All language subtitles for When.We.Were.Kings.1996.1080p.BluRay.x264-[YTS.LT]

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Yeah, I'm in Africa.
Yeah, Africa's my home.

Damn America and what America thinks.

Yeah, I live in America,
but Africa's the home of the black man.

I was a slave 400 years ago,

and I'm going back home
to fight among my brothers.

Yeah!

For these two African Americans
to come home

was of great, great significance.

Because of Hollywood and TV,

a lot of us had been taught
to hate Africa.

There was a time

if you called a black person "African,"
they'd be ready to fight.

When I get to Africa,

we gonna get it on
because we don't get along!

I'm gonna eat him up!

Too much speed for him!

Too fast! Too fast! That's right!

I'm gonna retire
the heavyweight champion of the world!

I'm gonna retire the heavyweight
champion of the world!

September 25, the world will be stunned!

- Tell 'em, Ali!
- That's right.

If you think the world was surprised
when Nixon resigned,

wait till I kick Foreman's behind!

An 18-year-old amateur boxing
champion with a charming smile

took a physical examination
for his first professional fight.

It won't be an easy fight, but my plan
of attack on a fighter like Alex Miteff

would be two fast left jabs,

a rapid right cross and a left hook.

But in the Belgian Congo,
freedom was followed by rioting

and army mutiny.

For months, the political pattern
kept changing with kaleidoscopic speed

until pro-Red Premier Lumumba
was seized

by the forces of strongman Colonel Mobutu.

After watching Mike DeJohn
and Eddie Machen the other night,

I would rate myself number two now.

I'm out to break Floyd Patterson's record,

and by this being my 20th birthday,
today, January 17,

that leaves me exactly one year
to reach my goal.

People do say I'm cocky.
Some say I need a good whuppin'.

Some say I talk too much.

But anything that I say,
I'm willing to back up.

The other night I predicted
that I would knock out this Banks

in four rounds, and I did.

I knocked out Don Warner
in four rounds,

and I just annihilated George Logan
in four rounds.

Let me see you close your mouth
and just keep it closed.

- You know that's impossible.
- No, keep it closed.

You know that's impossible.
I'm the greatest.

I'm knocking out all bums. And if you
get too smart, I'll knock you out.

- You'd take him on before the fight?
- Beat him like I'm his daddy.

I saw Sonny Liston
a few days ago, Cassius...

Ain't he ugly?

I'm young, I'm handsome,

I'm fast, I'm pretty,
and can't possibly be beat.

Cassius Clay
goes into the record book

with Corbett, Tunney and Braddock

as another who brought off
one of the great upsets

in the heavyweight history.

It is befitting that I leave
the game just like I came in...

beating a big, bad monster

who knocks out everybody
and no one can whup him.

That's when that little Cassius Clay
from Louisville, Kentucky,

came up and stopped Sonny Liston,

the man who annihilated
Floyd Patterson twice.

He was gonna kill me!

But he hit harder than George.

His reach was longer than George.
He's a better boxer than George.

And I'm better now
than I was when you saw

that 22-year-old undeveloped kid
running from Sonny Liston.

I'm experienced now, professional.

Jaw's been broke,
been knocked down a couple times.

I'm bad!

Been chopping trees.
I done something new for this fight.

I done rassled with an alligator.

That's right.
I have rassled with an alligator!

I done tussled with a whale.

I done handcuffed lightning,
throwed thunder in jail.

That's bad!
Only last week, I murdered a rock!

Injured a stone! Hospitalized a brick!

- I'm so mean I make medicine sick.
- Bad dude!

- Bad. Fast.
- Ain't no doubt.

Fast! Fast!

Last night,
I cut the light off in my bedroom,

hit the switch, was in the bed
before the room was dark.

- Incredible. Incredible.
- Fast.

And you, George Foreman, all you chumps
are gonna bow when I whup him!

All of you! I know you got him.
I know you got him picked.

But the man's in trouble.
I'm gonna show you how great I am!

Hell, I think Ali was scared.
I think he was scared even then.

He knew he was gonna be very scared
as he got closer to the fight.

You know the way George fights.
George comes out...

I named him the Mummy!

With his ego, he could keep
telling himself he would dominate Foreman,

that he would beat him,
that he would dance, make a fool of him,

that he would show him superior boxing,

that Foreman
would never lay a glove on him.

But in fact, in his sleep
or wherever his private moment came,

he had to know
that he had not done nearly as well

against two fighters particularly:
Joe Frazier and Ken Norton,

whom Foreman had demolished.

Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!

The heavyweight champion
is taking the mandatory eight count,

and Foreman is as poised as can be!

Foreman is going about his job!

He had an overpowering intensity
when he punched.

Foreman had won his championship
by knocking Joe Frazier out,

and knocked him down
something like seven times.

Then he destroyed Ken Norton
in two rounds.

The word "murderous" does not quite apply.

Foreman was awesome.

This chump has got everybody scared.

Scared of what?

Nothing to be scared of.

Scared of what?

How many fellas in here now picks George?
Be truthful. Be men.

Tell the truth.

John, raise your hand.

Got George?

You got George? Tell the truth.

- You. You, fella. Yeah.
- Me?

- No pick.
- No pick?

I just wanna know. You got George.

The time may have come

to say good-bye to Muhammad Ali,

because very honestly,

I don't think
he can beat George Foreman.

Howard Cosell, you told everybody
I don't have a chance.

You told 'em
I don't have nothing but a prayer.

Well, chump, all I need is a prayer,

because if that prayer
reach the right man,

not only will George Foreman fall
but mountains will fall.

Maybe he can pull off a miracle.

But against George Foreman?

So young, so strong, so fearless?

Against George Foreman,

who does away with his opponents
one after another

in less than three rounds?

It's hard for me to conjure with that.

You're always talking about,
"Muhammad, you're not the same man

you were ten years ago."

I asked your wife, and she told me

you're not the same man
you was two years ago!

After this fight,
I suspect Ali will retire.

And through all of the years,

my own memories of him
will be as a fighter

and as the strange and curious
and gregarious

and engaging and sometimes cruel

and sometimes family man that he is.

I'm gonna let everybody know

that that thing you got on your head
is a phony,

and it comes from the tail of a pony.

A stolen bicycle.

He had a bicycle,
and he went to Columbia Gym.

There was something going on up there,
and he left his bike parked outside.

So when he came out, someone had stole it,

and he went inside, and he was crying,

and he told the policeman there,
his name was Joe Martin,

that someone stole his bike.

And Joe Martin, he would also teach

the little boys how to box in the evening.

So he asked him, would he be interested
in learning how to box?

And he told him yes,

because if he ever found out
who stole his bike,

he wanted to know how to fight
so he could beat them up.

An overhand right
sends Sonny to the canvas!

Referee Jersey Joe Walcott
trying to get Ali to a neutral corner.

Ali yelling at Liston to get up and fight!

The anchor punch.

- Which punch?
- Anchor. I call it the anchor punch.

- The one Stepin Fetchit helped you with?
- Yeah, man.

And people couldn't see it.
It was so fast...

Sports Illustrated clocked it.
They got a slow-motion camera.

They clocked the punch, and the punch
flew at 4/100 of a second.

You can break a second
down to a hundred pieces.

You know how people win a ski race,
they say, "He won in 16/100,

he won in 32/100 of a second."

So you break a second down to 100 pieces.
So, you know, yeah, it's quick.

So 4/100... They got a machine
that goes, like, br-r-r-t, real quick.

Br-r-r-t. And it counts real quick.
You know, br-r-r-t. Real quick.

And by the time that thing hit four,
that's how quick...

From the time the punch started
to where it landed,

it was 4/100 of a second,
which is an eye blink.

Like a camera flash.
That's 4/100 of a second.

Now, the minute I hit Sonny Liston,

all those people blinked at that moment,
and that's why they didn't see the punch.

I swear.

If you watch the film close...
You gotta hold your eyes real close...

Keep looking.

All right, I'm getting ready to hit him.
You can't just...

You got to hold your eyes and wait
or you won't see it, man!

They have this beautiful,
you know, specimen, a fighting machine,

that was handsome, he was articulate,

he was funny,

charismatic...

and was whuppin' ass too.

