As I was researching the topic I came to the realisation that a lot of different websites and newspapers had wrote an article about the anniversary of the fight but they had all used the anniversary of the fight to report on a different thing, this stuck to me as an odd thing but later after a lot of thinking branched into what I decided I was going to do my final research about. I would research into the last forty years and base it on what has happened since the fight in them last forty years, obviously basing my research about things related to the event. This was something I was really interested in looking at and therefore I was itching to get started. In my research I uncovered many different things that have happened since the fight ranging from the renovation of Ali's childhood home to the trouble of the city where the fight was held since the fight. Here is that research;
THE DOWNFALL OF ZAIRE
The city of Kinshasa,
formerly known, as Ndolo is a city located in the west of the Dominican
Republic of Congo. The DRC is a vast, barren central African country of which
has access to some of the most lucrative natural resources of anywhere in the
world, but despite this access to mass wealth, the ever-present reminiscence of
a post war-stricken country trying to fight its way out of this and is further
being held back by its painful struggle for independence and years and years of
political wrong doing and violence across the city have left the city at the
bottom economic pecking order. These problems are most apparent in the capital
city Kinshasa. The fight was held at a stadium in the capital city called the
Stade du Mai 20. The four light towers of the Stade du Mai 20 still dominate
the skyline of the rundown neighbourhood of immocongo in the Kalamu district of
the city. The rural ground that used to surround the stadium are now over
populated areas of houses upon houses and desolate litter scatted pieces of
land. The stadium that was once one of the biggest stadiums in the whole of
Africa and now stands rotting and deteriorating, renames the Stade Tata Raphael
in 1997 and is still used to host football matches but the irregular fixtures,
littered interior and small groups of the few people in the stands doesn’t
nearly compare to the roaring crowds who once cheered for their hero, Muhammad
Ali. Although the country was looking like it was heading the wrong way people
were still looking for new urban opportunities. From the 1980s things started
to get worse. The price of the countries biggest export of which is copper
dropped dramatically and because of this there was nothing to do in the
countryside. This caused a great flux of people to move to the capital city,
this caused the population to grow massively. All of these aspects combined
with the fact that in 1991 the inflation rate had rose to 4000% caused mass
riots and outrage from the population of the city. In the modern day even
though there are no more signs of the socio-economic boundaries it is still
very easy too see the difference between the two half of the city of which are
dissected by the main boulevard that splits the town.
BEHIND EVERY GREAT MAN
THERE IS GREAT WOMEN HELPING HIM
The 40th anniversary of
the rumble in the jungle has brought to light a new piece of never before known
information. Muhammad’s thirds wife Veronica Porsche told the media that a week
before the rumble in the jungle in Zaire Ali arranged a secret marriage for him
and his wife of the time even though he was still married to wife number two.
He felt it had to be done before the fight. Porsche said only her, Ali and the
African minister that married them were present at the wedding and the only other
person they told about the wedding ceremony was Muhammad Ali’s masseur Luis
Sarria. They knew better than to tell others and expose Ali to the legal
circumstances and consequences that he could incur from being married to two
women. Muhammad Ali and Porsche later got married legally in 1997 soon after he
divorced his second wife. He later got divorced from Porsche in 1986
ALI’S BOYHOOD HOME
GETTING A MAJOR RENOVATION.
Muhammad Ali’s home that
he lived in as a young child in Louisville, Kansas is undergoing a major
renovation by the owner a Kansas based restoration company. The home will be
restored to its original condition and given to Ali on his 73rd
birthday. Jared Wiess the Nevada bases estate buyer who purchased the house at
3302 Grand in the Parkland area, He has joined the 19th Century
Restoration of Lawrence, Kansas and the plans for the restoration are set to
start in two weeks. The restoration will cost in total around £250,000 and will
start just after the anniversary of the rumble in the jungle fight. On the
completion date the keys to the house will be handed over to Ali. The plan for
the restoration is to return the house to how it looked back in 1954 back when young
Cassius Clay lived there. Muhammad’s spokeswomen said “We are happy that the
house will be fixed up and kept up to a good standard. It will preserve the
legacy of Muhammad as a famous Louisvillian who grew up there. Reidermann said
in a statement that he and Wiess would start to fund the restoration with money
of their own. Buy they plan to run a fundraising event to raise the £250,000
that has been estimated as the cost for the construction costs. They say they
hope to do this by getting a donation of as much as $5 per person as they
believe this will achieve the amount they need.
FOREMANS REALISATION ON
HIS LIFE.
