Do Go On - 34 - The Rumble in the Jungle

Episode Date: June 15, 2016

The build up to and the story of the biggest boxing match of all time. After refusing to be conscripted to the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali is stripped of his World Heavyweight title and forced from the sport for four years. Now Ali returns to the ring and is set to face the new champion, a much younger, much stronger boxer by the name of George Foreman. And the only person willing to put up the money for the fight? The crazy dictator of Zaire in Africa of course. Ali Bomaye! Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serengy Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. And welcome to Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and I am joined as always by two of the best chums in this room. It is Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. How do we feel about that?

Yeah, no, because it sounded, I felt warm-hearted early. Yeah. And then like, why did he... I wonder, it's one or two things. Either he just genuinely doesn't like us that much or he thought he opened his heart up a little too much. And then went, oh, no. I had to retreat. You mean nothing to me.

You can't get hurt if you don't let people in. That's my theory. Let us in, Dave. Let us in. Open up. And did you also like that I said, how do we feel? Yeah. I see you and I as a team?

We're a team. Whereas Dave, obviously. What am I? A coach. He's putting himself on the other side of the... I'm a coach. Well, you just bought yourself five minutes on the fucking bench. Yeah.

Matt, you're filling in. Oh, and see, as a team member, I'm happy for Matt. Hooray! Hey, fuck you, Jess. This is my time to shine. Woo! Okay. Well, well, I was...

I'm happy for you, but, okay, it seems excessive. Wow, tension early. Enjoy the, enjoy your time on the pine. Here I go. All right, what does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean in real terms now that I'm on the ground? Because I mean, Jess is still able to talk.

Should you turn her mic off while I'm on the field? No, don't turn my mic off. Guys, it's not a, we're not playing any kind of sport. Well, I'm very confused. And I'm very competitive. And I'm, Matt, I'm going to say something wildly inappropriate. I stop myself. Well done, Jessica.

Have a chocolate biscuit. Wow, that is a new thing for you. It's a new high for you. Yeah, thank you. Oh, I'm so curious as to what that could have been. Horny. Horny, okay. That is wild.

I'm competitive. You're horny. And what were you, Matt? Who cares? All I'm thinking about is, jeez, hornyness. Okay, well, let's move on from. Dave, I was back on the road, please. Hands at 10.

in two. You're driving this vehicle. I am driving while we do this show. It's very dangerous. Yeah, last time we were in bunk beds. Now we're driving. Well, we live in a camper van. It's pretty obvious.

Yeah, of course. I should have known. The Dogoon van. I'm feeling great. I've had a Twix for dinner. A chocolate. Which, I've never seen someone eat at Twix that way. You had, so Twix's come in two pieces.

So chocolate bar in two pieces. Two fingers, if you will. And you opened two packets of Twix and had one else. of each. Like the weirdest person in the world. It's so extravagant. It's like the most, you are like a rock star.

I would like to say that I heard that Twixis had been poisoned. I'm going to say it. But only one stick in each, so there's only 50% chance now that I will die. Okay. So I'm feeling pretty confident. A lot makes sense. Has that answered all of your questions?

Yeah, I think that's... Not raised any more issues. No, obviously you were keen on a Twix and the risk was well worth it. Exactly. I'm actually having... having a love affair with twigs at the moment. Just going through a phase. Oh, I used to be all about twirl.

Oh, my 12th, definitely the better. 12's my number one. And, but they were both the 99 cents today. And I ended up buying two twixers rather than one twigs and one twirl or two twirls. Interesting. Have you tried a mint twirl? Are you a fan of mint? I have.

It was pretty good, but not as good as a normal twirl. Sure, sure, sure, sure, agreed. I just wanted to know that you'd try to mint twirl. Do you got, did you get it? I'm ready to die now. I've tried to mint 12. I'm ready to die. Well, ready to die.

Well, I did eat the twill. So a twirl is a flake with a chocolate coating. It's coated. Do you guys remember timeouts, which were... Oh, they're still around? They had biscuit in the way. They were like a layer of wafer. They're like the poor man's twirl, in my opinion.

But aren't they? They are twirl with... What? There's a lot less chocolate and a lot more biscuit. I just had a lot of stroke. There's wafer in there, which is not... It gets in the way of... of the chocolate.

But flake is fun, but messy, whereas twirl with that chocolate can see. It's like all the joys of a flake without spilling it all over yourself. Uh-huh. This podcast, it's sponsored by Cadbury. It's interesting that... I would honestly take a box of chocolate. Oh, yeah. You get just a thick block of chocolate, the exact same chocolate,

and somehow that's less satisfying than one that's got air in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, Aero, airo, amazing. So bubbling. Nessley, see? Ah, there you go. In terms of fairness. I think we've gone both major parties now.

There we go. We've supported the troops of chocolate. But of course, lint is the best with sea salt. Dark chocolate with sea salt. Not a fan. Not a fan of lint. No, no. When I was in Europe, they had milk chocolate with sea salt.

And I looked everywhere and I could not get it in Australia. And then just as you said it then, I just got really excited because I'm going back to Europe and I'm just going to eat so much of it. Oh, my God. I'm going to come back 10 kilos heavier. Yay. Well worth it. So worth it.

Is that because you've strapped 10 kilos? of chocolate to your body and smuggled it in. That's probably a better idea than just eating. Cocaine. Yeah, no, I'll definitely bring me back cocaine. Yeah, but then sell that and buy a lot of chocolate. You can buy a lot of chocolate. Street value of a European chocolate in Australia is quite high.

Yeah, so you've got to plan ahead with the cocaine. Yeah. Cocaine's the middleman of this scenario. It's really about getting jest to chocolate. Comedy doesn't always pay, you know. Cocaine always pays. Crime always pays. Cocaine will never let you down, is what I'm saying.

If there's one thing we're going to, learn on this episode. It's that Dave's ready to die and cocaine always pays. So curious as to what your topic is. Yeah. It is nothing to do with drugs or chocolate. Well, I'm out. Is it out of the hat?

Look, okay. Oh, it's not. It's not. Apologies to the hat. You promised the hat. You promised the hat. But then, you'll understand, I've been toying with this topic for a long time. I saw an opening and I'm just like, I'm going for it.

An opening. I mean, every third episode, there's an opening. You can literally do anything you want. Once again, I knew I was going to eat two different Twixers. I thought there's a possibility this could be in my last ever episode. You've tried the mint whirl. You're ready to die. I'm ready to die.

There's an opening. I get it. All right. So do you have a question? All right. Have you said on the record, though, if you die what we do with the body, I forget. We're shooting you in a space with a packed asshole? No, no, no.

Well, that's option two. Option one is you buy a fresh crematorium that no one's... Oh, that's right. And make sure that you get all of me into the urn, so I don't have to share it with someone else forever. You were so freaked out by that. It still freaks me out. That whole episode freaked me out to be honest.

It's a really graphic episode. Go back. I think it's number nine or something. 10. Ten. Burial, cremation or other. It's my favorite episode. Really? Wow.

Yeah, I reckon it is. Thank you. I reckon it is. And now I've heard that I truly am ready to die. That's all you needed. You know, I'm a big DB Cooper fan. Another one of yours. No, actually, do you know what?

Dave, I reckon has had the best ones. Definitely. This is very inside baseball, man. No, but back to the future was great because... Let's go through all. Because of Dave. Well, it's episode 34. What better time that to celebrate the last 30 weeks of the show?

No, no, no. Okay, but Back to the Future, which was one of yours, Matt, was great, but it was great because of Dave doing his Sydney-Shaunberg impression. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. All right, let's get stuck into this one, then. If you haven't heard the show before... Dave was feeling pretty low before, if you guys didn't know before.

I was feeling a bit low and we're just pumping him up for a little. I appreciate it a lot. I'm feeling great now. I really am. If you haven't heard the show before, thank you for listening to all of that. Why? How tedious. We take it in terms of a report on a topic this week.

It is my turn. Our topic this week takes us, well, I actually thought it was going to be for the first time to Africa. But it isn't because we've been there for Egypt. So the first time to deep, deep darkness of Africa. to the heart. Okay. I wanted to say the heart of dark. The very famous Joseph Conrad,

novella. Anyway. Yeah, you're going. I'd read a book. I'm familiar with the book. One from the bookshop. The novella, the novella.

The novella. Okay. And I am going to... The one with that big African tree on the front cover. Stop licking your pen and noting things down. It's weird when you lick a pen. So our topic takes us to Africa for the second time. Possibly last.

Who knows? And I'm going to try a sport one. Yes. We've only done one sport before, I think. Yeah, we're going into this. No, Olympics. Oh, okay. Well, no, I was opening ceremony.

We'll talk to you more about Nikki Webster than any event. The question is, what, once again, at a very opinion-based one, what was heralded as one of the biggest sporting events of the 20th century? I know what this is going to be. In Africa. In Africa. Jess, we can never go with then Matt could go on to this. I definitely know what it is, and I know where you've picked it.

Great. So, Jess, you want to go from Matt and I are now on the same page, I think. No, I don't want. want to now because I'm scared. Is it a boxing match? It is a big, famous boxing match. I'm not 100% sure. Is it rumble in the jungle?

It is the rumble in the jungle. So at the time of recording, Muhammad Ali died two days ago. And this is a very, very famous boxing match, one of the most famous of all time. And I decided that I'd take the opportunity. Now it's very topical. Okay, cool. So that's what I saw the... I've been wanting to look into this for a long.

time. Yeah. And then it seems very apt to do it now. Okay, that's what you mean by there was an opening. There was an opening. You had to wait for Muhammad Ali to die, you monster. Well, I'd actually started researching one from the hat. So I'm going to come back to that next episode.

Unless another very famous person dies. In which case, we have to honour them a week later. Speaking of which, Matt, we were talking, well, you've done a whole episode about famous people dying this year when you heard the news of Muhammad Ali's passing. I mean, since then there's been a few. So it's like, oh man, it's like, because we were kind of joking that it was just, you know. Yes, maybe a coincidence. Yeah, coincidence.

But it's feeling more and more like this has been a big year for it. A crazy year for it, yeah. Well, we're going to try and honor the memory of the great Muhammad Ali with the story of the rumble in the jungle. And to get there, I have to take you back. I'm going to give some background on the players in this story. So, Muhammad Ali. Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born in Louisville, Kentucky on January the 17th, 1942.

Did you know that Haman Ali was called Cassius Clay? I did, yes. That was his slave name. Well, he was named after his father, that's why he's a junior, who himself was named after a Kentucky politician who worked for the abolition of slavery. So he was a white guy, but he was the ambassador to Russia under Abraham Lincoln, the guy that fought for the abolition of slavery.

but I will say that the original Cassius Marcellus Clay owned slave. So he is kind of a... I can understand why he would call it his slave name. But Cassius Marcellus Clay grew up in the American South in a time of segregated public facilities. His father supported a wife and two sons by painting billboards and signs.

His dad's a billboard guy. Clay, I'm going to keep calling that until he changed his name, Clay started boxing when he was just 12 years old. one day he went out on his bike and when he came back he found that it had been stolen he started crying and when a police officer asked him

what was going on a guy called Joe Martin he told the police officer that he wanted to whoop the thief Officer Martin told him he better learn to box before he can do that and offered to teach him

I'll be a teacher That seems weird and then for the next six years he trained him up from the ages of 12 to 18 What? He had a I will say he had experience as a boxing coach

Of young boys in the area Right Probably young children Young children in the area It would have been boys Young boys in the area It just sounded seedy It's not.