Deposed heavyweight champion Cassius Clay,

at a federal court in Houston,
is found guilty

of violating the US Selective Service laws
by refusing to be inducted.

He is sentenced to five years in prison
and fined $10,000.

The way he fused politics and sports...

Very few black athletes had ever talked
the way Muhammad Ali talked

without fear of something happening
to them in their career.

...status as a Black Muslim
minister made him exempt from the draft.

He was already very unpopular
with mainstream Americans

because he had joined an organization
known as the Nation of Islam,

which was perceived
as a radical black separatist group.

And then on top of that,
when he was called for induction

and refused to take the step forward,

he absolutely infuriated America.

Muhammad Ali said,
"No Viet Cong ever called me nigger."

The king is going home to get his throne.

From the root to the fruit.
That's where everything started at.

This is God's act, and you a part of it.

This is no Hollywood set. This is real.

Hollywood come in and take
these kind of scenes and set 'em up,

have somebody in the movies
playing his life.

This is real. We don't pick up a script.
We get up in the morning feeling tired.

Sometimes we feel good, sometimes bad.

- But we go through it with feeling.
- Time!

Muhammad Ali were born to do it.

He's a prophet. He gonna be
a fisherman for Elijah Muhammad.

This is only a stop, look and listen sign
he's doing, fighting.

We've been fightin'
ever since we even met.

We beat Uncle Sam. Three and a half years.

Come out of the garage
and beat number two.

First man ever did it. The rest of 'em
they put out of the country.

This is God's act. We just actors in it.

If Jesus was here,
everybody would want his autograph,

and if films was around when
he was around, they'd be filming him.

The only thing, this is a sport.
That's why you walking, talk to him.

I think Muhammad is a prophet.
How you gonna beat God's son?

Anybody who loves poor people
and little people gotta be a prophet.

He was champion of the world,
had a long table full of food.

Had a house for his mother, one for him,
and he told 'em to take it and shove it.

If he couldn't love his god,
what do you think he is... mister?

Get it together!

Get it together! Get it together!

Ali trained
for the fight with Foreman

at Deer Lake, Pennsylvania.

He trained very hard for that fight...

- One more.
- ...and had very good sparring partners.

Larry Holmes
was one of his sparring partners.

I was struck with
how well, uh, he handled...

he'd actually handled Ali
in their sparring sessions.

He'd dominated Ali. That wasn't uncommon.

Ali very often would not show
his best stuff with his sparring partners,

but in fact would work on his weaknesses.

He'd go against the ropes,
and he'd let people pummel him.

Heavy hitters who were sort of clumsy,
he'd let them bang away at him.

It was as if he wanted to train his body
to receive these messages of punishment

and absorb them faster
than other fighters could absorb them.

True significance
of why this fight's being fought in Africa

is because they came up with $10 million.

Five million dollars for George Foreman,
five million dollars for me.

London, England, was trying to get it.

A promoter said
America were trying to get it.

But none of them could surpass
the $5 million mark.

The dream is now becoming a reality.

Don King went to George Foreman

and got Foreman to sign
an option agreement

saying that
if King could deliver $5 million,

Foreman would fight Ali.

Then King went to Ali
and made the same deal with him.

So Don King now had both fighters,

their signatures on a piece of paper.

What he didn't have was $10 million.

...a festival that will complement
this great sporting event,

the greatest sporting event
in the history of the world.

- Greatest of all time!
- Of all time, as the champ says.

- The greatest event of all time!
- With some...

Bigger than Evel Knievel
and the Kentucky Derby on the same day.

The president of Zaire
was willing to put $10 million

of his country's own very scarce,

hard-earned currency on the line,

not for any short-term economic reason

but because he felt
that the fight would be good

in terms of promoting Zaire
and also in terms of promoting himself.

And as Ali said at the time,

countries go to war
to get their names on the map,

and wars cost
a lot more than $10 million.

Some of the most dynamic
performers from Afro-America

will be appearing down there
at the stadium in Kinshasa

on the 20th, the 21st and the 22nd,

along with the world,
and with its theatrical release.

It will be James Brown,
who is soul brother number one,

- one of our top, leading black artists.
- Is he coming?

Yes,
James Brown will be there performing.

We will have BB King, the Spinners...

This is the first assembly
in the history of all America

where all the top-notch blacks of America

and the people of Africa
had something together,

all on the world level.

We're all meeting each other
and learning more about each other.

It's the first assembly
among American black men

and Africans like us
in the history of the world.

And it's a big honor to be part of that.
Plus I gotta whup George!

Got to whup George!

We're gonna rumble in the jungle!

Come on. Come on. Come on.

Speak to 'em. Go ahead.

Good boy. Get down.

- Back. You're good.
- George?

Is this fight against Ali will be
the toughest of your career, you think?

Could be. Could be. I doubt it.

This is Muhammad Ali,

September 10, at New York City Airport

en route to Zaire to reclaim
the heavyweight title of the world.

Champ, what would you like to say
to the children of the world?

I'd like to tell
the children of the world,

mainly right here where they speak
and understand English in America,

to live a clean life.

Stay off of dope.
It's tearing the country up.

Also, if they want to be like me,
I'm getting ready to whup George Foreman,

and by the time they see this,
I will have beaten him.

Tell them to quit eating so much candy.

I have three rotten teeth. They're bad,
and I had to have one of 'em pulled.

I can't chew my food like I should.

Eat natural foods because
we must whup Mr. Tooth Decay.

I got one right there and one right here.

Yesterday Ali told us
that he's going to use part of his money

for the building of a hospital.

Do you intend yourself to use
part of your money for something?

Have you got a project?

He may think
he may have to be in the hospital.

I want the man!

Yeah, when I get to Africa,

we gonna get it on
because we don't get along!

I don't like him. He talks too much.

Beg your pardon?

You would continue boxing
even if you would lose over there?

I beg your pardon?

You don't think about losing?

No. Thank you. Nice talking with you.

Flying over the Sahara Desert

on an African airline
with all African stewardesses,

all African pilots.

Boy, this is the first free feeling
I've had in a long time.

Ain't this something, flying
in an airplane with all black pilots?

- All black crew?
- Crazy!

This is strange to the American Negro.
We never dreamed of this.

And every time we watch television,

they show us Tarzan
and the natives and the jungles.

They never told us that the Africans
were more intelligent than we are.

They speak English...
They speak English, French and African.

We can't even speak English good.

Ain't this beautiful? I'm free!

Fantastic!

I'm free.

Now, I want everybody to repeat after me.

If you don't know who you are
and where your place in life is,

- just say to yourself, I am!
- I am!

- Somebody!
- Somebody!

- I am!
- I am!

- Somebody!
- Somebody!

- I may be poor.
- I may be poor.

- But I am.
- But I am.

Somebody.

It was a great joy
to see that the championship

was going to happen in Africa.

People were so happy.

At last, the world was paying attention
to our continent.

Yes, we knew Muhammad Ali as a boxer,

but more importantly
for his political stance.

When we saw that America was at war

in a third-world country, Vietnam...

and that one of the children
of the United States said, "Me?

You want me to go and fight
against the Viet Cong?

Why should I fight against them?
They haven't done anything against me."

And for us, it was extraordinary

to see that in the America of that time,
someone could take such a position.

He may have lost his title,
he may have lost millions of dollars,

but that's where he gained
the esteem of millions of Africans.

Ali! Ali! Ali!

Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali!

What is... What is your population?

- Twenty-two million.
- Twenty-two million?

- Twenty-two million.
- How many George Foreman fans here?

We don't know, we don't know.

- How many Muhammad Ali?
- There are so many we cannot count them.

George Foreman?
We didn't know who he was.

We had heard
that he was a world champion.

We thought he was white.

Then we realized he was black,
like Muhammad Ali.

But still, for us,
Foreman represented America.

He arrived with a dog,
a German shepherd,

which immediately offended Africans,

since the Belgians
had used shepherds as police dogs.

Ali said that he's the hometown fighter

and you're the out-of-towner here.

Africa is the cradle of civilization.
Everybody's home is Africa.

Okay, fine. So they're leaving tomorrow.

Typhoid. How do you spell "typhoid"?

Is that all that we're giving?

Who do you want to be
your beneficiary in case of anything.

And then sign it.

You need an actual
airline ticket to get on this plane.