Rumble In The Jungle
“defeat to Muhammad Ali was my finest hour as a boxer” says George Forman, It
may have been the lowest moment of his career but George Foreman is forever
grateful to “The Greatest” for transforming his life 40 years ago. George
Foreman can never forget the day he was beat by Muhammad Ali 40 years ago.
George Foreman is reminded of this fact every dingle day that he turns on his
computer at his Texas home. The image is of him tumbling down to the ground
with Ali standing triumphantly over him after landing the punch that ended the
rumble in the jungle. Foreman said “ it is a constant reminder for me every day
to stay humble. Inevitably, the story tends to be told through the prism of
Ali, with his sound bites and sledge hammer fists. Yet it was just as much a
defining moment for Foreman, the first time he was made to feel truly mortal on
the sporting stage, and a day that ultimately gave him his personal epiphany. Foreman, then 25, had been world champion for 21
months, having annihilated Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, both inside two rounds.
He was considered impregnable, with Ali – who had lost the heavyweight crown to
Frazier at “The Fight of The Century” in New York three years previously –
widely written off in the build-up.
Ali’s Health
The sombre rumours that
have stalked Ali for years are now gaining importance and are gathering greater
urgency. Muhammad is sufferance from a very serious case of Parkinson’s
disease. This stemmed from his brutal legacy of his twenty one year boxing
career of which has now come back to haunt him. The disease has tightened its
hold on his and now at the age of seventy-two it looks like he is in his final
round and the fight is nearly over. Ali continues to strive on in life and
battle his disease.
REMEMBERING THE FIGHT
THAT WON BOXING’S CROWN PRINCE BACK HIS CROWN.
I’m satisfied that its
fair to say that this fight will remain at the top of the list or legendary
fight for a long, long time. Out of all his dozen high standard fights over the
last ten years of his career this was definitely the most accomplished. We saw
not the usual style of his fights where he dances round the stage arrogantly
indulging himself, but the dedicated artist producing a boxing masterpiece. Ali stripped the massive Foreman of his frightening
power by refusing to follow the expected path to the inevitable slaughter.
Instead of running away until his
legs were drained of stamina, he backed slowly on to the ropes or into corners,
smothering, spoiling, or simply absorbing the champion’s heaviest punches and
countering with jolting accuracy and bewildering speed.
Poor Foreman, whose mind worked as
ploddingly as his feet and hands moved, just could not understand what was
happening. Though, initially, he thumped away to the body the clubbing blows
that had destroyed Joe Frazier, Joe Roman and Ken Norton inside 15 minutes,
this opponent would not crumble at his feet.
When he tried to reach Ali’s jaw
he usually made contact only with gloves, forearms or, to his even greater
embarrassment, thin air.
True, there were moments in the
second and fifth rounds when many ringsiders thought Foreman’s strength and
power would crush an ageing challenger who did not have the speed to escape.
As the points gap between them
widened and Foreman’s face began to swell, his will to pursue a rugged course
of action showed signs of faltering.
Then Ali let loose a decisive
barrage of short punches, finishing with a right that sent Foreman sprawling to
the blue canvas like an exhausted, utterly bewildered bear.
The fallen champion lay on his
back, his right knee bent, trying desperately to gather his senses. At six, he
stared pleadingly at his corner, at eight Dick Saddler signaled him urgently to
rise and at “out” he was still struggling to his feet.
THE LIFE OF ALI’S MANAGER AFTER
THE FIGHT.
Gene Kilroy had a perm,
wore a safari suit and was always the first in the ring when George Forman
failed to beat the count at the end of the legendary fight, but you will
probably not have ever heard of him. He was Muhammad’s Ali’s manager and was
the moving force behind the champion’s camp at the time of the legendary fight,
was known as the facilitator. He was now and he still remains one of Ali’s
biggest friends. Part of a tiny inner circle of which wore diamond-studded
rings of fellowship.
Kilroy had met Ali at
the Olympics in Rome and joined the Ali team during the boxers forced exile,
leaving his job he had at the MGM Grand’s marketing division to manage Ali and
the pair became firm friends. Kilroy was trusted by Ali to carry Muhammad’s
mothers coffin at her funeral and by the time of the fight with Foreman arrived
they were very close. Kilroy was there till the very end, the man with the perm
and the safari suit, the last survivor of Ali’s inner circle of friends. After Ali’s final defeat Kilroy moved on from
being Muhammad’s manager. After the gut wrenching loss of his last match in Las
Vegas he moved on to working in Las Vegas hotels as a fixer, greeter and friend
to the cities highest roller.
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