It would have been boys Like it wouldn't have been girls Let's not kid ourselves Yeah we're talking about late 1940s I guess Girls hadn't been invented yet Well The first fact of the episode

Huh Girls are not invented yet Interesting Clay began training at Columbia Gym Which was racially integrated unlike many other Louisville boxing gyms of that period. He trained and entered the amateur boxing circuit that year when he was just 12. And over the next six years he trained up.

And in 1960, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Rome Olympics. What? It's pretty good. Because boxing at the Olympics is considered amateur boxing. So it's not like... And that's still to this day? Yeah, still to this day. So they have like...

Because it used to be all the sports were like that, I think. But then it's weird that some of them have remained and some of them have them. So now like the NBA and tennis and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's the same people you see play every week. Yeah. Just play for their country.

But yeah, in boxing, and they have shorter rounds. And it's more, it's less about knocking the other person out and it's more about points. Yeah. So you don't have to try and smash him in the face. It's more like, I punched you on the chest 11 times, so I get 11 points. Stuff like that. Wow. I didn't know that.

No, I didn't know either. But there, like, there are points in the other ones as well, right? Yeah. Yeah, so a boxing match works, they usually have like 12 rounds. But that sometimes changes. But if no one knocks the other person out or concedes, then they get to the end and there's three referees, like judges. And you get a point for each round you win and whoever's won the most of the 12 rounds.

Right. I find it pretty interesting. Wins by a decision, that's called. Wow. I watched the boxing match last year with Rob Hunter, who's a big boxing fan. And watching it, he was like scoring it himself. Oh, so he was actually scoring, saying who won each round. Yeah, and I found it's so much more interesting to watch it when you're watching with someone who knows what's going on.

I also would not have picked Rob Hunter to be a boxing fan. So, Rob Hunter is a friend of ours and a Melbourne comedian. I didn't know he was into boxing. No, I wouldn't have picked it. Yeah, well, yeah, I think he's quite a big fan. Obviously, if he's scoring, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I was just like, oh, that's just like a whole other element to it. Like, I'd seen the, you know, when Danny Green fought against Anthony Mundine, I went and watched that with some mates and they're just like, yeah, hit him, hit him. Fuck him up. But then watching it with people like, ooh, that was an interesting combination and that's worth this many points and stuff like, oh, okay. That's interesting. That's a whole other kind of. It is cool when you watch when people know my housemates are really into surfing. I've never watched surfing before.

He streams it live. from Hawaii and then you're watching it and he'll predict the score and it's nearly always right. Because it's a similar thing right? It's with the, it's points. Points, yeah.

And it's both of those are kind of like it's up to a panel of judges. Yeah, so surfing is much like gymnastics where people give him a score. So yeah, it's not like high jump where it's like this guy definitely jumped higher.

You're definitely the winner. And then they have unanimous decisions where all three of them go, yeah, yeah, Muhammad Ali definitely won, but then they have like split decisions where two pick, one and one. That's always controversial. Right.

Interesting. Right. So, Muhammad Ali, well, Cassius Clay is just at 18 years old. He's got a gold medal. By the way, both names are so good. Cassius, Clay and Muhammad Ali. Oh, how good are they? Yeah, great names. Man, I love it. I mean, it's no Jess Perkins, but yeah, nice try. Top three names I've ever heard. Thank you, Dave. Matt? That face says otherwise, which is interesting.

Top eight. Top eight? Top eight. Top eight. With Tom. Good old Tom. Ali would later claim in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics,

he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a restaurant. People wouldn't serve them because they were black. But this has been contested, and the story repeated in many different ways over time. Some people say he just lost it. But anyway, in 1996... It's a great story.

At the Atlanta Olympics, they gave him a new gold medal. Oh, wow. When I say I love that story, I love the throwing of it into the river. You don't love the... Not the getting refused service part. Okay, mate. I swear. Okay, mate.

Yeah, right, mate. You guys agree with me? It's a unanimous. D-unanimous. That's a two-one. Clay, as he was still known at the time, then turned professional and won his first match in 1960. So just 18. From then until the end of

1963, Clay a master record of 190. So he won all of his matches with 15 wins by knockout. What's that good? So that's four by decision. So that's 19 out of 19 wins. He never lost. Yeah, right. Is that helping you figure it out?

No, I'm just double... But yeah, I get it. But is that... Would you say it's like, is that good or is that really good? That's 100%. Yeah, and look, I get the maths. I want to know. Is that like a good...

Is that, would he say that he's happy with how the career is progressing at this stage? I mean, stop telling me the number, I've heard the numbers. Yes. Well, he is very, despite his success. What, Dave? Doesn't necessarily agree. What do you think? I think that he was very happy with himself.

Okay. All right. Now that we're all on the same page. But not everyone was happy with him. Ah, Jess. Yeah, so maybe someone else thought maybe 181 would have been better. You're a dickhead. Well, despite his success,

in his earlyabouts as a pro, Clay was more highly regarded for his charm and personality than for his ring skills. Much like Matt with his comedy. It's like, well, he's not that funny. But off-state, he's very funny. That's the thing about it. He's quite nice, I guess.

When does the mics go on? I go off. How come the cause? Much like Matt, opinion on Clay was devised. And he infuriated devotees of the sport as much as he impressed them. So some people were all for his charm and other people are like he's just a shit-talking kid. He would spout poetry and trash talk all his opponents before and after his matches. Which, it's really easy to trash talk when you've won every match.

Yeah. Boxing purists would cringe when Clay predicted the round in which he intended to knock out an opponent. Matt Stewart's going down in round seven. They would piss them off and that would annoy them even further when often he was right. And he would close about it. Yeah, but see, the arrogance is, it's unsportsmanlike. That would piss me off, too, I reckon. Yeah, I don't like that.

I don't know. I think that's just part of boxing and the fighting things. A lot of those individual sports, I think, are a bit like that. And you have to be, you have to build yourself up. You know, you see them do those weigh-ins now, and there's like the face off and there's a bit of track. And it's sort of drama. For the photo, they push their faces together and they're like, but it's all kind of.

You know, that was me. I'd, like, get real close, and then I'd just kiss him on the nose. There's a little... You taste good. Okay. Little butterfly. Just a little eskimo kiss. Eskimo kiss.

What's a butterfly kiss? No, no, no, no. Butterfly this is with the eyelashes. Oh, okay. You have to get real close with that one. Feel that? Feel that? That's my, that's my eyelash.

Feel like that? Cases? Close your eyes and feel this, and it's like butterflies. Can you feel it? Does it feel like butterflies? Do you like that? Have you ever, you never felt a butterfly? Well, that's it.

We're going to the soup. We're going to that hot house The butterfly enclosure Let's go everybody Bring the whole media pack And the other guy Still just trying to like Gritty's teeth

I'm gonna kick their shit out of you And you're just like Butterflies How cool the butterflies There's a blue one There was a One recently Like one of the big

Heavy White champions Is this big fat English guy Have you seen that guy Oh yeah He's a mate I can't remember his name And he's just like

At the way And he's sort of grabbing His fat in his stomach Going They call me an athlete And he's like jiggling his stomach around But he's like, yeah, I'm the champ.

That's so cool. Yeah, and he is like the boxing champ. In one of the big heavyweight divisions. And he just sounds like he's just a... Oh, Tyson Fury, that's his name. Oh, what a name. But he seems more like a guy should be a champion darts player. He looks like a guy that you'd be scared to fight at the pub,

but you would be like, well, you still can't technically meet the pros. But he does. Much like Matt with his comedy. Yeah. Basically, you shouldn't be able to do it. Get some real mixed messages from you today, Jess. Good. Like to keep you on your toes.

Your little twinkle toes over there. Why are you always wearing tutus? Oh. Look, I'm feeling my way through life, Jess. I don't know the rules. Although, I must say, when you wear your point shoes, it really shows off your calves. You got great legs. Oh, the old point shoes, you all do wear them.

I'm just feeling my way through life. Well, we don't. born with the bloody rulebook, Jess. I was. If only there was a life manual, you know. Can I remind, mate? I've got one at home. We're all got bloody 2020 vision in hindsight, you know what I'm not?

Tell you that for free? No. No, it's five bucks. Hey, Dave. Do go on. Thank you very much. Well, someone claimed that the opponents that Cassia slash Matt was besting were a mixture of veterans who had long past their prime and fighters

who had never been more than mediocre. So some people are, you've never even thought of someone that's good. So when Ali, or Cassius, challenged heavyweight champion Sunny Liston for the championship in early 1964, Clay was definitely the underdog for the fight. He's what, 22? He's 22 years old.

Sonny Liston was widely regarded as the most intimidating powerful fighter of the whole era. Wow. What with the name like Sunny? Sunny. Sunny Listen and there were... That's a nice name. That's a nice name.

I should have gone into that with more lyric. there, but Sunny. Sunny's a nice name. I wouldn't be scared of a guy called Sunny. Oh, that one. Well, I will say,

I love you. What is the song? I think it's called Sunny. I'm going to challenge that. So there was some 22-year-old trash-talking kids saying he could beat the champ, all this stuff. The odds against Clay was 7 to 1,

7 to 1, so no one really backed him. Wow, that's. That is long odds in a two-horse race, Jess Perkins. I'm not good at odds. I don't understand them at all. I think 7-1 means you get $7 if you put a dollar on. For every dollar, you bet. Which is crazy.

That's a toss of the coin, you know, two possible results. Yeah, okay, now I understand what you mean. That's like super long odds. In a two-horse race. Did you know I used to be a problem gamble? Really? Yeah. Hmm, you've done it all.

Just feeling your way through life, I guess. Is that true? Ah, sort of. Well. We should... Gambling episode would be great. I'd bet on you, Matt. Always bet on stew.

I thought that was going to rhyme. Well, if he's this good... If he's this good offstage, imagine how good he is on stage. No, that'll rhyme. Here we go. I'll get him with a sweet rhyme. Always bet on stew. There was a few seconds off.

I'm like, wait, what do I... How did that happen? What do I do? I don't muck that up. What is going on? How did I think? Anyway. Hey Matt.

Matt, maybe? Matt? Just an inkling, but you weren't a very good gambler, were you? That was the problem, Dave. That was the problem. He was trying to rhyme. I don't think problem gamblers are the guys who won a lot of money. Oh, yeah.

They don't call it a problem. They call it a career. Clay Taunted Liston, during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him the big ugly bear. Okay. Call him a big ugly bear.

Come on, that's just nasty. Don't poke the bear. He would say, Listern even smells like a bear. After I beat him, I'm going to donate him to the zoo. Okay. Jeez Louise.

Trash talk is incredible. That is great trash. No, that's, come on. That's not nice. You don't talk about the champs like that. That's not pleasant. Unless you can back it up. Have some respect.

Let your fists do the talking. Clay, while he let his bus do the talking, he purchased a bus and had it emblazoned with the words, Liston must go in eight. What the fuck? On the day of the contract signing,

on the day of the contract signing, he drove it to Liston's home in Denver, waking the champion with the press in tow at 3 a.m. shouting, come on out here, I'm going to whoop you now. It sounds like something out of a Will Farrell movie. Yeah. You know, like this happened in Talladega night. It's not in real life.