Let me see some hands
of the 51 who don't have tickets.

Who doesn't have an airline ticket?

Hi!

You know who we are, don't you?

I'm Lola Love, and I'm one of the dancers
with the James Brown show... revue.

"Zai-ere," or "Zare,"
or whatever you... you know.

Yeah, man.
When are gonna get to Zee-air?

- To who?
- Mobutu land.

To Zee-air?

We're gonna fly in zee-air
till we get to Zaire.

That's right!

♪ Sittin' in a railway station ♪

♪ My suitcase in my hand ♪

♪ Going back where I came from ♪

♪ I've had more than I can stand ♪

♪ Of watching men destroy my dreams ♪

♪ They picked my brain till it was clean ♪

♪ I was up, but they knocked me down ♪

♪ Ain't gonna hang around ♪

♪ I'm going home ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

- ♪ Uh-huh ♪
- ♪ I'm coming home ♪

- ♪ Yes, I am ♪
- ♪ Coming home ♪

♪ It's more than I can stand
Why don't ya ♪

♪ Tell someone to meet me
I'm comin' home ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

- ♪ Tell someone to meet me ♪
- ♪ Why don't ya ♪

- ♪ Home ♪
- ♪ Yes, sirree ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, let me tell ya ♪

♪ Came to this old town ♪

♪ Seeking fortune and some fame ♪

♪ Never got the chance to prove myself ♪

♪ Tryin' to play their games ♪

♪ But usin' people just ain't my thing ♪

♪ I won't dangle from any string ♪

♪ To please some fool
I don't care about, now ♪

♪ Turn me inside out
I'm going home ♪

♪ Yeah, it's mighty long ♪

- ♪ I'm coming home ♪
- ♪ I got it, you know too ♪

- ♪ Coming home ♪
- ♪ Hey, I know what I'm gonna do ♪

♪ Tell someone to meet me ♪

♪ I'm comin' home ♪

♪ Yes, I am
Hey, hey, hey ♪

♪ Tell someone to meet me ♪

♪ I got it, look here ♪

The plane is not coming in at 6:00.
It's now coming between 10:00 and 11:00.

So you don't have to have those trucks
out to the airport that early.

They told me
James Brown's gonna be here.

- James Brown is on his way.
- BB King's gonna be here.

And I showed up,
and they ain't nowhere around.

Sixth, fifth and fourth are done.
Elevators are working.

Can we... But there's no
air conditioning up there at all?

80% of it's out.

It's all in, but it doesn't work.
The breakers are out.

What do you mean, 80% of it?
On what floors though?

I have sixth, fifth and fourth.

I understand that, but what about, um...

It's individual air conditioning controls,
and they have circuit breakers...

So what apartments
have air conditioning working?

How many beds
can we move people into tonight?

- Uh, four. Four rooms.
- Just eight people?

Yeah.

♪ And I'm goin' home ♪

♪ 'Cause everything's gonna be all right ♪

♪ 'Cause home's
Where the heart's at, yeah ♪

♪ And it's a natural fact ♪

♪ What you sayin', tell me, won't you? ♪

- ♪ Home ♪
- ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪

♪ I gotta make a start today ♪

♪ Gotta do it in my way ♪

♪ Gonna see Mama again ♪

♪ Gonna see my old, old friend ♪

♪ Africa ♪

♪ Africa ♪

♪ Africa ♪

♪ Oh, Africa ♪

Hello, Bubba!

You ready to dance?

I got ants in my pants. I gotta dance.

Of course, the fight was held
in Zaire, the former Belgian Congo.

Kinshasa was the capital,
on the banks of the Congo.

It was just before the rainy season
when this fight took place.

Off to the north
you could see the flickering of storms,

uh, coming closer and closer,
and it was important to the promoters

that this fight get in
before the storms occurred,

because once the rainy season comes,
you can't do anything.

I always thought the Congo
had such a wonderful name...

Conradian and all that.

Somehow to call it Zaire
didn't have quite the majesty.

But there it was, the Congo.

Mobutu was everywhere.

He was the equivalent in Africa
of Joseph Stalin.

You saw his picture everywhere.

And of course, part of the vanity
of dictators, they almost always...

With the possible exception of Mussolini,
who was half ugly and half attractive,

most dictators
are unbelievably ugly or plain.

Franco, Hitler.

Mobutu looked the archetype.
He was the epitome of a closet sadist.

Sort of guy, if you meet him in a bar,
you think, "Oh, my God.

Who are the poor women
who are associated with this fella?"

And since Mobutu was an extraordinarily
practical man for his country,

down under the stadium,
which seated 100,000 people,

were detention pens
and rooms and chambers

where you could imprison as many
as a couple thousand people at once.

Before the fight came,

the criminal rate in Zaire began to go up,

and a few white foreigners
had been killed driving their cars.

And Mobutu decided that this was going
to be a disaster in terms of publicity,

so on a given day, he had a thousand

of the leading criminals in Kinshasa

rounded up and put in this stadium,

down in the detention pens.

And then, the legend has it,

and I suspect
the legend may even be true,

that he had a hundred of them
taken at random and killed them.

And the reason was a particularly
simple one from Mobutu's point of view:

Criminals who make a life out of it
have connections

that protect them when they're in trouble,

and by making this kill of a hundred
out of a thousand arbitrarily,

what Mobutu was saying is,
"Your connections are worth nothing.

I am Jehovah.

I am going to blast you out of existence
if you fool around with me."

And he made his point.
Kinshasa was one of the safest cities

not only in all of Africa
but probably in all of the world

while the foreign press was there
for the fight.

To me,
the drum has been the communicator

since the beginning of time.

I'm sure it was the first message
ever sent.

When I think of the beat today
and I think of the beats centuries ago,

it's the only thing that kept us together.

We had this thing, when we hurt,
we sung for trial and tribulation,

we sung for relief, we sung songs of God,

and this music that you hear today

is the same songs that have been
made popular throughout the world

without anybody's intentions or volition.

Oh!

So I would say that
anybody who knows anything

about the rhythm and the blues,
as they're so-called today,

should know about Africa.

♪ When I first met you, baby ♪

♪ Baby, you were just ♪

♪ Sweet 16 ♪

♪ When I first met you, baby ♪

♪ Baby, you was just sweet 16 ♪

♪ Just left your home then, baby ♪

♪ Oh, the sweetest thing I'd ever seen ♪

The music I'm listening to now,

if I went to your house
or most white people's places,

I don't hear this kind of music,
because your culture wouldn't...

Your woman didn't leave you.

Your woman didn't go out,
slip off on you like our women,

because you didn't have no money.

You had money to keep your woman.
Your songs are like...

♪ When that train comes
Around that mountain ♪

♪ In that Folsom Prison
In that Folsom Prison ♪

And, you know...
♪ Y'all come, y'all come ♪

Whatever it is, that's a different cul...
Chinese like their music.

♪ Pling, ting, tang, tong, ting, tong ♪

I don't want to hear that,
and he understands that.

Everybody's got their culture.

So we're not saying that we hate you
or we want to be more divided

and we're never talking to you again
or doing business... We don't do that.

But what we're saying
is that we want to be independent now.

♪ Baby, I wonder
Yes, I wonder ♪

♪ Baby, I wonder ♪

♪ Oh, I wonder what in the world ♪

♪ Is gonna happen to me ♪

Oh!

The great place
to visit in Kinshasa was a compound

about 20 miles up the Congo River,

a place called Nsele,
which was a presidential palace.

That was where we saw Foreman,
who seemed incredible.

I'd seen him fight before.
I saw him destroy Frazier.

I'd never seen destruction like that,
and the thing I always remembered was that

the beaten fighter, even a man
as powerful and big as Frazier...

and he was very much favored
to win that...

suddenly becomes
about the size of a Pygmy.

They just diminish in size.

And Foreman suddenly became
this gigantic figure.

And he had a trainer, Dick Sadler,
tiny by comparison to Foreman,

and Sadler would hang on to the heavy bag.

But Foreman would hit this... this bag...

Sadler would just literally
be picked off his feet.

Foreman hitting the heavy bag

is one of the more prodigious sights
I've had in my life.

It seems to me that of all the people
I've seen hitting heavy bags,

including Sonny Liston,
no one ever hit it the way Foreman did.

