punch as hard as Joe Louis!"

Finally in the eighth round, Ali landed the final combination, a left hook that brought Foreman's head up into position and Ali smashed him with a hard right straight to the face. Foreman staggered, then twirled across half the ring before landing on his back, unconscious.

Some argue this to have been among the greatest demonstrations of strategic planning and actual execution ever displayed in a heavyweight fight. Ali came into the fight with a tactical plan, executed it and achieved a great triumph.

199 MB rar files