And apparently, that is a very annoying thing to do. Oh, you reckon you could beat me up now, now that you've just woken me up in the middle of the knot. I'm also imagining that Ali or Clay turns up and the horn on the bus is like, do, get out here, bear. Or like, Ouga!

He's like, oh, you're being very annoying to my neighbours right now. And to me. Clay took to driving his entourage in the bus to a site in Surfside Florida where Liston, nicknamed the bear, was training and repeatedly called Liston, big ugly bear. How about you spend less time stalking your opponent and abusing him and just training your dickhead? The boxings. This guy died two days.

I just remember that as I said. No, it's fine. It's all part of his character. But I'm talking back then, Dicket. He's 22 and he's yelling this at the world heavyweight boxing champions. Just train. Just put your head down and train. Why you're assaulting a person.

You're harassing them. Well, this is stalking. It possibly worked, yes, because in six rounds, Clay won. the fight in one of sports biggest upsets and at 22 became the then youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight world champ. Shit. That's amazing.

So no one backed him. How old was sunny in the time? Do you know? He would have been in his early 30s. Wow. It was Mike Tyson one. He's the youngest champ at 20. Wow. On the World Heavyweight. Mike Tyson.

I can make fun because I have a lisp. It's fine. Oh, is that how it works? Yeah, it's works. An eye for an eye or Lisp? Lisp. Lith. Sunny Lister.

I mean, mine's adorable, but he's just fucking annoying. Oh, okay. So not a Lisp for... No, they're not born eagle. Oh, man, this is amazing. There was no record of Liston's birth. Oh, that's cool. His family, but not Sondy Liston, can be found in the 1930 census,

and in 1940, he was listed as 10 years old, so I guess it's 1930, which would remain him 34. Yeah, okay, cool. That's amazing, though. That's pretty cool. And then, two days after becoming champion, Cassius Clay shocked the boxing establishment again by announcing that he had accepted the teachings of the nation of Islam.

And on March 6,1964, he took the name Muhammad Ali. Wow, okay. 64. So just two days after becoming the champion, so he's like changing religion, and then a couple weeks later, change his name. Great name. Such a great name. Over the next three years, Ali dominated boxing and was undefeated,

including his rematch with Sunny Liston, where he knocked him out in the first round. Oh, that would have sucked. Imagine being... Like the best of your era. And then some guy comes along and just... Some mouthy kid. Yeah, and that's the thing.

He's not even a good sport about it. So, like, would you respect him? Would he just be like, fuck, he's annoying? It would make it hard to be like, well, I got beaten by the better man. Yeah. One of the most famous and iconic photos of Muhammad Ali boxing is, I'm not sure if you've seen it,

you probably recognize if you saw it, it's Muhammad Ali sort of holding up his right hand and then there's a body on the floor. That's Sunny Liston. Oh, that kind of breaks my heart. Yeah. Poor Sammy. Yeah.

But then, in 1967, when the US was at war with Vietnam, Ali was called up for the draft. Citing his religious beliefs, Ali refused induction into the army. He said he had no quarrel with a Viet Cong. And this is a quote. My conscience won't let me go out there, shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big, powerful America,

and shoot them for what? They never called me the N-word. They never lynched me. They never put no dogs on me. They didn't rob me of my nationality. Rape or kill my mother and father. How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.

Oh, it's so powerful. Yeah. Wow. So good. Although exemptions for military service on a war, religious strands were available to qualifying conscientious objectors who were opposed to war

in any form, Ali sadly was not eligible for such an exemption because he acknowledged that he would be willing to participate in an Islamic holy war. So if you'd said that you wouldn't fight, like if you're like, I won't fight anyone, which is kind of ironic for a boxer to say anyway, but I won't go to war. I hadn't thought of that.

He said he'd fight in a holy war. Yeah. I won't fight, but unless it's a holy war or my job. But I I guess, yeah, that's the thing that I always go back to about religion. If you do really believe in a God, then I guess you would do, like, you would do anything for it. But, I mean, what God do you believe wants you to fight an holy war? My God is, you know, he's all about love and peace and stuff, and killing people who disagree. Like, so silly.

Well, I think you find that many make religions. have had that argument over the last 2,000 years. But Ali was systematically denied a boxing license in every single state and stripped of his passport and his heavyweight title. Wow! As a result, he did not fight from March 1967

to October 1970. From 25 to 29, which is many of his potential peak years. So a lot of people say, imagine how good he would have been. That's a long time. Four years. And also just to be out for that,

long and come back and be good again, which I guess he... Well, I mean, you're having a week off gigs and you come back a little rusty. Imagine four years off boxing. Boxing, yeah. Wow. And at that time, you'd been training your whole life and then suddenly got to take four years off. Yeah, but I mean, he was still allowed to, you know, fight on the street and stuff, right? Well, he's still training, I assume, was he?

Or was he not allowed to even do that? Well, in his own time, he could do what he liked. Yeah, imagine you can't... You can't stop some training in the garage. Put down that skipping rope, man. Yeah, hey, hey, what are you doing? Is that boxing-related exercise or just exercise exercise? So is he out of jail or is he in jail all that time as well?

Well, he was criminally indicted in 1967, convicted of refusing induction into the armed forces, and he was sentenced to five years in prison and also fined $10,000. He remained free on bail until his conviction was unanimously overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, but that justice took four years. Can you imagine, though, being in jail for that? You'd want to be in jail for murder or something, just in terms of street cred, jail cred, you know? Well, I think coming in as the heavyweight champ, you've got street cred. No one's going to touch it.

Okay, excellent point. I did kind of forget we were talking about a boxing champion. He'd be the target. He'd be the one you'd take down there, right, if you wanted to be big dog. Take down the biggest guy, prison rules. Interesting. But I don't know. I think that's...

I mean, you're the one who's been to jail. So you Jess personally I would I'd prefer to be in there for someone I believe in like that rather than killing someone but

Unless you believed in killing that person You and I differ What if I believed in killing that person Do you Jeff? Maybe I'll do that Be true now To yourself I'm being true

You always get straight through me Cut through all those layers That's how Matt defended himself in prison With words Yeah He had the biggest guys crying See, Dave, I let him in. I opened up.

I let him in. And see what he did to you? Yeah. It's hard. It's hard to be exposed, but it's also so freeing. So thank you, Matt. No worries. Dave, one day I hope you can open up to us in the same way.

But, hey, we're not going to force you. You've got to do it in your own time, right, Matt? Dave. Yeah. Look at me. Yeah, I am. If you're listening at home, I'm looking at Matt. He is, I can confirm.

Open up to us, Dave. This is a safe place. I already told you that I like Twix more than twirl, and that's something that I've had to struggling with over the last four night. Neither of you've blinked for a long time. It's unsettling. Open up to us, Dave. What do you feel right now?

I feel like I would fight any holy war for you. Oh, wow. That was really brave, Dave. Thank you. See, that rhymed. That was brave, Dave. Do you see what a rhyme is now? I mean, that was brave, Dave.

Which bit of that rhymes? We'll keep working on it. Is it the br- He's a mess, Jess. There it is. It's okay, buddy. We'll keep working on it. In the meantime, Dave, please do go on.

I will say that just for context of this whole Vietnam objecting thing. So everyone looks back now and knows Vietnam's a big failure. But at the time, most Americans at the start of the war still supported the war, so Ali was derided by the mainstream. But he was heralded as a hero of the counterculture. Right. So a lot of people are hating him and then some other people loving him. The people who loved counters.

counterculture, very good I used to buy that magazine and just a lot of photos of really nice counters I might head off you guys right to keep going We'll carry on

One thing I found very interesting You asked what he was doing When he was off for four years I had no idea During his time off from boxing Ali starred in a Broadway musical No Called Buck White

In which he played the title character Buck White No He did so to help pay his debts And Ali sang nearly Every song in the musical He played a militant black lecturer wearing a big fake afro wig

And a big fake false beard And he was addressing a meeting Organised by a Black Political Group And there's a video which I will share On YouTube of him singing a song from it on TV Can he sing? He's okay He's very articulate

Because he's very good with these rhymes and things And he carries a He carries a tune Better than I expected this moment So that's interesting But after his four-year In forced break from boxing Ali returned to the sports. We did come back.

He won his first two comeback matches and got himself a shot at the title that he was stripped of. So he hasn't lost any matches yet. He's just... He's never lost a match. But he's just had his... That's crazy. He's just had his championship taken away from him.

So he still has claim to the championship. Yeah. So the fight was dubbed the Fight of the Century. It was him versus a guy called Smokin Joe Fraser. Fuck off. Smokin Joe. These names are out of this world. Both men are...

the time were undefeated. Ooh. Oh no. Somebody's got to get defeated. So Fraser's like dominating in Ali's absence. Yeah. So the title goes back up for grabs and Fraser's won in the four years. There was the usual trash talk from Ali leading up to the event who said some particularly

hurtful things painting Fraser as a dumb tool of the white establishment, even though he's also a black man. And he'd loaned money to Ali and spoken up for him during his four years away from him. Oh, come on. And Fraser would never forgive him. Oh, man. Well, he would come in and out. He would always criticize Ali, and Ali would apologize later on for the things he was saying.

But the match, it was called the fight of the century. It was so hotly anticipated that people couldn't get tickets. Even Frank Sinatra couldn't get ringside seats. Wow. So he chose to take photos for Life magazine just so he could get close to the five. Frank did. Yeah, how cool is that? That's awesome.

What? Frank Sinatra was like, I'll take some photos for you. Yeah, and in the... What? early 1970s he's a massive deal so that is outrageous so it went the full 15 rounds so no one knocked the other one out but joe frazier won by decision it was ali's first professional loss oh my god where was this fight the fight of the century is this in vagus or something or he's have them all over the world but i just looked at the fight of the century it was held at madison square garden in york city so a massive massive venue um so fraser won so he

get to keep the championship. Then he lost the title to a young fighter by the name of... Oh, let me have a guess. Is it the guy with the grill? Yes. George Foreman. So he lost the... The guy with the grill.

I have his mix and go blender and it's excellent. George Foreman mixing... Did you know he was a boxer? Yeah, I did know that, yeah. A lot of... My girlfriend had no idea. She goes, the grill guy. That just shows the generation, doesn't it?

Yeah, it totally does. But hey, good on them, because a lot of professional sports people really struggle once they've retired because it's like, well, what do I do now? Because a lot of them start quite early. They didn't get education. Yeah, that's all. And you have to retire in your early 30s. Yeah. It's like, well, what do I do for the next 45 years? Do I go to uni now? And so that's why a lot of them try and study through it. I think it's great that George Foreman had a successful boxing career and then has also gone on to have a successful

entrepreneurial career. Lean, mean, grilling machine. Yeah, he knows how to grill. And blend. We're going to talk about the grill. And the blender? I'll talk about the blender. Great. We can have a full 10-minute review of the blender. So I'm going to, a bit of background on George Foreman. George Foreman was born in 1949 in Texas, Marshall. At age 19, he won a gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. He turned pro and quickly set his eyes on the heavyweight championship.

By the time he earned his shot at the title in 1972, he too was undefeated. He had won 29 out of his third. 32 wins by knocking out the other opponent. Wow. Wow. It's crazy out so many dominant forces at the one time. Do you reckon he would have been happy with those results? 100% success rate.