At the end of 15 minutes
of pounding the heavy bag,

there'd be a hole in the heavy bag...
not a hole, but a huge dent

the size of half a small watermelon
in that tremendous heavy bag,

and Foreman used to use
the biggest heavy bag around.

What would be interesting is Ali,
who would train after Foreman,

would often pass by this large hall
where the training took place,

and he never looked at Foreman
hitting the heavy bag.

He just walked right by
as if Foreman did not exist.

And it was significant because
if you were gonna fight the man,

you did not want to see him
hitting that heavy bag.

I'm a speed demon! I'm a brain fighter!

I'm scientific! I'm artistic!
I plan my strategy!

He's the bull! I'm the matador!

He's scared to death.

He's scared to death!

He wish he could get out
of the whole thing!

He wish he could get out of
the whole thing when I look at him.

The man is frightened!

He's meetin' his master,
his teacher, his idol!

- Time!
- Is that all?

When I talk and work, I'm in shape.
It's all I do.

Ali had announced
he was gonna dance.

He spoke about it all the time.

You couldn't do an interview with Ali
during that period where he would say,

"How is Foreman
going to get near to me?

I'm going to dance.
I'm going to dance and dance.

That man will look foolish
trying to find me.

And as he gropes his way forward

in this storm of blindness
that's the speed of my dancing,

I will strike him with my jab.

Poo! Poo! Poo!"
he would go, and so forth.

We heard this over and over and over,
and Foreman heard it too.

Foreman was working now
on what's called cutting off the ring.

Now, cutting off the ring
essentially just means

cornering your opponent
against the ropes or in a corner.

And it's an art. It's a balletic art.

You have to have very good footwork.
Foreman's footwork...

He was a big, powerful man, but his
footwork was better than anyone expected.

He worked with very fast fighters,
smaller than himself,

who certainly could dance,
and he worked on cornering them.

And he was very good. And we'd watch this.

And the combination
of hitting the heavy bag

and watching Foreman cut off the ring

made most of the fight writers,
myself included,

terribly pessimistic about Ali's chances.

Yeah, Lord. Now you're working.

The guy threw up his elbows
to protect himself from Foreman,

and Foreman walked into his elbow.

And he got cut...
That's how he got cut in the eye?

What else can happen
that hasn't happened yet?

I saw the man's cut,
and this man cannot fight.

This man cannot fight
for the world championship.

- You are not a doctor.
- I don't give a damn.

Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter.

The Zaireans kicked us out,
and they did not want us around.

And they want the fight to go on.
That's all there is to it.

- That's the problem.
- He won't fight with that eye.

- He's not that dumb.
- He's not that dumb.

That's all you want is a fight.
That's all you want.

Excuse me, gentlemen.
That's all you want is a fight. I know.

I respectfully ask,
are the fighters remaining here

because they want to remain here,

or has the government
requested they remain?

Uh, Mr. Sadler told me
to convey to the press

that it's nothing but an accident.

It's not serious.

They will be getting in touch
with the promoters of the fight,

and it's possible
that we may have to delay the fight,

and he will let the press know
as soon as possible.

Did they have to stitch Foreman?

They had to stitch him.

Holy shit, man.
So how long is the delay, man?

It'll take another day or two
to give any intelligence.

This just happened yesterday.

Then after, we can make a decision.

How does George feel about it?

Well, like anybody else. He's only human.
How would any individual feel?

Does he want to go ahead,
or does he want it postponed?

Who? Why should he?

- Why should he go ahead with it, or...
- Why should he make any decision?

Who would know what another man thinks?

How could I truthfully tell you
what you would think

or what I would think, or how...

A man may have mixed emotions,
I don't know. I couldn't speak for George.

I can only speak for Dick Sadler,
not for somebody else.

It would be hard.
I'm not that intelligent.

I don't have that knowledge, that ability
to speak what's in another man's mind.

He never discussed it to me,
what his thoughts are.

And a person's mind change
from time to time.

- But the decision is yours to make?
- The decision is mine to make.

And right now I haven't made any...

I don't have any decisions to make.

Okay, let's get the show on the road.

This meeting is now called to order.
Hear, hear.

The delay won't have any, uh...
any effect on the fight at all.

There hasn't been...
There will not be a delay.

The fight will be rescheduled,

but when it happens,
it'll be actually intended for that time.

Fate intended it for another time.
There is no delay.

How does Ali feel about it?

And if there ever has been
any disappointments in sports,

any setbacks or rainy days
that stopped a ball game,

anything, this is the worst of all time.

Initially, Muhammad went through
a pretty bad couple of hours,

and he first wanted to move
the whole fight back to the United States,

and when he was told that wouldn't work,
he said,

"Well, then let's bring Joe Frazier
over here, and I'll fight him again,

and instead of each of us
getting $5 million,

I'll take 3 million
and Joe can take 1 million."

But after a while he calmed down,

and he realized that there was nothing
that could be done about it

except stay in Zaire an extra six weeks
and make the best of it.

Now I gotta wait. He's gonna get
his whuppin', but I just have to wait.

Boy, I was ready!
I was gonna upset the world again!

The whole world was gonna crawl
and bow the next morning!

I was gonna defeat that big,
indestructible George Foreman!

Gonna rip him up!

I was gonna get him
for a sparring partner.

My dream's all messed up
for six more weeks.

The man's in trouble! The man is scared!

He's in my country to start with!

He's in my country. You wanna see?
Want me to show you this is my country?

Ali, bomaye!

Ali, bomaye! Ali, bomaye!

Can you picture 100,000?
Can you picture 100,000?

How you say it? Ali, bomaye!

Ali, bomaye! Ali, bomaye!

Boy, when I hear them brothers
hollerin' like that...

Whoo! I'm gonna get my soul
and my spirit,

100,000 African brothers
hollering "Ali, bomaye!"

And I'm gonna... Ooh!

I'm tired. I can't take it no more.
Let me get out of here.

I gotta get out of here.
I wanna... We gonna...

I'm going up to my room.
I'll talk to y'all later.

I said I'm gone!

♪ When you kiss me ♪

♪ When you miss me, baby ♪

♪ Hold my hand ♪

♪ Make me understand ♪

♪ I break out ♪

♪ In a cold sweat ♪

♪ Whoo ♪

♪ Turn it back ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

The black acts in America
have not learned

that once their records
is off the charts, they're finished.

I mean, they haven't...
they haven't learned that.

It's so true.
I heard a speech by Jesse Jackson,

saying we must recognize that we're
only useful as long as we're necessary.

As long as you're necessary.

When we're not necessary,
we're no longer useful,

So they don't realize that your strength
comes from your community.

And you have to deal from your strength.

You have to, because in dealing
from your strength, you've got somebody.

So if somebody grabs James Brown
or want to hurt James Brown,

somebody gonna raise their voice and say,
"Why are you bothering my brother?"

Because he's got some soldiers around,
somebody that's concerned, that cares.

But when you're dealing as an individual,
no matter how big you get,

as a black individual, you still a nigger.

You don't care how much money you get.
You are still a nigger.

When you start that by yourself, you are
all alone when you become unnecessary.

♪ Listen ♪

♪ Extend your love ♪

Can I get the drummer some?

Can I get the drummer a little taste?

Do unto others
as you would have them to do unto you.

Would you have somebody
burn you up and lynch you

and tell you where to go and how to look,
and then refuse to pay you?

Would you have somebody
take advantage of your woman, Jack,

and you can't even speak to his?

Would you like to pay taxes for something
that you never received?

Do unto others as you would have
somebody do unto you.

And I don't have to use
the word "FM" backwards.

♪ Yeah ♪

We left Africa in shackles
and fetters and chains.

We're coming back in an aura
of splendor and scintillating glory.

The champions are here. So we try to
get the champions of the sports world,

champions of the music world.

We put 'em together, and we got
one champion that's so intermingled

and intertwined
that we're fused into one entity.

The brother said something there!
Yeah, the brother said something there.

Don King put this together.

It was not a color put it together.
You understand?

I'd like to call him the messiah.

This fight came into existence
because of Don King's desire

to be famous, to break out of the pack.

It was the world to him. He was either
going to become enormously prominent,

at the least, in American life,

or he was going to go back
to obscurity again if it failed.

