'That's what made him ... the greatest'

A fight and a friendship, and why it matters.

In 1974, Muhammad Ali fought George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) for the heavyweight championship of the world.

Sixty thousand people were in the stands. Nearly 1 billion people tuned in worldwide, largely on pay-per-view. The fight was at 4:30 a.m. local time, so people could watch during prime time in the United States, and it was the second-largest audience ever at the time, next to the Apollo 11 moon landing).

It truly was one of the biggest spectacles ever on television. The pre-fight show in Kinshasa was set to include James Brown, B.B. King, Bill Withers, and other big-time acts of the time. For context, this was during a time when the halftime act at the Super Bowl was still a college marching band.

(Asterisk, however: The music festival went as planned, but the fight itself was delayed due to Foreman having been cut during training, so it wasn’t actually all the same day.)

Now, I didn’t see this fight at the time. For one thing, I was 4 years old, and I doubt my parents would have considered it appropriate. Also, even with the time zone adjustment, I’m pretty sure it was past my bedtime.

But, I got into boxing for a while when I was more of a grownup, and of course I watched the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings. And, there’s something about it all that I think is suddenly relevant today.

Coming into the match, Foreman was the champion and heavily favored. Ali was a former champion, but he’d lost his titles during the four years that he’d been suspended from boxing while he refused to be drafted into the Vietnam War.

The two men were very antagonistic toward each other: tons of trash-talking.

Plus, as When We Were Kings shows, Ali did a masterful job of getting the people of Zaire and Africa writ large in his corner as the underdog, and making Foreman seem the villain.

Then, the fight itself was brutal. (It can be hard to watch today on video.)

Ultimately one of Ali’s tactics was to lean on the ropes while covering up his head and other vital areas, and let Foreman throw punch after punch that hit Ali in the arms or body. I’m sure this hurt like heck—literally hundreds of punches—but it also tired Foreman out without earning many points.

Ali later called this the “rope a dope” strategy. By the eighth round, Ali had the advantage, and he came back hard at Foreman, eventually knocking him down and winning the fight.

This is the moment that stands out, and frankly it’s why I’m writing about it more than 47 years later. It’s about the one additional punch Ali didn’t throw, when he saw Foreman was beaten.

I’ll let Foreman himself explain:

“Probably the best punch of the whole fight was never landed. Muhammad Ali, as I was going down - stumbling and trying to hold myself - he saw me stumbling.

Ordinarily, you finish your fighter off. I would have. He got ready to throw the right hand and he didn’t do it. That’s what made him, in my mind, the greatest fighter I ever fought.”

The images of this fight have stayed with me — well, maybe longer than is healthy.

(Actually, I remembered while writing this it was used as a metaphor during an episode of The West Wing.)

Regardless, it demonstrates something that’s missing in a lot of American life these days: the art of winning gracefully and literally not punching down—or really, throwing punches at all (literally or figuratively) without a really good reason.

Maybe you know what happened to both of these fighters afterward: In short, Ali won the crown and Foreman eventually retired.

But then, Foreman became a born-again Christian and a minister, and Ali—who was Muslim, of course—called him out of the blue to encourage him to fight again, in part because winning the championship once more would give him a much larger audience for his ministry.

I’m summing up a lot of this quickly, but Foreman did come back—and became the heavyweight champion once more at age 45. He and Ali became very close friends until Ali’s death in 2016.

I don’t know: Two men who fought a war of words before literally pummeling each other in front of the world’s biggest audience, and yet still found a way to become allies and friends when it was all over?

Seems like there’s a lesson in there worth remembering.

And much like Ali not throwing the punch, maybe I don’t have to keep going much more here to make the point.

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Other things:

• Attorney General Pam Bondi told Congress last week that the Justice Department has now released all files in its possession related to Jeffrey Epstein. But, a new investigation examining emails sent between federal investigators and prosecutors suggests the material made public amounts to just 2% of the data gathered by federal agents. (Mediaite, citing Britain’s Channel 4)

• Lawmakers and the White House offered no signs of compromise in their battle that has led to a pause in funding for the Department of Homeland Security. A partial government shutdown began Saturday; Democrats are demanding changes to how immigration operations are conducted after the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal officers in Minneapolis last month. (AP)

• Frustration, Despair Mount in Tucson Over Nancy Guthrie’s Disappearance: The desert city is on edge as the search enters its third week. (WSJ gift link)

• Three people, including the suspect, were fatally shot during a Pawtucket, R.I youth hockey game Monday. Three other victims are hospitalized in critical condition. “It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” said Tina Goncalves, chief of police. Goncalves did not provide details about the suspect or the ages of those who were killed, though she said it appeared that both victims were adults. (Yahoo News)

• Robert Duvall, who won an Oscar for “Tender Mercies” and was nominated for his roles in films including “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now,” and “The Great Santini,” has died. He was 95. Duvall’s death was announced on Facebook via a statement from his wife, Luciana Duvall. (Variety)

• The internet is so overrun with AI that anywhere you go, you run the risk of accidentally stepping into a puddle of slop. Now, there’s a new online term to call out AI slop so other people can avoid wasting their time with it: “AI;DR,” or “ai;dr,” short for “AI, didn’t read.” (Futurism)

• Should I Dress Like My Younger Co-Workers? Office attire has morphed significantly over the years. Our critic shares her thoughts on sticking to your style versus changing with the times. (NYT)

Thanks for reading. Today was a Low Power Mode edition due to travel; if you knew that already, you’re awesome and I love you. See you in the comments.