Oh, it's 100% again. So that'd be similar to the last one. Which I'm just trying to remember he was... He'd lost zero and won all. And how do you reckon that would make you feel? Probably a bit empty. Bit empty? Yeah.

Okay. I mean, you've got nothing to compare it. too? So I mean, what is? Yeah, what's a high without a low? What is a high without a low? Wow, go in deep today. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, I know. But see, I've only ever lost. Yeah. So what's a low without a high, though? This is just my norm. Exactly. Good question as well.

So you would feel just the same as they did, I imagine. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Just imagine that you'd knocked out 29 people. No, I've only been knocked out 29 times. Right. I'd take it like a champ.

Yeah. You take it like a champ. I'm going to let it go. I'm going to let that go. But despite his record, Mr. George Foreman was underdog and not expected to win the match against Joe Fasier. Although considered by many to be somewhat slow and clumsy, Foreman was greatly feared for his punching power, size and sheer physical dominance. So if you look at Ali, he's a muscular guy or people of that era, but he's famous for his dancing

and bob and we even George Foreman is just a massive dude just stand and deliver kind of thing yeah stands there and just goes ooh oh and just like throws his arms

and just knocks the shit What's that toy The like the two boxing men In the ring What's that game? Oh yeah what is that That's what I'm imagining now When you say that

Like that's about as much movement As he has It's just like punching arms The fight between Foreman And Fraser took place In Kingston Jamaica So it's all over the world And was called

The Sunshine Shine Showdown. Hello. See, that sounds lovely. And despite being the underdog, Foreman overpowered Fraser in just two rounds. He became the heavyweight champion at age 24. Wow.

So, just to put it in context there, George Foreman just beat a guy that beat Muhammad Ali over 15 rounds in two rounds. Dave, we're 25. What are we doing? What have we done? How many people have you knocked out, Dave? Yeah, Dave. Well, I could count them on two hands.

Zero? Is it still zero? It's still zero? He's just holding his hands in a little cup. He's just making a really big zero. Check that out. None. What are we done with our lives?

This sweet-ass podcast. There's still time to franchise this into some sort of grill-based. Yeah, the do grill on. Oh, that's pretty good. But ours comes, it makes it have extra fat somehow. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It adds fast. Yeah, there's a fat device.

You pour in fat. You're welcome You got a lean steak Put some fat on that You're welcome Do grill on That's our phrase You welcome

Do grill on It's like really smug Yeah Like that We're also We've gained a lot of weight Get some meat on them bones Do grill on

You're welcome Not saying much Interesting If we were on an episode Of that shark tank show Would you be backing this idea Would you be there pitching it with us Or would you be like

You guys I'm busy that day but good luck. No, no, in my mind that is a sure thing. I wouldn't be going on a shalk tank and let them get a piece of that sweet pie. No way. That sweet pie with extra fat on it.

Hey, we're going to delete this whole episode. Stop the podcast and go make it. Yeah. Can't believe no one's thought of this already. I'm embarrassed for humanity. Idiots. Sorry, Dave. Well, no, that's fine.

I'm going to be a rich man by the end of this episode. George Foreman defended his championship twice. and then following his lost DeFraser, Ali won 10 fights in a row. So they're both on a sweet win and streak. George's still undefeated. Ali even had a rematch with Joe Fraser and this time, Ali won. Yeah. So the defeat of Fraser said the state for a title fight against World Heavyweight Champion George Form.

So whoever won out of those was going to be the number one contender. Right. And Ali smashed him. Cool. Did that have a cool name? There was another. So the Rumble in the Jungle is one. of the really famous names and there was one other one that had a great name.

The thriller in Manila. That's the one. Where was that? Melbourne. Interesting. Bellarat. Thrill in Manila. I wish I'd said Belar.

They really wanted to sell tickets. Frank Sinatra could get as many as he wanted. He was not taking photos. Nah, it's probably in Manila though. No. The stage is sent for the championship panel. Enter and then unknown. promoted by the name of Don King.

Does he know who Don King is? I know him from... Is he parodied in the Simpsons? Yes, he's parodied on the Simpsons. Drederick Tatum's manager, Lucius Sweets. Thank you, yep. If you're not familiar, guys, Don King, imagine now I'm a very old man

with a big sort of afro-y, graying hair. So it goes from black to grey throughout the afro. And it looks like he's put his, like, a knife in the electric socket, that kind of thing. So it's shut up. And he's got a... It's like his trademark look.

And he often wears bling and stuff. And on The Simpsons, they take that to the extreme. Which is unlike the Simpsons. Hmm. Well, he's... Don King's a really interesting guy, and I've actually thought about doing a whole episode on him. But we'll just talk about him. Now, he seems like one of the most charismatic and yet dodgiest people ever. Great. I love those kind of people.

He's worked with most of the great boxes over the last four decades as a fight organizer, promoter, or their manager. And nearly all of them, and I'm serious about this, nearly all of them have sued him. Really? after the first few, you'd think, maybe I won't sign with this guy after that... It's very strange that, like, so he managed Mike Tyson. Yeah.

And then Tyson sued him for multiple tens of millions of dollars. Wow. But by that time, he's already got this reputation. He's been around for 20 years. It's like, well, why didn't you learn Mike Tyson? I know. And, Mike Tyson, I would expect him to be making better decisions. Like, Mike Tyson, made a bad decision.

I'm baffled. I've got to tell you that King, before he was a boxing promoter, had already had a dodgy pass. He started out by running an illegal bookmaking operation out of a record store's basement. Illegal books? Well, I never. Yeah, he was making books. Oh, geez, I think that's a noble whack. He's not all that books are illegal, and he's like, well, no, people need books. Jeez, always, what is this? World War II Germany, am I right?

Ugh, the book burning. Yeah, that's what's kidding. He was more in a book binding. Chuck that one up. Well, so he makes books, sorry, he's an all right guy, but after being cleared of a 1954 murder charge, which a judge found to be justifiable homicide as King shot a man who was robbing his gambling house.

King was sentenced to prison in 1967 on a manslaughter charge for beating one of his employees to death. Yeah, justifiable. But was Justin late again? Because Donna talked to him so many times about that. I was like, seriously, dude, if you, like if this is going to be a consistent problem we can talk about you starting at 10 instead of

9 and you can stay till 6 like is that going to be problem and Justin was like no it's fine I can be here at 9 I'm sorry and then he just kept turning up at like 915 930 1050 copies that a lot of the rings aren't going to print themselves exactly and you know what Justin if we add up all that time

by the end of the year I've paid you for an additional like week that you haven't been here like it's a I know we're a family Justin but it's also a business you know justified You can push it and you can push it. Yeah, I feel like you're just taking the piss now.

You're taking the piss and it's disrespectful. I imagine. And I'm going to have to beat you to death. And hand me that crowbar. No reason. No reason. Oh, you'll find out. Unrelated conversation.

Well, that sounds, that must have been the parole pitch because he was paroled in 1971 after only four years and King decided to enter the business of boxing. Sure. The next year he persuaded Muhammad Ali to compete in a benefit exhibition to raise money for a Cleveland Hospital. Oh. Great guy. Boyed by his success

and with Ali's encouragement, King became a full-time promoter. So Muhammad Ali's much to blame for him becoming a boxing guy. He separately took contracts to Ali and Foreman that said if he could guarantee each boxer $5 million

that they would agree to find. So we took a contract to one and the other and they got them both signed in. The problem was that $5 million at the time is $30 million now. Sweet jeez. Jesus. Okay. That's good money.

Each, and this is US dollars. So King found it difficult to find financial backers. No one wanted to pay that much. But King, being the dodgy guy that he is, he looked where most other promoters hadn't thought to look. He approached the crazy African dictator of Zaire, Mabuto Sekaisesso, who agreed to put the money out from his very, very poor country's treasury. Oh.

So the fight was on. Oh. And now a bit of background on Mabuto Sekai Sesso. and his country, Zaire. Mabuto was born in then Belgian Congo in 1930. When Congo became independent in 1960, he was put in charge of the army. He's 30 years old.

30 years old. Another guy's the president. He wasn't got a prime minister. Matt, how many armies have you been in charge of? Oh, do you count? Are we talking all kinds? All kinds. Okay, I can count the amount on two hands.

You're making a zero again, aren't you? That's my trick. That is my. trick. Yeah. Trademark. But what am I doing with my other hand? Your third hand.

Giving Dave the finger. Matt, stop it. You're a rude little boy. But that finger next to the other, that's ten. I've been in ten. You have not. You're just fibbing now, aren't you? Ten armies.

Ten armies. Name them. Name the armies. Okay, sure. The Green Army. Fibbing. The Salvation Army. No, you weren't ahead of the Salvation Army. Australian.

You're being disrespectful now. Navy Army. The Australian Navy Army. The, um, wow. Shop fitters. And turners. And turners. Hey, that was a union.

That's not an army. Union army. No. Oh, a union army. Okay. The Barmy army. Barmy army. The, um, Jeannie army.

The, the Dami army cheering on Damien at the Eurovision 2016 competition. You were ahead of that one. No, that was, I was a Dharma and Greg fan. But who wasn't? Dama didn't rhyme with Army, so I had to change it out. I used to know how rhyming worked. Dharma-a-ama-a-ama. Banana-rama.

The Dharma Armada. The Dharma Armour. Armour? Which is just a cupboard. That doesn't count, does it? Well, if it's a cupboard full of weapons. Wait, did you ask me to list Dharma-related things? I forget the question.

Dave. The Dharma-Pama. Parma. Well, I think you're going to like this next sentence. So Mabuto was in charge of the army. Oh, he was right. I did like it. I liked all of the sentences so far.

But then, in 1965, there was a coup. Oh, a coup d'etat. A two-day coup d'etat, perhaps. There's a note here that says, pause for Jess and Matt to say two-day, coup d'-d-tac. Remember how hard I had to work on that? The two-de-cud-a-tac-tah. Now, it just rolls.

I purposefully didn't look into how long the coup took, just so, I don't know, let's assume it took two days. Two days. Also, how do you spell co? C-O-U-P. Uh-huh, yes. The chicken coup. That is what I thought.

But then the Kud-day, two-day, Kudat. Kudat. That spelling is trickier. That's different. What, D-E, apostory T-A-T, right? Kudet-T-A-T. Yeah, but I think there's like, oh, they're different accents and...

There's a bar in Bali that's K-U-E-U. U-D-E-T-A. Three separate words. Ku-D-T-A-T-A. Great bar. We're also sponsored by Kudata. Is that in Kuta? No.

Is that the joke there? No. So the joke isn't that they've put Deh in Kuta. Hmm. I mean, it's a good joke, no doubt about that. Copyright.

So Mabuta decided he would be president. Sure. He then, like a good friend, Super M-A-Zov, liked to rename things. I thought it was going to become involved, but that was before his time. So he renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which had only had that name for five years. He renamed it to the Republic of Zayer.

Then in 1972, he decided he was bored of his own name, so he changed it from Joseph Desmeray Mabuto to Mabuto Seseko Koko Nembedu Wazabanga. Which translates as the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake. That is a great name. And that is taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica, so that is real, my friends. That is amazing. And he decided he wanted everyone to have African names, so he ordered the people to drop their European names for African ones, and priests were warned that they would face five years imprisonment if they were caught

baptizing a Zairean child with a European name. Wow. But baptizing was still cool. Oh, he's good with that. This is as long as you call them. Something cool. I guess Jesus was probably from closer to, where is Jesus? You're the map boy?