Oh, I'm so happy to see you, my brother.
Oh, good.

- This is the minister of finance.
- We met before.

Yes, I have met the minister of finance.
How are you?

I recognize and appreciate
your talent and your expertise.

This is what it's all about. I welcome you
with love. That's all I'm saying.

We must deal with it as such,
but with love, you know?

Not with hostility and alienation.

You know? But with love.

Bravo, Mr. King! Bravo!

King had this huge air of welcome.

Rarely has anyone ever been welcomed
the way King could do it for you.

There was a joy that came off him.

I knew his reputation, all about him,
how he'd been in jail,

how he was thoroughly untrustworthy
and so forth, but nonetheless,

what it was is, he made you feel good.

Don't leave me. I need you.
I need your strength.

He was a startling-looking man.

All the writers used to find
different ways of describing

this great up-brush of hair.

Some people would say that he'd stuck
his thumb into an electric socket.

Falling through an empty elevator shaft.

The fight, of course,
was postponed, and Don King turned up,

and everybody wanted to know
what was going on.

It looked as though maybe
the fight wasn't going to happen, and...

Nothing that's as big as this
ever runs smoothly anyway.

Anything worthwhile is worth fighting for.

So we have a situation here
where we have been struck with adversity.

If you think about what Shakespeare said:
"The sweet uses of adversity,

ugly and venomous like the toad,
yet wears a precious jewel in his head."

- "Venomous like a..."
- "Ugly and venomous like a toad,

yet wears a precious jewel in his head."

How many fight promoters
have even tried one line of Shakespeare?

He had a whole raft of them.

I can relate to the denial
that they have to be confronted with.

I can relate to the rat-infested hovels,

the substandard tenements,
the overcrowded tenements.

I can relate to these things
because I've been a part of them.

I know about roaches, about rats,
so when he started talkin' to me about it,

I can understand him
and he can understand me.

You understand? So it's a big difference.

So when I do the thing he can understand,
so now he will believe in me

because he feels that he has...
I have shared with him

the same anguish and anxiety,
the same pain that he has felt.

Big difference.

What would happen if you took
an enormous... not an enormous,

but a small part of the vast sums of money
that'll be made out of the fight

and put it into something that was...

that would help a number of people
rather than a few?

This is what my dream and desire is,

and I feel that I would need...

white counterparts to do this here.

I would say, let me engender

a large amount of money, if it's possible,

and then don't let this money
just be sitting there

so that it would wither away
and just die, but put it into the sun,

so it could be exposed,
so it could germinate, blossom and grow.

He's really quite a remarkable man.

Don King is one of the brightest people
I've ever met,

he's one of the most charismatic people
I've ever met,

he's one of the hardest working people
I've ever met.

He is also totally amoral,

and I can't think of a man
who has done more

to demoralize fighters,

exploit from fighters,

and ruin fighters' careers than Don King.

But you have to give him his due
for what he did

to make Muhammad Ali
versus George Foreman in Zaire.

And nobody does anything for nothing.

You understand that?

Fight or no fight,
what business are we in?

- We're in the music business.
- I was starting to wonder, man.

Because I feel like
we're in the fight business these days.

♪ Ah, do it to death ♪

- ♪ My body ♪
- ♪ Your body ♪

♪ My body ♪

♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪

♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪

♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪

♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪

♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪

- ♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪
- ♪ Pick 'em up! ♪

♪ We gotta take you higher ♪

♪ Whoo ♪

♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪

♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪

♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪

- ♪ We're gonna have a funky good time ♪
- ♪ Pick 'em up! ♪

♪ We gotta take you higher ♪

- I'm gonna play me some soul music, man.
- Right. Come on.

The Spinners... to James Brown.

- ♪ Make me high ♪
- ♪ Make me high ♪

- ♪ A natural high ♪
- ♪ Pick 'em up ♪

- ♪ A ghetto high ♪
- Ali, bomaye!

- ♪ An African high ♪
- ♪ Pick 'em up ♪

- ♪ Downright high ♪
- ♪ Pick 'em up ♪

- ♪ Everybody high ♪
- ♪ Pick 'em up ♪

- ♪ Need to get high, down high ♪
- ♪ Pick 'em up ♪

I think I'm ready. I am ready.

- ♪ Bad! ♪
- ♪ Bad! ♪

Sucker, you ain't nothin'.

You're too ugly to represent
us colored folks.

These Africans make all of us ugly.

Sucker, look at you.

You out, sucker.

Bomaye. Bomaye.

- Ali, bomaye!
- Ali, bomaye!

Ali, bomaye!

- Ali, bomaye!
- That mean "kill him."

When I'm walking
down the street, the kids follow me,

screaming,
"George Foreman, bumba yu"...

Uh, bomaye, yeah.

And, uh, that hasn't...
I don't think that's so nice to me.

You know, I'd like, if they have any, uh,

anything to say about me,
they can say, you know,

"George Foreman loves Africa"

or "George Foreman loves being here."

Not "George Foreman, kill him."
I don't like that.

- Bomaye!
- Bomaye!

- George Foreman.
- Bomaye! Bomaye!

- That sucker. There he is.
- Bomaye. Bomaye.

You ain't no champ, sucker.
You wasn't nothing!

Even they understand English.

We were all for Muhammad Ali.

Foreman? We didn't know him.

Foreman said, "Why?

I'm black, blacker than Muhammad Ali.

Why all this bias?"

Yes, Muhammad Ali, he was lighter,

but he was a real person.

He was genuine.

Muhammad Ali could have been
even lighter-skinned than he was,

but for us,
he was defending the good cause,

for Africans and the whole world.

Watch this. Seven punches.

I'm gonna fight for the prestige,

not for me
but to uplift my little brothers

who are sleeping
on concrete floors today in America.

Black people who are living on welfare,
black people who can't eat,

black people who don't know
no knowledge of themselves,

black people who don't have no future.

I want to win my title
and walk down the alleys,

sit on the garbage can
with the wine-heads.

I want to walk down the street with
the dope addicts, talk to the prostitutes.

So I can help a lot of people.

I can show 'em films,
I can take this documentary,

I can take movies and help uplift
my people in Louisville, Kentucky;

Indianapolis, Indiana; Cincinnati, Ohio.

I can go throughout Tennessee
and Florida and Mississippi

and show black Africans in them countries
who didn't know this was their country,

"You look like people in Mississippi,
in Alabama, in Georgia.

They're your brothers,
but they never knew you was over here,

and you don't know much about them."

God is blessing me,
as an accident through boxing,

to help get to all these people
and show them films I haven't seen!

I know they haven't seen 'em.
I'm worldly, and I haven't seem 'em!

Now I can get all these films.
You governments can let me take pictures.

You can let me do things,
and I can take all this back to America!

But... it's good to be a winner.
All I've got to do is whup George Foreman.

And I realize how unfortunate
and how uncomfortable it is

for some of you guys
to have traveled so far

and expecting so much
and getting so little.

George Foreman was a phenomenon.

He was almost like a physical guru.

He almost never said anything,
but when he did, it was arresting.

You never quite knew
what he was talking about.

It might be deep.
It might be non-responsive.

He was negritude.
He was this huge black force.

And because of this, I had expected
Muhammad Ali to be here today.

I was gonna immediately jump
and hit him in his mouth

to give you some form of entertainment.

Now when I go in the ring,
you see what kind of mind I got now?

Oh! Oh!

I just got to pound now.
I mean, I've got to pound it.

I'm not gonna even realize until after.

I might look at his face, say,
"How did I do that?"

Allah, God. I'm his tool.

God got in me on purpose.
This is for my people.

This man look slow. God has made
this man look like a little kid.

A so-called right hand ain't nothing now.
I don't even feel 'em.

I ain't got no fear of it.
I walk right in. I'm gonna take my shots.

Because I got God in my mind.
I'm thinking of my people being free.

And I can help with just one fight.

Now he look little in comparison to what
I'm getting from it. He ain't nothin' now.

But if I think about me, just me, and...

George Foreman knocked out
Joe Frazier like he was God.

George Foreman knocked out Ken Norton.

And the white press, the power structure,
rank me to get tired in five or six.

Then I go in like Norton
and the rest of 'em and get scared.

But I'm not looking at the world and what
they say. My God controls the universe.

I was very interested
in people called féticheurs.

