Officials in Kinshasa have revealed the ring used for ''The Rumble in the Jungle'' has been stolen as boxing fans marked 40 years since one of the most famous and brutal bouts in the sport's history.
As the sporting world remembers Muhammad Ali's epic showdown with George Foreman the search is on for the ring into which the two boxers climbed at dawn on October 30, 1974.
The ring ''was stolen a few years ago,'' Barthelemy Bosongo, manager of the Tata Raphael stadium which staged the fight, said.
''We don't know where it's gone, but it's no longer in Kinshasa,'' he added. ''We're in the process of setting up a judicial investigation.''
A leading sports official in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who wished to remain anonymous, believes the bulky piece of sporting memorabilia ''is in South Africa''.
According to Bosongo, ''there are no signs left now of the fight, apart from the two dressing rooms'' which Ali and Foreman used to change before stepping out for the fight, and into boxing folklore.
He added: ''I would have liked for the stadium to become a place of history, where you'd find the dressing rooms, photos, gloves...but there's nothing to remind you of the fight.''