Where's Jesus from in terms of the map? With Jerusalem. Yeah, where's Jerusalem? Is that closer to Europe or Africa? Oh, it's kind of right in the middle there. So yeah, so that's fine. So that's funny. I think of, well, I think of Christianity as a European thing because they're housed in the Vatican.

The Vatican. But, I mean, Jesus wasn't an Italian man. Oh, but if he was... Mama Mia! We'd be worshipping pizza. Oh, I do. Me too. Me too.

Mobuto has been described as the archetypal African dictator and as the Stalin of Africa. Oh, boy. His classic look was a grey abacost, which is known as a Mao suit, like chairman Mao. So a very plain grey suit. Thick framed glasses, a walking stick, and a leopard skin, pointy toque hat. Oh, my God. Sounds pretty cool. Yeah, he sounds super cool.

What a trendy guy. And over the years, Mobutow proved adept at maintaining his rule in the face of internal rebellions and attempted coups. But his regime had little success in establishing the conditions needed for economic growth and development. He really wanted to kickstart the nation's terrible economy, but couldn't work out what he was doing wrong, despite the fact that he was embezzling billions for himself and became one of the richest people on the planet.

But why is our economy? not doing well. Why is it my country doing well? Guys, look at... I'm going to go have a gold bath because I am just so stressed. Follow my lead, guys. Be rich. He he paid lots and lots

of the country's money to extend the very poor country's airport so Concord planes could land so he could charter them so we could fly to Paris for shopping trips. He's a really bad dude. Or really great shopper. Nah, bad person. Yeah, bad

person. No, good call. But with lots of frequent fly miles. Yeah, which is great. So handy. Yeah, I mean, in the end, how do you judge what a good person is? Mostly on frequent flypoints, to be honest.

That's how I would judge. That's the case. He's probably one of the best. Well, Mabuto, he thought he could improve his country's image by hosting the boxing match, and he told Donking that he would pay $10 million in prize money. So a lot of money for a very poor country. Ali said at the time, some countries go to war to get their names out there

and wars cost a lot more than $10 million. Well, that's a good point. I mean, you know, he was worried about his economy, but it seems like he's making some pretty savvy economical decisions. So that provides 10 million and each fighter's promised five. What's in it for Don King? How does he get his cut? He sells the broadcasting rights or something.

So he would get a sweet, sweet cut of that and the broadcasting rights, yeah. So he started up at his own production company and all this extra stuff. Have his finger in every single pie. He sold hot dogs. He sold hot dogs with a match. That's where he got his. Yeah, that'll do it. Yeah, and he charged...

Lucrative. Charged double for sauce. Oh, yeah. Does that rhyme? Lucrative dogs. No, we'll go through rhyming another time. Let Dave do his nice little report. There were signs all around Zaire

erected by the... Or paid for by Mobuto. It said, a fight between two blacks in a black nation organized by blacks and seen by the whole world that is a victory for Mobutoism Okay, all right Mabuto however was not happy with King's

original tagline for the fight which was From the slave ship to the championship Which is terrible So the promoter rebranded as Rumble in the Jungle Rumble the Jungle is better You were right, this guy's got something Yeah, yeah yeah

He makes some good calls Rumble in the jungle That almost rhymes Rumble in the jungle It does almost rhyme Yeah There we go You're getting it

Getting warmer The fight was scheduled for September 25th 1974 And Foreman and Ali spent much of the middle Of the year Training in Zaire

Getting acclimatized To its tropical African climate It was very sticky and wet Oh god Come on Joe I didn't say anything I breathed Dave, I have to breathe.

Sorry. You're not the first to ask me to stop breathing, but you know what I said to the others? Okay. And so I did, and then I black out, and my body just takes over and I breathe automatically. Because she's very polite, Dave. Stop projecting your insecurities onto her,

or whatever you're just doing there. Thanks, mate. Stop reading into the breath. Your bloody sick. Your body's sick dog. Go, you better get out of the vet, you sick dog. It might be time to put you down, you sicko. You sick dog.

Frothing at the mouth, you're a sick boy. You're a sick boy. Let's get him to the vet. The 24-hour vet we need to get you checked out. Get your shots. You sick dog. Let him go. I know.

I just really let you go. There's a real point where you just lean back and just let Matt talk. You're like, how's he going to bail him sap out of this? one. Yeah. I decided to dig. I'm going to dig my way out. I'll keep talking off on something.

I like that confidence. That's good. No, that's not it. Confidence. That's not it. Confidence akin to Muhammad Ali there. So Ali was a very endearing figure to the people of Zaire and his mind games turned out well, turning the Congolese people in his favour against Foreman.

He would make speeches about how he was returning to his. African people and convinced them that he was fighting for them. When Ali flew to Africa, he couldn't believe that the whole crew, including the pilots, were black, and there's footage of him making one of his famous speeches from the cockpit. Yeah, he's super excited. He's like, I can't believe on a plane. And the pilot's like, that's great, but I'm trying to fly away. Seriously, he's in the cockpit sitting behind the pilot going, I am the greatest and just

going through all these speeds probably like, all right, mate. Okay. Well. No, no, I'm happy to have a chat, but I just need to just say. couple of things that cope up. We are trying to fly a plane.

This is a 14-hour flight and you've been talking for the first seven. If you could just, okay, I mean, there's a meal. Do you want to go eat something?

Like, we are trying to, I appreciate that you're here. It's nice, but we do have work to do, okay? Oh yes, I know you're the champ.

I know. I know. You've said it 30 times in the last hour one. Fuck, I know, this guy. Have you,

have you got, I just remember there was a movie. Uh-huh. Byer pick. Do you guys see that? I haven't. I was thinking about that before. I haven't seen it either.

With Will Smith, right? Yeah, he won some awards for it or? No, he's nominated for an Academy Award. Do go on. Champes are you? Yeah. Until Foreman arrived, many Congolese thought that George Foreman was a white man. With the name like George Foreman.

Ali's like early world famous and sort of seen as this figure outside of boxing as well because of his campaigning for rights and that kind of stuff. But they didn't really know George Foreman that well. When Foreman arrived, he brought his German Shepherd dog with him, but this offended locals as the Belgians who had settled and controlled Congo and treated them really badly. For many, many decades, they used German Shepherds' police dog, so strike one against you, Foreman.

That is unlucky. Unlucky. Don't bring your sick dog here. You're sick... You know, etc. Ali would travel around Congo drumming up support for himself, Fawman kept more to himself and trained quietly. So he was more at the time

more of a quiet brooding character and Ali's just non-stop talking. He really came out of his show when it came time to grill and. Yeah. Yeah. When it was time for grilling. It's time for thrilling. Fulman's punches though when he was training was so hard that after 15 minutes of punching bag training the heavy bag was either split open

or there's a massive dent left in it. There's a video of it he just goes whack, whack, like with his fists, and then he steps back, and you know how hard boxing? Really hard. And these are like the hardest ones for a heavyweight guy. And there's just a dent in it. No. It's scary.

Wow. Apparently he hated Zaire and according to his biography by George, great title. Oh my God, yes. One of the reasons he hated with the country was because it didn't have cheeseburgers. No, that's a fair. Love you, George. A popular chant leading up to and during the fight from the locals was Ali Bormayet. Ah, I've heard of that.

Which means Ali kill him. Oh, boy. And Ali would often lead the chance himself. Of course he would. He'd see a camera crew and go, oh, awesome, awesome. You'd see a bus full of locals and just go out to the bus and start shouting it. And then they'd join in, of course. God, he's a cocky bastard, is there?

Oh, yeah. It's all mind games, though. It's all mine games. Yeah. In addition to the fight, a three-day-long music festival was organised in Kinshasa, the city hosting the event, which is the capital of the Congo, and Zayat. This event was called Zaire 74, and combined music from both black American musicians and local African music groups. It was meant to be a major promotional event for the fight, like a big three-day party leading up to it. And it was also intended to present and promote racial and cultural solidarity between African-Americans and African people.

Cool. The intended audience was meant to be foreign travellers So people coming in It was another way for Mabuto to show off his country Like yeah cool And the local couldn't afford tickets to a thing Yeah nothing, yeah But

George Foreman cut his eyebrow whilst training The fight had to be postponed for six weeks What? Because if you have an injury like that You take two punches to it and just piss his blood Especially head wounds They bleed like the high-fights And that would sort of be the end of fun

Tiny cut on your head and it'll just bleed. Fearful that Foreman would never return, Mobutu refused to let him leave the country for treatment. Oh wow. He's like, no, we'll treat you here. That's weird. Six weeks. That's really interesting.

It must have, like, it must have been a fairly decent cut. Yeah, it must have been pretty bad, I reckon. Yeah, if it's six weeks, he's done some damage. And you also can't train properly because you can't spa with, because they'd punch him in the face. Yeah. Oh, wow. The music festivals, I.A. 74, was unable to be moved and lost out on its international audience.

It still went ahead with 80,000 locals attending. Wow. That's a huge festival. Huge. Musicians that appeared as part of the festival, which the locals had no idea who they were. Boys to Men. Boystam. Wait, what years is this? Bit early.

Bit early. It's all famous black musicians. And anyone we would know. Earth, wind. I wish. Earth wind and fire. Shik. James Brown.

Oh, wow. Sick. And you see videos of him. He's got a mustache at the time. which I've never seen on James Brown before. Jackson 5? No. Ray Charles?

No. You're going to be disappointed now. A BB King. Oh, that's cool. We were not disappointed. And Bill Withers. Oh. Which is very cool.

And also a lot of other local groups coming together. That is cool. Yeah, it is cool. 80,000 people. That's huge. Yeah. Cool. At first, when the fight was cancelled, Ali freaked out.

He wanted to go home. or he was like, get Joe Fraser out here for a rematch. I'll get paid less money, pay him less money. It's all good. He didn't want to hang out in Africa for another six weeks. I love it here. I love it. I love it.

What? Six weeks? No. Get me out of here. Get me out of here. I'm a celebrity. Get me out of you. And that's where that came from.

It's not working, mate. We don't know what you mean. Yeah, well, he was 30 years to, 40 years too early. I told you he was ahead of his time. What a bloody, what a bloody tycoon. But eventually, he agreed to stay. and he spent the six weeks training hard. Smart.

So here are the stats before the fight. At 25, the younger and stronger foreman seemed an overwhelming favorite against the well-worn, now 32-year-old Muhammad Ali. Some bookmakers were betting 40 to 1 odds against Muhammad Ali. That's crazy. Betting they should be busy making bloody books. Jeez, Louise. Got an answer to that.

Why are they making? Making books. Oh, unless they're placing bets in their free time. Because, you know, making books is a nine to five. Everyone deserves a bit of leisure. No, absolutely. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

That was very judgmental. What if they're placing bets in the books they've made? Well, that's just vandalism. And my primary school librarian would not have a bar of that. Okay. Just the question, Jess, what are you? You know how I feel about books. I know.

Foreman. Good? Is it good a bet? It's good. It's pretty good. George Foreman had 40 fights and zero losses. Wow. 37 of which were by knockout.

Wow. So, Matt? Nearly every time he knocked the other fighter out. That's really good. There we go. There we go. Now he's getting it.