They are witches,

soothsayers,

and in Western Africa,
almost everybody has one.

Like a witch doctor, and you go
the way we would go to a dentist.

Muhammad Ali had been
to Mobutu's féticheur.

And, uh...

he had said that...

the féticheur had said
that a woman with trembling hands

would somehow get to Foreman.

A succubus.

And that impressed me enormously.

That's the way I confuse that sucker!

The heavyweight championship does produce

an excitement in the onlookers

that's unlike almost any other spectacle.

It's almost physically unendurable

to wait for that bell to ring
for the first round.

In 1974 in Zaire,

the fight started at 4:00 in the morning,

in order that it could be shown
on television in America

at a reasonable hour like 10:00.

Before the fight,
I saw a scene that was incomparable.

Ali's dressing room was like a morgue.

It was like The Last Supper.

And at a certain point, Ali said...

"Why is everyone...

so unhappy?

What is the matter with all of you?"

The sense was,
was that we were watching a man

who was going out to be...

going out to the gallows.

Because they all believed
that he was gonna get defeated,

and they were terrified.

They thought that, with his pride,

he would take one of the world's
worst beatings ever,

and he wouldn't give up, and he was
gonna be destroyed in that ring.

Killed or maimed, or they knew not what.
But they were deeply frightened now.

It was as if they were taking
whatever fear Ali might have had

before this enormous confrontation,
and they were absorbing it.

So after a while,
he looked at Bundini and said,

"We're gonna dance tonight, aren't we?
We're gonna dance."

When they said, "You're gonna dance,"
he said, "I'm gonna dance."

Muhammad Ali was so funny, gracious,
repeating this.

"What am I gonna do?"
And they said, "You're gonna dance!"

He said, "Yes! I'm gonna dance and dance!

And that man's gonna be bewildered!
I'm gonna dance and dance!"

And they said, "You're gonna dance!"
And I swear they were all crying.

And he built them up to a degree

so that for him
they became half-happy.

And here comes
the Ali people out of the dressing room,

and all of the questions will be answered.

This is an awesome power of George Foreman

against the venerated boxing skills
of Muhammad Ali.

It's age against youth.

The experience of Muhammad Ali
against the youth

and brute force and blinding speed.

You can hear the band beginning to
strike up in the background

as Ali moves to the ring.

This is what Muhammad Ali lives for.
This is the man's life.

This may be an historic event,

Muhammad Ali coming
into the boxing ring for the last time.

Should Muhammad Ali retire, this will be,

what you're seeing now,
a very historic event.

Now here comes the heavyweight champion
of the world, George Foreman,

jogging out.

George Foreman,
decked out in his red robe,

coming in with his people.

No one in the press ever saw Mobutu,

and he didn't come to the fight.

He watched the fight on closed-circuit.

It was the only closed-circuit in Zaire,
and it was in his palace.

He was terribly afraid of assassination,
I think.

Now, this stadium
was a true arena for gladiators.

Its floor, the floor you could not see
beneath the floor,

was covered with blood.

That blood had been washed away,

but the effect of the blood
was still there as part of the atmosphere.

There was a lot of talk
about the possibility of rain.

I don't think the weather could be
any more beautiful than it is tonight.

And Ali is getting the people to chant,
"Ali, bomaye."

That means "Ali, kill him."

The atmosphere before
the bell rang, before that first round,

was as intense as any I ever recall.

Look at this now, as they stare.

Muhammad Ali beginning to talk
to George Foreman.

They're really putting the stare
on each other.

George Foreman has that serious look.
Ali definitely talking to him.

Look at the stare on George Foreman.
Look at Ali give him the word.

So the stage is set.
We're just about ready to begin round one.

This time, the championship is at stake,

and $5 million will be paid
to both fighters.

Ali ready, Foreman ready.

We're waiting for the opening bell.

Here we go. Ali quickly across the ring.

Round one. Ali bouncing around,
shifting left to right.

George moves slow.
Ali gets the first punch in.

A light right hand taken on the forehead
by George Foreman, the champion.

Foreman moving slow,
trying to stalk his man.

Ali looks like he's ready to go here.

He's not staying away.
He's going after his man.

Foreman a bit cautious in the first round,

looking to drop that left hook.

Foreman's locked his man
to the far corner.

There's that left uppercut
and jab to the body of Muhammad Ali.

Ali tries to hang on
to the head of George Foreman.

Foreman dances now.
Ali with a right-hand lead again!

Has Foreman slightly confused
with that right-hand lead,

which I haven't seen
too many times before.

A right-hand lead, which means that
you throw your right without countering...

You throw it first, like a jab,
but you throw it like... there...

that has to travel that extra distance
across the shoulders.

Professionals will very rarely use
a right-hand lead

'cause it's a terribly dangerous punch
to throw,

since you are open to a counter
with a left hook.

And fighters, since they work
in milliseconds,

can see a right coming
much faster than a jab.

Nobody had thrown a right-hand lead
at Foreman in two years,

and in training camp
none of his sparring partners,

for $50 a day, was gonna start
throwing right-hand leads at him

because it's a great insult
to a top professional

when you throw a right-hand lead at him.

It suggests he's slow enough
that you can hit him with it.

And instead Ali figured out

the one punch Foreman's not prepared for
is a right-hand lead.

"He's expecting me to dance.
I'm not gonna dance.

I'm gonna hit him with a right hand,
knock him out in the first round."

Ali threw 12 right-hand leads.

I don't think he had told anyone
he was gonna do it.

He may have debated about whether he was
going to do it up till the last moment.

The only thing is, he didn't knock
Foreman down and didn't knock him out.

Instead, Foreman went crazy.

That punch
did no damage. That one did!

Two wild right hands taken
on the side of the head of Muhammad Ali!

There's a real strong right hand
just underneath the heart.

And Muhammad Ali
is taking some punishment now.

About eight seconds left in the round.

Bell rang.

Ali went back to the corner.

Finally, the nightmare
he'd been awaiting in the ring

had finally come to visit him.

He was in the ring
with a man he could not dominate,

who was stronger than him,
who was not afraid of him,

who was gonna try to knock him out,

and who punched harder
than Ali could punch,

and this man was determined
and unstoppable.

And Ali had a look on his face
that I'll never forget.

It's the only time
I ever saw fear in Ali's eyes.

Ali looked as if
he looked into himself and said,

"All right, this is the moment.
This is what you've been waiting for.

This is... that hour.

And do you have the guts?"
And he kind of nodded to himself, like,

"Got to get it together, boy.
You really got to get it together.

And you are gonna get it together.

You will get it together."

He nodded some more,

as if he were looking
into the eyes of his maker,

and then turned to the crowd,
and he went,

"Ali, bomaye!"

And a hundred thousand people
all yelled back "Ali, bomaye!"

And this huge reverberation of the crowd
came back into the ring,

and Ali picked it up almost as if,
"These are my people.

This is what I'm here for.

All right. The time has come.
I'm gonna find a way to master this man."

Ali tries to tie him up.

No real damage done in that exchange.

Foreman, like everyone else,
had assumed that Ali would dance,

and so Ali now went to the ropes

and went into the rope-a-dope.

And a lot of people thought
at that moment the fight was over.

Especially on television,
where they saw it,

because it looked like Foreman
was now killing a very weak Ali.

You don't go to the ropes.

And there he was, leaning way back.

I wrote about it as if...
I think the phrase I used was,

"It was like a man leaning out a window

trying to see
if there's something on his roof."

And, you know...
But you couldn't really see.

Here were these great broadsides
going at him,

and it looked as though
he was being set up for the kill.

It happened so quickly and so abruptly

that I said, I shouted to Norman,
"The fix is in."

That somehow he's supposed to go down
in the first or the second.

Ropes is halfway house to the floor.

It just looked as though
he had to cave in.

...awkward
but very powerful hooks with both hands.

Left hooks in what would really be...

They became so basic at that point

that they were like two kids
having a fight.

And for that round and for the next round
and for the next round,

Ali lay against the ropes
in the rope-a-dope,

and he kept talking to Foreman,
and it was extraordinary.

You had to be close to see it,
'cause it was intimate.

And Foreman was throwing
these prodigious punches

that the sparring partners had thrown,
and Ali swung like a man in the rigging.

