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There are many fights and happenings throughout history that just there mere mention of them will instantly put a specific image, based on what the legend says, in a persons mind. For example, whenever I heard someone mention the Sugar Ray Robinson-Joey Maxim fight I automatically imagine the ring being literally like a furnace that night. So unbearably hot that the great Sugar Ray could hardly stand up during the latter parts of the fight yet he endured that terrible heat until he finally collapsed late in the fight.
Or I hear someone mention the 1951 middleweight title fight between Ray and Jake Lamotta -The St. Valentines Day Massacre- and my mind automatically goes the last few seconds of the fight, as portrayed in articles as well as in the movie "Raging Bull," where Robinson has Lamotta pinned against the ropes and gives him what is projected to be an absolutely horrific beating. The portrayal of it in the movie was particularly gruesome and almost made the ROCKY movies seem tame by comparison. I recently saw an old clip of that fight, though, and I paid close attention to the final sequence and while it was in fact a one sided thrashing it also lasted about one-tenth as long as I was always led to believe and by comparison, really, it wasn't nearly as vicious to me as the ending if the 1991 Ray Mercer-Tommy Morrison fight.
Sometimes history and its story tellers paint pictures that aren't quite as accurate as the real thing actually was and legends can grow bigger each time the story is told.
So, in regard to the 1974 Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman fight, "The Rumble in the Jungle," I have always been led to believe from what I have read in books and magazines, been under the impression that Ali was taking a huge beating from Foreman and that it was just a case where Foreman, while way ahead on points, wore himself out and got stopped in an amazing turn around by "The Greatest" but after watching that fight in tape recently for the eighth or ninth time it is obvious to me that Ali was landing the better shots throughout the fight, picked his shots better and set Foreman up for the stoppage win. During the break between rounds four and five they interviewed someone (I'm not sure who) on the microphone at ringside and he said something like "Ali looks good in there, looks the fresher of the two men, and I think somewhere in the next four rounds he will get his man out of there."
If it was apparent to that guy so early in the fight then I am sure it was apparent to a lot of other people, too.
Or I hear someone mention the 1951 middleweight title fight between Ray and Jake Lamotta -The St. Valentines Day Massacre- and my mind automatically goes the last few seconds of the fight, as portrayed in articles as well as in the movie "Raging Bull," where Robinson has Lamotta pinned against the ropes and gives him what is projected to be an absolutely horrific beating. The portrayal of it in the movie was particularly gruesome and almost made the ROCKY movies seem tame by comparison. I recently saw an old clip of that fight, though, and I paid close attention to the final sequence and while it was in fact a one sided thrashing it also lasted about one-tenth as long as I was always led to believe and by comparison, really, it wasn't nearly as vicious to me as the ending if the 1991 Ray Mercer-Tommy Morrison fight.
Sometimes history and its story tellers paint pictures that aren't quite as accurate as the real thing actually was and legends can grow bigger each time the story is told.
So, in regard to the 1974 Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman fight, "The Rumble in the Jungle," I have always been led to believe from what I have read in books and magazines, been under the impression that Ali was taking a huge beating from Foreman and that it was just a case where Foreman, while way ahead on points, wore himself out and got stopped in an amazing turn around by "The Greatest" but after watching that fight in tape recently for the eighth or ninth time it is obvious to me that Ali was landing the better shots throughout the fight, picked his shots better and set Foreman up for the stoppage win. During the break between rounds four and five they interviewed someone (I'm not sure who) on the microphone at ringside and he said something like "Ali looks good in there, looks the fresher of the two men, and I think somewhere in the next four rounds he will get his man out of there."
If it was apparent to that guy so early in the fight then I am sure it was apparent to a lot of other people, too.
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