Ali, by this time, it had 44 fights, but he'd lost two. It's still not bad. That's still pretty great. And they were to Frasier and Foreman? No, he hasn't fought four men. Fort Foreman, he, in a controversial decision, he, in a decision match, he lost when another fighter broke his jaw during the match. Yeah, you shouldn't, I reckon that, it feels like that, that's, that's, that's, you're a winner.

That's the winner. Yeah, if you broke their jaw. All right. First, who's knocked out, none of you, okay. Who's got a jaw that can still work? Who can eat food? Who's got the worst awry? As you sit down, all right, I want you to eat this meat pie.

Yeah. winner gets the championship and Al is like Oh fuck And then he's like Wait It's a chunky meat pie No My championship

Don Kings and makes them buy Curse you chunky beef Curse you chunky beef Curse you chunky beef Ali Borm away Curse you chunky beef Really thought that would catch on

Ali had won 44 So he'd won 42 or 44 fights, 31 by knockout. So they've both got a great knockout record. Yeah. Both men stood at 6 foot 3. Oh, same height. Foreman weighed 100 kilos. Uh-huh.

Ali, 98 kilos. Okay. They're very similarly matched. And 6.3. But you have to be. Like, you're in the same weight division. So why is Ali giving away, why doesn't he put two kilos of muscle on? Because Foreman is like huge.

Right. He just would want to be that big. And Ali, he's not as thin as he wore. And, uh, and light on his size. feet when he was younger. Right. So when he's returned from his four years away, he's not as quick as he used to be. Fair enough.

By a long shot. That's why people are saying some people were really worried that Ali was putting his, going to ruin his great reputation, his great reputation. This would be it for him. Yeah. And he's the whole time saying, I'm going to kill George. I'm going to smash him. A lot of people are like, he's just saying that.

He's obviously very scared. Yeah. Yeah. Has he done the famous float like a butterfly line yet? Yes, he's, yes, that was when he was younger. Yeah. And I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. I saw, there was, you know, Anthony Mundine, Australian boxer, champion boxer.

Yeah. His dad was on a sport show when I was a kid and he was talking up Mundeen ahead of a fight. And it was live TV and he sort of, I think he was trying to go for something like that, but you could see, like, he got halfway through and realized he hadn't left himself anywhere to go, or that he just mucked it up. And he goes, he goes, he's going to float like a bee

and sting like a fly. Really? Oh, no. No, no. This is his dad. Yeah. Dad. I'm editing my dad trying to trash talk.

And it is so good to imagine. I think he ended. Yeah, I think that might have been leading up to the Danny Green fight, which he did win. But, yeah. Also, Dad had a point. See, my dad was right. I do sting like a fly. Fuck, that's still uncool.

Oh, Goddammit, Dad. I told you not to do any press. Why are you on Fox Sports staff? Yeah, stop it. Stop going on Fox Sports. You know that's my favorite channel. My favorite Muhammad Ali quote, which is about. George Foreman and leading up to this fight is um a dun wrestled with an alligator a done

tussled with a whale a handcuffed lightning thrown thunder in jail only last week I murdered a rock injured a stone hospitalized a brick I'm so mean I make medicine sick that's a really sweet little it's great isn't it a little poem so he does he spout in these poems all the time but most people are like you're going to get destroyed by this guy who's not saying anything back. Did he have a writer? Or he came up with it all and stuff. No, he's thinking the stuff and stuff.

No, where does he get the time? Totally these days, anything like that, I reckon it'd be like, they'd have a whole team. You know, someone in your entourage would be the... Do you reckon Mondean's dad had a speech writer? No. Stick like a fly. Come on.

Come on, Mr. Mundine. They'll lap it up. Therein lies the problem. He did not have a speech writer. That's so good. So, yeah, he's a great fighter and a... Wordsmith. Word smith as well.

What a guy. What a guy. Imagine being able to be able to do one of those things. I'll take any of things. Imagine having a skill, let alone two. Anyway, I'll learn rhyming one day and well, maybe I can, you know, end up writing poems that make me as powerful as a fly. What the fuck? I murdered a rock.

It's so good. I murdered a rock. Handcuff lightning. Handcuff lightning is brilliant. That's cool. Yeah. The other one is when he talks about, last night I turned the lights off and I was in bed

before the room was dark. That's fast. That is really tough. No, that's impossible. No, no, no, no. In my room, here we go. In my bedroom, I've got a light switch above my bed. Oh, do you?

Yeah, I do. A bit of insight. I imagine. Fans will be able to build a shrine to your bedroom. Because there's a main light, which is like the switch is over by the door. You're talking about in our bunk bed, Jess? Yeah, yeah, bunk bed. Well, the listeners don't.

And then there's also a light on my wall above my bed that has a control just underneath it. So it was like a lamp built into the wall? Into the wall. Because it was my parents' room and then they renovated. You know how parents put in those sorts of features? Yeah, I was thinking that. Yeah. This is not something that I've done.

This is just, it was came with the room. I demanded it. When I moved in at zero. It came with the room. It was my parents' room. What Muhammad Ali didn't mention is that his light was a claper. There it is. That's the laugh.

That's the laugh I was in bed before the lights went out I'm in bed I'm ready good night no night I imagine

Mohammed Ali said no night I'm going to handcuff lightning got it such a great character so funny so funny so good

so the fight finally took place after this six week wait on October 30th 1974 at the 20th of May stadium

which was named I've seen two sources I thought you just had like a brain fade there. That's what it's called. It's called the 20th of May. It was called the stadium dead because they speak French. It's only open one day of the year. You'll never guess which day. Christmas.

Mabuto either named it that because that's the day he sees power or that's the day that it was first opened. I saw two sources. I enjoyed them both. He does have a little bit of the Turkmen Bashirabash. Yeah, definitely. He's the Turkmen Bashi before. knew where that was. Wow. Insiders said that Foreman and his handlers actually prayed in his dressing room before the fight

that Foreman would not kill Ali. Oh, man. So high was the anticipation that Ali was simply no match for Forman. Wow. Whilst over in Ali's dressing room, the mood was apparently like a morgue. No one, not even his team thought he could beat Foreman. Jesus. I feel like both of those attitudes are bad for Ali.

like I mean not bad for the fighter so George Foreman going in thinking I hope I don't kill him is not a good vibe to go in before you're going to try and knock a guy out Yeah you'd hold back wouldn't you because you'd be panicking You're going to murder a man So Ali's team They knew he'd been saying for weeks

How he was going to crush big George And his usual trash talk But no one actually believed it Ali walked into the dressing room And picked up on the vibe and said What's wrong with all of you And to get himself pumped up As much as anything he started

started asking, what am I going to do out there? I'm going to dance. What am I going to do out there? He was pointing to his team members that were saying, you're going to dance, you're going to dance, and he's saying that into the mirror to pump himself up.

And then one of them just like, for fuck's sake, dude, he's supposed to be fighting, not dancing. The dancing concert is next week. This is embarrassing. He's doing up his tap dancing shoes. Gonna dance.

I'm like, no. Tip it, tippity, tip-tip-tip-tip-tip. Oh. And then they're just thinking, fuck, he is going to die. But God, it'll be beautiful. His tippity tap is better than anybody's. That's a tip-top tippity tap.

The fight started at 4 a.m. Why? Sorry, that was loud. I'm sorry. Why? The fight, to attract a nighttime TV audience in the USA. That's a terrible time, though. To me, it's very strange that they have to go all the way to Africa

to find someone willing to pave the boxes, but then the US people are still like, no, no, no, we want to watch it. But do you remember, um, do you remember? Do you remember a few years ago during the Australian Open when, who was it? Bernard Tomic was complaining that the game went too late. It was past his bedtime and he couldn't play well because it was such a late game. Do you remember that? Does that ring a bell at all?

That sounds like that piece of shit, in my opinion. How dare you? Right? So like 4 a.m. is not a good time for them to start fighting. If it's good enough for Muhammad Ali, it's too good for Bernard Tomic. Oh, wow. You've done a Perkins. and gone.

Yeah. Fuck you, Bernie. Fuck yeah. He does this thing where he gets really riled up where he like

pulls his bottom lip over his teeth. Like, ha. I cheer when that guy loses. Wow. That is,

come on, Dave. This is kind of intimidating and confronting and sexy. Is this what it's like when I turn on people? Yeah.

It's very similar. We feel all those things. Wow. Just remember, I've got zero knockouts under my belt. So watch out, Bernard Tomic.

Would you guys, So we're over there in the jungle, right? Ready to rumble. You've got two options here, and I think this says something about a person. Is 4 a.m. a big night, or is it an early morning for you? Big night. Big night?

Actually, it's both. Hang on. I get up at that time for radio. What would you do in that case, though? Would you go? As a spectator? I'm going, yeah. Sunday morning.

Sunday morning at 4 a.m. Are you going, this is a big Saturday night? Or are you going to have to have a quiet Saturday. Nah, big Saturday night. If I'm going to say, yeah, big Saturday night. It's got to be a big Saturday. Stay up for it rather than, it's like when the World Cup, the soccer World Cup, I remember staying up for that.

I don't even like soccer, but I did it. You did it. And, you know, we all respected you more than more for it. We did it. We did it. I'd get up at 4 a.m. to watch Burnatomic Luz. Gotcha. Yeah.

It hurts, doesn't it, Bernie? You and your $10 million can fuck off. Oh, this is so hot. Oh, yeah. The thing about Bernie is I always feel like that's the point is he doesn't give a shit, right? It doesn't seem like he cares that he loses. Yeah, no, but when I start trash talking, people start listening. A handcuff lightning.

Got it. Got it. Hear that, Bernie? That's what you say when you get a mosquito. Gotcha, Bernie. I pretend mosquito is a Bernard Tommy. For our international listeners who don't give a shit about Bernard Tommy. Or for our local listeners.

He's a tennis player who's like a young brat who thinks he's God's gift but he's like 30 in the world or something. It's like, come on, mate. Where are you in the world, Dave? 31, so I'm hot on his heels. Like the racket would be bigger than you. I played tennis when I was going out. I gave it up.

Because your hands are too small to grip the racket? Some say that. What do the others say? Some say I was bigger than tennis. No, the racket was bigger than you is what I said. Yes, I think that. You're confusing the... Yeah, there it is.

Rose-coloured glasses ruin everything. I'm still waiting for my big rematch with Bernard. 15 rounds of tennis. You'll get him Monday, buddy. I get him by decision. You'll get him. So we're back at the fight. It's 4 a.m. or 4.30 by the time the fight gets going.

Still 60,000 fans have packed the stadium. Now, if we're talking 430, no, I'd sleep. Yeah, that's a difference. That's the difference. reckon they open gates at 4 a.m. just to keep you awake. Yeah, okay, good on you. I reckon 7am's my threshold. If it's a 6 or 6.30 fight and I'm overseas for a big sporting man, I'd reckon I'm going.

The one time I remember... Can you enjoy it? I was in Prague for the AFL grand final a few years back, and it was a similar decision. It was like a 4 a.m. Made the pilgrimage to Prague to watch the big match. That classic pilgrimage that people make. Yeah, I don't know. And it was crazy how many people were there.

Did you have to find a bar? We found an English pub. Which is the makes sense. That sort of makes sense. But yeah, right? And they played it and it was packed. Awesome. Mostly with expats or people that just wanted to drink?