He'd go all the way back, slide out,
come in and out like that.

Occasionally he'd get hit, and he'd say,
"George, you disappoint me.

You don't hit as hard
as I thought you would.

George, you're not hitting hard enough.

You're not breaking popcorn, George.
You're just not hitting."

And Foreman's insane with rage

and wanging at him and wanging at him
and wanging at him.

Powerful, powerful, powerful.

And middle of the fifth round,
Foreman was worn out.

He had punched himself out.
It had taken three rounds.

Ali picks it up a bit.
About 40 seconds left in round five.

Good, crisp combination by Ali

lands on the head of Foreman.

Foreman with that right hook.

Ali scores a hook!
Quick jab with the right backs up Foreman!

Backs him up in his tracks!
Foreman's stunned here!

Foreman tries the hook!
Ali goes to the right!

Foreman gets knocked to the left!

Foreman hit again!
Foreman has been hit three or four times!

Suddenly Muhammad Ali came off the ropes,
and he hit him a right,

and you could see the sweat just pour off,

just like a fountain,
come off Foreman's face,

and you suddenly realized
there was design in this madness.

I then turned to Norman, I remember,
and he must've been somewhat puzzled,

but I said, "The succubus has got him,"

referring back to this woman
with the trembling hands

that I'd been told by the witch doctors

was going to touch Foreman
and destroy him.

This could be the tactics of Ali,

to let the man punch himself out.

Thirty seconds left in round eight.

A very even fight.
Ali, a sneaky right hand.

Another sneaky right hand.

This time he works
over the shoulder of Foreman.

This is the combination!

Two, three,

four, five, six!

Foreman gets up to the knee at eight!

That's it! The fight is stopped!

Muhammad Ali,
a dramatic eighth-round knockout!

He knocks out...

George Foreman!

He's done it!

Muhammad Ali has done it!
Muhammad Ali has done it!

Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali,
he was like a sleeping elephant.

You can do whatever you want
around a sleeping elephant.

Whatever you want.

But when he wakes up,

he tramples everything.

Muhammad Ali, bomaye.

Bomaye. Muhammad Ali bomaye
George Foreman.

He did it.

He's champion again.
We couldn't believe it.

It was such a classic performance,
and so beautiful,

that at the moment
Ali hit the knockout punch...

Foreman began to go,
Ali followed him around.

Ali had his right cocked for
one more punch, but he never threw it.

He didn't want to ruin the aesthetic
of this man going down

with a clumsy punch on the way down.

I think one has mixed emotions
when you see the end of a fight.

I always feel enormous sympathy
for the man that's losing it.

You just can't help but to,

particularly when you see
really a titanic, formidable figure

just suddenly on the ground.

And now,
when we see George on television...

and know that after that knockout,

he went through two years
of the deepest depression,

he almost didn't come out of it.

To see the man who's come out of it,
to see the way in which

he reconstructed his personality,

until it'll be hard-put to find
anyone in American life

who's more affable than George Foreman.

Foreman has become
a fabulous person in American life.

Just as the fight finished,
the monsoons, the African rains, came,

and in fact they came so hard
that the waters

were about three feet deep
in the dressing rooms,

where we'd just been,
you know, an hour ago.

You've never seen such a downpour.

And we rode back through the African night
from the boxing ring into Kinshasa,

and there were crowds along the road

standing in the rain,
in this pouring rain, leaping up and down,

because of course the news had gone around
that Muhammad Ali had won this fight.

He stayed up all night,
from what I heard,

and in the morning
he spoke to African groups

who'd come as delegations to see him.

And they more than revered him.
He was a god.

And he spoke to them very simply
that day, and beautifully,

and he said,
"Afro-Americans, in America,

we're not as good as you are.

Some of us are richer than you are,

but you have a dignity in your poverty
that we don't have.

We are spoiled in America.

We have lost what you still have
in Africa, and you must keep that."

And he spoke very gently. And I thought,

"My Lord, on top of everything else,
this man is a political leader,

and he's gonna be
a great political leader."

I have a lot of things to do
in the black neighborhoods.

We have a lot of problems
that we have to solve among ourselves.

Prostitution problems,
dope problems, gang-fight problems.

Knowledge of self. The black people
don't have no knowledge of themselves.

We have been made
just like white people mentally.

And white people have made us
so much like them

until it's hard to teach them
anything about themselves.

It's hard to teach them to unite
and marry and be with their own

because they're now like white people...
black people are now like white people.

But they're so brainwashed
that we have to re-brainwash 'em now

and teach 'em more about themselves
and their own history,

their own names, their own language,
to respect and protect their own women,

do something for themselves

and quit always begging white people
for things they should do for themselves.

I never heard Ali say
that he was never gonna fight again.

Uh...

if he had said it, and usually he told
the truth, I wouldn't have believed it.

He was born to fight,
born for the ring, and loved it.

He truly loved fighting. And, uh...

as happens with people who love
a thing too much, it destroys them.

I think it was Oscar Wilde that said,
"You destroy the thing that you love."

It's the other way around.
What you love destroys you.

He came back. He had 22 fights.

Some of them were most honorable.
Some were very difficult.

Some of them were comedies and farces.

He hurt himself in those 22 fights
after the fight in Africa.

There's a tendency
to look at Muhammad and say,

"He's wounded. He's ill."

There are no intellectual deficits.
It's a motor-skills problem.

And he doesn't try to hide his condition.

He goes out
and lets the whole world see it.

He doesn't feel sorry for himself,

and there's really no reason
for anybody else to feel sorry for him.

He loves being Muhammad Ali.

He truly believes
that he's doing God's work,

and he's as happy with each day
as anybody I know.

Today's young generation,
they don't know anything.

Something happened last year,
they know nothing about it.

So there are these great, great stories,
great historic events,

and I'm not talking about 1850s stuff.

They don't know who Malcolm X is.
They don't know who JFK is.

Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson,
you can go down the line.

And-And it's scary.

These kids today
will be missing a whole lot

if they don't know about
the legacy of Muhammad Ali,

because no matter what era you live in,

you see very few true heroes.

Ali, bomaye! Ali, bomaye!

Ali, bomaye! Ali, bomaye!

Back up, sucker. Back up.

Come get me, sucker. I'm dancin'!

I'm dancin'! Follow me, chump!

No, I'm not there, I'm here. Whoop!

Sucker, you ain't got nothing!

♪ In every heart ♪

♪ There is a drum that beats ♪

♪ Steady and strong ♪

♪ It does not know defeat ♪

♪ I feel its power ♪

♪ And know for certain ♪

♪ The true belief ♪

♪ In every soul ♪

♪ There is a memory ♪

♪ Of standing tall ♪

♪ The proudest we could be ♪

♪ I cannot fall ♪

♪ For I recall ♪

♪ We were born in majesty ♪

♪ And when the long night ♪

♪ Has been fought and won ♪

♪ We'll stand in the sun ♪

♪ And we will raise our hands ♪

♪ And we will touch the sky ♪

♪ Together we will dance ♪

♪ In robes of gold ♪

♪ And we will leave the world ♪

♪ Remembering ♪

♪ When we were kings ♪

♪ When we were kings ♪

♪ Now is the time ♪

♪ Here is the mountaintop ♪

♪ When one man climbs ♪

♪ The rest are lifted up ♪

♪ With every step ♪

♪ We're closer yet ♪

♪ To a higher destiny ♪

♪ And when we reach up ♪

♪ To claim the throne ♪

♪ Every man will know ♪

- ♪ We will raise our hands ♪
- ♪ We will raise our hands ♪

- ♪ And we'll touch the sky ♪
- ♪ And we will touch the sky ♪

♪ Together we will dance ♪

- ♪ In robes of gold ♪
- ♪ In robes of gold ♪

♪ And we will leave the world ♪

♪ Remembering ♪

♪ When we were kings ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ When we were kings ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

- ♪ When we were kings ♪
- ♪ Float like a butterfly ♪

- ♪ Sting like a bee ♪
- ♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Float like a butterfly ♪

♪ I remember ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

Years after the fight in Zaire,
perhaps ten years after...

and I'd run into Ali
on occasion after that,

but I remember this meeting particularly.

'Cause Esquire was giving a party
for various people

who had distinguished themselves in
Esquire that year in one way or another.