I think mainly expats, yeah. Cool. That's great. Which is, yeah, it seems a bit random. But I guess, you know, any city there's going to be 50 or 100 Australians who are dumb enough that want to watch. It was a classic game, I think. I love the confidence. You don't know, because.

It was far too late slash early. Anyway, Dave. Ended up that night. We stayed up all night and then we're like walking home. And out from this bar, the sun was up by the stage. Out from this bar, Frank Sinatra was blasting. And we're like, oh, one more point before bed. Went in and spent the next few hours in there.

We got home at midday or something. Great. What a mad dog. What a mad dog. And that's why they call him the chairman of the board. Yeah. He really sucks you in. Yeah, and he was just in there playing, just playing a few tracks.

Taking some photos, you know what he's like. Yeah, he was... Yeah, yeah, a couple of selfies. He was, yeah, the bouncer said, sorry, mate, not in those shoes. And he came back with a camera. And, yeah, they're like, yeah, no worries, mate, if you're here for... All right. No, I was going with you. I really was.

Mabuto Seco Sessa, the dictator, watched the fight from his palace. Of course he did. He didn't even go to the match. He suddenly afraid that people were going to assassinate him. Well, probably a fair. But don't worry because a giant portrait of him hung at the stadium to represent him. Oh, thank goodness. Like huge.

Like a massive billboard of his face. Wow. Wearing the hat. The leopard print hat. And the glasses. Are there photos of him? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're going to twit one of those.

Always wearing the outfit. So good. I wonder how many suits he has. Like, he probably just has heaps of grey ones. Am I picturing it right? It's like the Dr. Evil suit from Austin Powers. Yes. That is actually the kind of suit.

That's perfect But imagine Imagine that with a leopard print hat And now you've got the whole look And thick frame glasses Yeah Awesome He was a bad man

What a babe Well here's a bit of info about it He allegedly rounded up A thousand of Kinshasa's leading criminals Before the fight And held them in rooms Underneath the stadium Why?

They're like these little holding pens And allegedly People say that he executed 100 of them At random To make his point because he wanted the city to be crime-free for the event because all the press were there and he wanted the city to look safe

and unsurprisingly, the city was almost crime-free that whole weekend. Yeah, because he killed them all off. I mean, the only crimes that were committed were by him by the sound of... Him against humanity. Lead by example, dude. Jeez, Louise.

I say the world's press were there. Author of Fear and Lodding in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson. He was sent to cover the event for Rolling Stone magazine, which is also what he was supposed to be covering the Mint 400 motorcycle race when you write Fear and Lothing in Las Vegas instead. Nice. He was sent there to cover, though according to Time magazine,

Thompson chose to float in his pool a bottle of hooch in hand. Like a butterfly? With a bottle of hooch in his hand, while the great fight took place, and he was unable to write anything about the room. That's so great. That's so great. He went all the way to Africa.

And he's like, well, at 4.30 a.m. You just stayed in the pool. Oh, yeah. Good point. It was 4.30 in the morning. Oh, Andre Something Ali came out first in a white robe

Followed by George wearing red It's because they just got out of bed He's got his little slippers on Arlie wake up the fight Oh shit He's got his little bunny slippers on This is the hotel Oh

He's all sleepy He's little jammies He actually looks like he's wearing a dressy Oh it's all sleepy These little jammies have a big old sweep Before the two even touched glasses Ali was already trash-talking George. That's so unlikely.

Who looked angry. So the ref is trying to explain the rules because they have to do that at the start. And while they're doing that, Ali is just constantly yelling. He's like, all right, that's enough. Like, you've got to touch gloves. So he's already pissing off a dude

that's way bigger and stronger than he was. Ali came out dancing the first round and Foreman went right at him. Ali made use of the right-hand lead catching Foreman several times, which I'm not that big on. boxing, but that is a strange thing to do. So he led with his right hand, which caught Foreman off guard.

Before the end of the first round, however, Foreman caught up to Ali and began landing a few punches of his own, and his punches are way stronger. This is when Ali realized he needed to change his game plan. At the beginning of the second round, remember, they're supposed to be like 15 of these. At the beginning of the second round, Ali went and leaned with his back on the ropes and covered up to protect the first. himself letting Foreman just punch at him. What? So he's leaning

backwards on the ropes. You imagine like someone relaxing, so the ropes are holding his weight and then he just sort of covers up his body and Foreman's just laying into him. What? So while he was doing this, Ali would occasionally fire back with his own shots to stop himself being disqualified. Yeah, you can't just... If you look like someone's kicking the shit out,

the ref goes, well, this is not okay. So every now and then he fires a punch back to look like, I'm still in the match, still in that. The plan was to let Foreman punch himself out. A strategy, Ali, later famously dubbed the roper dope. So smart. Roper dope. I reckon I knew that phrase so long before I knew what it meant.

So what? He's just hoping that the foreman just tuckers himself out. Is that the idea? So the idea of the rope adope strategy is by lying against the ropes, the ropes allow much of the punches energy to be absorbed by the ropes. Sure. So if you just punch someone, even if they deflect it, it like shakes their whole body and goes into their spine and makes you tired.

But if they just punch you against the ropes, Not regular people couldn't do it, but Ali had been training up and letting people pummel him in... What? In training, so he was sort of used to taking a beating, so he just could take it, just take it. But his corner had no idea what he was doing. Get away from the ropes, Angelo Dundee. He's trained that later. Angelo Dundee?

Fucking great name. What a great name. So he was like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Later, he said, when he went to the ropes, I felt sick. At the end of the second round, Dundee implored Ali to say, stay off the ropes. Ali waved him away and said, I know what I'm doing. Wow. I didn't really plan what happened that night,

Ali later said. But when a fighter gets in the ring, he has to adjust accordingly to the conditions he faces. Against George, the ring was slow. Dancing all night, my legs would have got tired. And George was following me too close, cutting off the ring. So everywhere he went, he just backed him into a corner. In the first round, I used more energy staying away from him than he used chasing me. So between rounds, I decided to do what I did in training when I got time. which is just retreat.

Foreman spent all this energy throwing punches, and I will say it's very hot. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. And most of them were blocked by Ali or didn't land properly, so he's not getting too injured. When Foreman did land flush,

Ali was able to take it because he's a bad motherfucker. Wow. But to people watching both ringside at home, it looked like Ali was just having the absolute shit kicked out of him and barely responding. So they were to see a guy

leaning against the rope, big guy smashing him I mean, every 10 punches to go, one back. Far out. People were actually worried that they might be watching him being killed. So, and I imagine at this stage, if it was on points, then Foreman would be well ahead. Oh, easy. Yeah.

Wow. Because he's landing like 10 punches to 1. So he's only, from here, his only way out is a knockout. I've got to knock this guy out. Right. But what the people at home couldn't hear was Ali continuously trash talking Foreman. Foreman was pummeling Ali. and when they got close

like they get into a clinch which is when they get locked Arley would whisper in his ear is that the best you got George harder sucker swing harder you're the champion they told me you could punch wow this was designed to fire up

and piss off foreman so it would spend all of his energy and it worked in the fifth round Ali suddenly landed a combination on an increasingly tired foreman and when he got hit so you watch in the video

he gets hit and he's head fight back foreman and sweat flies off it this is when he starts to realize oh this guy might be tired because he's drenched in sweat from purporting

and then people started to think oh maybe he's got a plan Ali also had the crowd on his side between rounds he continued to urge them to chant Ali, boomerye so he's firing getting energy off the crowd Ali continued to

taunt George saying hit harder show me something George and that don't hurt I thought you were supposed to be bad. And George actually later on said that this is when he started getting worried because he used to just beat the shit out of people and he's hitting Ali as hard as he can and he's not going down. So he wouldn't like no one had used that lying on a rope technique before I guess.

So you just didn't, you wouldn't be putting it together. Yeah, you wouldn't work out. He would just be thinking, what the hell? I'm punching this guy and he's telling me to hit him harder but I can't. Wow. So Ali's getting in his head. Finally, in the eighth round, Ali landed a left hook that brought Foreman's head up into position

so Ali could nail him with a hard right straight to the face. So he pops his face up and then wax him. Wow. So boxing tape, like you sort of get your chin on your chest, do you? Yeah, so he pushed him up, and he's open, and then he just... Smack. Absolute Haymaker.

Foreman staggered, then twirled across the ring before landing on his back. Foreman got up, he got up, Foreman got up, but not quickly enough. The referee counted to 10 and waved the fight over. Wow. So 10 years after upsetting Sunny Liston and seven years after being stripped off his title, Ali had finally regained the World Heavyweight Championship. It was another one of the biggest upsets in sporting history.

Oh my God. I love this. Ali told reporters that he chose not to add another punch as Foreman fell. So as he was falling, he could have punched him again, as to not spoil the symmetry of his descent. Because the way he sort of just crumbles and falls down and he's a huge dude. Plus, he's falling already. Wow.

Yeah, but a lot of boxes we're like, fuck it. I've got to take another chance. Yeah. Wow. Just seal the deal. Oh man, that makes me feel sick. Yeah, that's awful. It's so brutal.

It's so brutal. Ali pointed into the television camera and shouted to a worldwide audience. I am still the greatest of all time. As the match ended, the heavens opened up and a monsoon hit the stadium. The dressing rooms were flooded three feet deep. So it was like, end of match. I am the champ. He would just feel like a powerful

Lord of the universe. You would feel so... So good. Oh my God. That's godlike. Oh, so godlike. So he's really pumped up. And I did hear some way that

later on journalists saw him standing... Just fucking bitches. No, he was standing by a river quietly on his own and he just turns to the... They sort of catch him on his own and he turns to them and goes, gentlemen, you'll never know how much that meant to me. then left.

Wow. And he floated into the sky. Okay, so just a bit more on later life for everyone in this story. Yes. Ali won nine more matches before losing the title to American guy Leon Springs. But he won... Never heard of him. Well, he won the title back in a rematch,

making him the first heavyweight champion to win the belt on three separate occasions. Wow. And he's a lot old about this stage. Ali retired but quickly came out of retirement and fought two more matches where he was badly beaten. It is said that the last two matches where he was absolutely pummeled, can't think of who it was, said it was like watching Ali have an autopsy performed on him while still alive. A lot of people have said that these last two matches may have contributed to his later Parkinson's disease. Wow, okay.

Ali married four times and had nine children. Ross his life. Wow, I didn't, yeah, I didn't know that. They mustn't be in the limelight too much, or anything. His daughter is, she's a, has been a boxing champion. Yeah, right. She's undefeated.

I now retired, retired undefeated, amazing. You know what, I love that it's a daughter, not a son. Do you know what I mean? Like, that's just extra cool. Yeah, isn't it cool? That sounds weird, but you know what I mean, though. Yeah, well, it's not typical of what you'd expect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really great.

Ali was named Fighter of the Year by Ring Magazine, more than any other fighter in history. Ring magazine. In 1999, Time magazine named Muhammad Ali one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. Wow. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated named Sports Personality of the Century in a BBC poll.

He received more votes than any of the other contenders, which included Pele, Jesse Owens, and Jack Nicholas, the golfer, combined. Wow. George Foreman, after a near-death experience... Wait, Dave, sorry. Are these fun facts? I say this is a fun post script Okay

Do you go with that Because rather than dot points It's just sums up everyone Okay yeah that's nice Yeah that's lovely Dave Dave you're a cowboy You're a wild man I'm a wild man

And I love it Thank you He's a sick dog You're a sick dog A sick puppy dog I'm frothing at the mouth You vomit on the carpet And you've eaten it up again

I'll love it It's a hell little secret I won't tell mum but I know what you did. You got George Foreman. Then we got George Foreman. After a near-death experience, he stopped fighting and became an ordained minister.