Ali, for whatever he'd done.

I was there probably 'cause I had
a good story in Esquire that year.

Other people were there,
maybe 25 of us, honored guests.

I was there with my wife, and we saw Ali,
and we were talking with him,

and he couldn't have been nicer,
more complimentary.

I remember I was 62 at the time,
'cause he said, "How old are you now?"

I said "62." He said "Oh."

It was the same as when
we were running, jogging that night.

He said, "Oh, I hope I'm as young
as you are when I'm 62.

You are looking wonderful."
He went on and on like that.

And I got so pleased and so vain
that, you know, I'm like a dog.

What did I have to do?
I had to go urinate.

And I did. I went away,
and the moment I was gone,

he turned to my wife,
who's much younger than I am,

and he looked at her,
looked at her hard, and he said,

"You still with that old man?"

And for me that's always been...
That's Ali.

You love him even when
you turn your back on him.

I heard him once talking to the Harvard
senior class commencement.

He gave this extraordinary speech.
You know, he was dyslexic.

And he would look at a paper with me,
and he'd say,

"Hey, George, what's this word?"
I'd say, "Appendicitis."

He'd say, "How do you get a word
like 'appendicitis'? It's so long.

It's so long."

Here he was, teaching...
uh, delivering a lecture,

senior class day for these thousand,
2,000 Harvard graduates...

and, um, he had these little cards
in front of him.

He gave this wonderful speech about,
he hadn't had opportunity, but they had,

and they should use that language,
that learning that they had

to go out and do their best to change
the world and make it a better place.

It was moving and it was funny
at the same time,

and a great roar of appreciation
at the end of it, and then...

someone shouted out, "Give us a poem!"

And everybody quieted down.

The shortest poem in the English language,
according to Bartlett's Quotations, is...

it's called
"On the Antiquity of Microbes."

And the poem is, "Adam had 'em."

It's pretty short.

But Muhammad Ali's poem was,

"Me, we."

Two words. I wrote Bartlett's Quotations,
and I said,

"Look here. That's shorter than
'Adam had 'em.' You want to put it in?"

And it stands for something more
than the poem itself.

"Me, we." What a fighter he was.
And what a man.

I want to win my title
and walk down the alleys.

- ♪ Refugee cat ♪
- ♪ Blocks on fire ♪

- ♪ Ali, bomaye ♪
- ♪ Flames gettin' higher ♪

- ♪ Yes, yes, called rumble in the jungle ♪
- ♪ Robbin' blue collar ♪

♪ Killin' for a dollar ♪

♪ We need a ghetto messiah ♪

♪ Come on ♪

♪ Root to the fruit
More bass than Bootsy Collins ♪

♪ You versus me
That's like Ali versus Foreman ♪

♪ God's act, stand back and watch ♪

♪ Devil's time-out can't be timed
With no Swatch watch ♪

♪ Who I am, the black Abraham ♪

♪ Zunga zunga zang
Yellow man, Vietnam ♪

♪ Add an extra bar
As I spar with literature ♪

♪ Taking kingdoms from czars
Winning more wars than the Moors ♪

♪ Hey, what's the deal, star?
I seen the devil spar with Allah ♪

♪ Mathematics was the key
To set my whole race free ♪

♪ You might debate we
A refugee, no harm hurt me ♪

♪ Dying, thirsty from the struggle
To my own hustle bubble ♪

♪ On the low, woe is me
To show the Free Bob right ♪

♪ The righteous Asiatic thinker
While Satan rob light ♪

♪ Civilized like the Mali
Burgundy, wildly rocking ♪

♪ Seen the fifth when Ali clocked him
John Forte will keep you locked in ♪

♪ People all around
You got to recognize and witness ♪

♪ This mister who swift enough
To knock you out with mic fitness ♪

♪ Hands blistered
From holding the mics tight ♪

♪ Some say it's fight night ♪

♪ Well, throw the R after the F
'Cause I'm-a take away your breath ♪

♪ The bell rings
And now it's just a daily operation ♪

♪ Yo, you soft like lubrication ♪

- ♪ You can't see this occupation ♪
- ♪ The winner ♪

♪ Yeah you know
We're here from Q-borough ♪

♪ L-Boogs and Clef the trainers
Prazwell promotes the thorough ♪

♪ We used to bite the bullets
With the pigskin cases ♪

♪ Now we perfect slang
Like a gang of street masons ♪

♪ Scribe checks make connects
True pyramid architects ♪

♪ Replace the last name with the X ♪

♪ The man's got a God complex
But take the text, change the picture ♪

♪ Watch Muhammad play the messenger
Like holy Muslim scripture ♪

♪ Take orders from only God
Only war when it's jihad ♪

♪ See, Ali appears in Zaire
To reconnect 400 years ♪

♪ So we the people, dark but equal
Give love to such things ♪

♪ To the man who made the fam
Remember when we were kings ♪

- ♪ Blocks on fire ♪
- ♪ Blocks on fire tonight ♪

♪ Flames getting higher ♪

- ♪ Robbin' blue collar ♪
- ♪ Hey, yo, we rob them blue collars ♪

- ♪ Killin' for a dollar ♪
- ♪ Stick 'em up ♪

- ♪ See youths get tired ♪
- ♪ Sucker, you ain't nothin' ♪

- ♪ Dealin' with them liars ♪
- ♪ We dealin' with them many liars ♪

♪ From Brooklyn to Zaire ♪

- ♪ We need a ghetto messiah ♪
- ♪ Come on ♪

♪ Send me an angel
In the morning, baby ♪

♪ Send me an angel
In the morning, darling ♪

♪ Send me Muhammad
In the morning, baby ♪

♪ Send me an angel
In the morning, darling ♪

♪ Once the pen hits the pad, it's danger ♪

♪ To this I'll be no stranger ♪

♪ Step inside the ring
And I'll derange you ♪

♪ I'm hearing no comments
Everyone looks despondent ♪

♪ Dejected, rejected
Similar to Liston catching licks ♪

♪ Beat it, Sonny, my man
Is still the greatest in history ♪

♪ To hell with Frazier
Yapping about that negative shit ♪

♪ Now, listen, you can try
And escape if you want to ♪

♪ But ask yourself
Who the hell you gonna run to? ♪

♪ Like Sade Adu
You got a punch that I can sleep to ♪

♪ Fugees, Tribe, Busta Rhymes
Forever coming through ♪

♪ You sing "Amazing Grace"
Over two-dollarplates ♪

♪ One roll, snake-eyes
Like Jake the Snake ♪

♪ Many lies, put up for stakes
Wash our sins at the Great Lakes ♪

♪ You and I cannot see eye to eye
So therefore we can't relate ♪

♪ I'm here
When I make myself crystal clear ♪

♪ You fled to Cape Fear
When I laced you up in Zaire ♪

♪ Tussle with a lasso
In the royal rumble ♪

♪ Separate boys from men
In the concrete jungle ♪

♪ I remember when Cassius Clay
Flipped the script ♪

♪ Taking trips to Zimbabwe ♪

♪ Africans started calling the God
Ali, bomaye! ♪

♪ So bright, it be the God stricken
God nutrition, lightly stricken ♪

♪ Blows that feel
Like you was poison bitten ♪

♪ Ha! Yo, I'm 'bout to blister
You and your sister ♪

♪ Predicting every ass-whipping
Before my fights, my nigga ♪

♪ This be your last warning
Once you walk right past the doorman ♪

♪ Ali and Foreman gon' lock ass
Until the morning ♪

♪ Mobs of finances
Provided by Joseph Mobutu ♪

♪ Special guests of honor
Like the Archbishop Desmond Tutu ♪

♪ We watched the Rumble in the Jungle ♪

♪ See who be the targeted uncle
To be the first to fall and fumble ♪

♪ 'Nuff blows they getting thrown
Like solid milestones ♪

♪ Internally shaking up niggas
Imbalance your chromosomes ♪

♪ With the force of a thousand warriors ♪

♪ When I bust your ass
Identify me as the lord victorious ♪

- ♪ Blocks on fire ♪
- ♪ You're a star ♪

- ♪ Flames getting higher ♪
- ♪ You're a star ♪

- ♪ Robbing blue collar ♪
- ♪ We robbin' blue collars ♪

♪ Killing for a dollar ♪

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