Oh. Decided to dedicate 10 years of his life to God. Only 10 years. He decided at the start. I'm just going to do a tight 10. And then I can do whatever the fuck I want. I have... Grills.

I love that. Yeah, it's funny how... It's like I believe in... This is like I was saying before we believe in God. Obviously, God's all powerful. He's created everything. I'm going to dedicate a little bit of time to him. That's the least I could do. He created everything.

I could give him a little bit of time. I'll just wait a little 10 years. No, do you know what it is? I'll dedicate one seventh of my guaranteed lifespan to him, which if you think about it, is one seventh of the week is the Sabbath. I'll just give out all my Sundays in one go. Just do it right out quickly. I'm home for it. Oh, that's smart.

That's nice. That's nice. So what happened after 10 years was he announced a comeback as a boxer at the age of 38, mostly so he could fund a sort of Christian endeavours. Oh. And then he regained the... He fought some kids. So that's fun.

He came back at 38 and he got better and better and sort of slimmed down and got back to finding... He fought a shark. And the shark had a bear on its back. And he fought him. And he won. He's the bear shark champion. still to this day. And that's why we celebrate Christmas.

So he came back at 308, but he regained the heavyweight championship at the age of 45. Wow. 20 years after he lost it to Ali. And when he won it, he was wearing the same shorts. No. A fucking cool is that. I hope he'd washed him. He was the oldest fighter to win the championship.

45. So he won it when he was 24, lost it to Muhammad Ali, retired 20 years later, came back. That isn't. That is amazing. That's impressive. When Foreman came back from retirement, this is a big comeback story, he argued that his success was due to his healthy eating,

which made him a perfect fit for Sultan ink, which was looking for a spokesperson for its reduced fat grill, and which Foreman had some influence designing, but it's not his idea. Hulk Hogan had previously been considered, the W.W.E. wrestler, but chose to pitch the Hulkomania meatball maker instead. You've all heard of it.

You've got one of those, of course. Obviously, I'm not an idiot. The second best selling grill appliance of all time. Although Foreman has never confirmed exactly how much he's earned from the endorsement, it is known that Salton paid him $137 million in 1999 for the right to use his name. In 1999 as well. So he'd been making money up until that point, and then he said, all right. I won't take any more money.

Now you've got the right to my name. Give me a lump sum. I just want a million dollars. Like, I don't... So prior to that, he was paid about 40% of the profits on each grill, earning him $4.5 million a month in peak payouts. So it is estimated that he's made over $200 million

from the endorsement... Oh, my God. ... substantially more than he ever earned as a boxer. Or a minister. It's weird. Really? Well, it depends how high you went up at the Fed again. That is crazy.

Isn't that crazy, my... But it also means, I mean, it's great money, but it also means to a generation, he's the grill guy, not the boxing guy. Yeah, that's what I was saying before, but that's fine. I'd be okay with that for $200 million. I'd be okay with that for $200 million. What's that? I used to be a comedian, you didn't know about it. Who gives a fuck?

Who gives a fuck? I'm the grill girl. I'm a grill man. I'm a grilling man. I'm a grilling man. The griller in Manila. Yeah. I called it that.

See, that rhymed, Matt. That rhymed. I don't hear it. But he didn't find... I don't hear in rhymes. We'll say the thriller in Manila. Dave, are you saying that if... You think that if someone gave you some big grill endorsement,

that somehow that might overshadow your comedy career? Yes. I don't see any grill that is going to get that popular. That's very cute of you, Matt. But I think you're blowing smoke up his tiny ass. It is very funny for me to compare my comedy career to a two-time world boxing heavyweight champion who fought in one of the...

the most famous boxing matches of all time against Muhammad Ali. And I'm like, oh no, people might remember my comedy. Dave, well, I mean, maybe he was a two-time world champion, but you're a two-time nominee, best comedy, at Fringe World in Perth. So... That is correct, two times. Two times. Nominee.

Which means two-time loser, but I will remind you that George Foreman also lost his title twice. Oh, two-time loser. And was he nominated at Fringe World? Probably. Probably. Yeah, he probably was. He put on a real performance. Yeah.

I will say the thriller in Manila, Matt, that you're talking about before. The final note on Muhammad Ali's career. That was him in Manila, fighting against Joe Frazier for the third time. And Muhammad Ali won. So 2-1 over. So that was later? So that was after the run. This is one of the nine fights.

That was like a retiree sort of old man fight. Yeah, they were both a lot older by then. It was just a bit of a cash in. Huge cash in. Don King also organized that. Of course he did. All right. But I mean, those rhyming sort of names are the key, because they're the two fights I know of.

Rumble and jungle, thrill and manila. I think it's also why I like Danny Green, because this is the Green Machine. Oh, that's pretty good. The names are very integral, I think. So, you know, Arlie always talked about being the greatest and stuff, but you've talked about all these boxes that have amazing records. Like, with time and everything, does history say one of them was the greatest? It's very debated. So there's no one would say, definitely.

Definitely one over the other. Some people will say that Muhammad Ali is the greatest of all time. Because I feel, I just always thought that a big part of that was, you know, marketing and he was such a good self-promoter. He's such a big personality. Now, a lot of people say that, especially when he was young, and if he hadn't been robbed of that four years, he would have been unbeatable. Would have been. But no, but still, he's, he didn't win the championship on three separate occasions. But the one that you were just talking about was basically finding a loophole, right?

He did this thing that no one had figured out before, which is really smart, but that doesn't make you a good boxer. That just makes you a really good strategist, right? Yeah, I think he's definitely one of the best strategists and best getting in, at getting people's heads. Because you can't use roper dope again, can you? You can't, they know what you're doing? So wouldn't you, you wouldn't pummel him on the ropes anymore, would you?

People still do it. I read that Mani Pachial, the famous boxer. Pac-Man. He has used the method once when he was fighting against someone. to test out how good the guy was, how these punches were, so he just took him on the road. So people still use the method.

It seems like if you get sucked into that now, you'd be, you know, not very smart. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you saw me... Admit it. Go so wild there, but... It was not as sexy as when Dave was doing it before. I felt passionate. I felt emotional.

You went for it. Yeah. You took your time. Well, this is the final note on the report. I will say that Muhammad Ali and George Foreman eventually became very close friends. As opposed to Joe Fraser. They were not mates. They were not mates.

Do you reckon Muhammad Ali had a George Foreman grill in his house? I would say almost certainly. Yes. Ali had trouble walking to the stage at the 1996 Oscars to be part of the group receiving the Oscar for When We Were Kings, a documentary on the fight in Zaire, which I suggest everyone to watch because it is absolutely fantastic. due to Ali's Parkinson's disease

George Foreman helped him up the steps to receive the Oscars so they went up with a documentary maker because it's about their fight. Foreman eventually concluded in 2003 Ali is the greatest man I've ever known. Not greatest boxer, that's too small for him. He had a gift. He's not pretty, he's beautiful.

Everything America should be, Muhammad Ali is. Wow. That's very nice. And he would later say he couldn't deal with the loss at the time. He told himself that Ali was cheated or that all this different stuff.

The conditions were wrong. But as he grew older, he eventually admitted the Better Man won. Wow. That's amazing. Which to me makes Foreman the Better Man. I agree. Somehow.

Now I'm really glad I paid $24.95 for his Mix and Go blender. That's right. You know? Well, you may be, but I have absolutely no regrets about buying the Hulkomania meatball machine. So, you know, win-win. Dave, that was an excellent report. A report, as always, Dave.

Thank you very much. Dave. Yeah, we wanted to do that one for a while now and then when Borah Muhammad went, that we go for it. Dave, Jess and I have got an idea. How about you just do all the reports? I think we've pitched this to him a few times and he's never on board. Because it would make me do triple my work and your work would be able to be able to lot less.

Yeah, that's probably, I think that's probably why we enjoy the idea. So is that, I mean, is that good or? Because you were saying before 100% is good? Yeah, you were saying that before. I'm saying you could do 100% of the reports. Is that right? That's good, right?

Is that what you're saying? 100% is good? I'm so confused now. Yeah. I feel like you've got me on the ropes. What's that? I was doing it on purpose the whole time. I am the champion.

Okay. Who would win in a fight out of the three of us, though? Definitely not me. I think both of you'd probably team up and take me out. And that would be between the two of you. Interestingly, that question was asked when our mate Nick Mason was sitting in your chair. Oh, yeah. And he said that Dave would win.

Why did he say it? No. Because you asked the question. Oh, okay. If you ask the question, there's something about you who. Yeah. I reckon I'd kick your asses. Yeah.

Definitely. I weigh the most. I'm the heavyweight champion of this team. And I did taekwondo for several years. Did you go for several? Well, do I need to remind you that I once. played tennis? You once played tennis.

Apparently I'm ranked 31st in the world. I did forget that you once played tennis, which will obviously help you in a fight. Fucking Dave. Yeah, I, well, I think... I'd take you. You would definitely win. What about in Zaire, 1974? No, don't be fucking ridiculous, David.

I'm sorry. I don't know, I reckon Dave would handle the humid conditions better. No, you wouldn't, little skinny boy. Anyway, point is that would never happen because we're all friends. Anyway, never fight with you. Tweet in who you think would win in a fight from the sound of our voices. 40 to 1 against me, come on. Sound tough.

I'll take him. You sound tougher than you look, Dave. Yeah, you do. Yeah, please do not Google Image search me. It will ruin your imagination. Or look at your phone screen where there's probably a photo of Dave inside of an O. Hmm. Hmm.

But we're all inside an O Aren't we? In a way In a way Aren't we all inside a no? Well Listener dear You can

Listener dear It is getting late You too can be inside a no By tweeting us in Is that what they call it these days? Yeah well We'll do whatever you want

Tweeting in an idea for a show At do go on pod I swear I'm going back to the hat next week. I'm not going to tell you who you are, but at least one of you out there in two weeks' time when it's my shot again are going to be pretty happy when I do my report because it's from the hat.

But you can also email us if you're not a Twitter person. Do go on pod at gmail.com. We're on Facebook. You know what's review us on iTunes? Or, you know what the best thing would be to do? Tell a friend if you do that. We're actually really getting out there. And I think it's mainly because people are just telling people.

Yeah, so keep doing that. So if you've got friends alike podcasts. And they want to add one into their rotation. Tell them to give us a go. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Yeah, we really appreciate it. It's really, really cool. I mean, I know we, like, you know, we mark around a lot here at Do Go On Pod.

Well, we'd physically turn on each other, but we'd never physically turn on you. No, I never physically... Well, yeah, no, if push comes to shove, I would push and shove you. But I would never do that to our listeners, and I love them all equally. So great. Get in contact, Matt. You're going back to the hat next week? Oh, I'm always in the hat.

Matt, you kind of... I'm wearing the hat. The hat is kind of like, if it was a museum, you'd be the curator. Yeah, I love the hat so much. Yeah. And ever, like, I can't, but so many great suggestions. And when they come in, I reckon one in three I've never heard of the topic before. And I do a quick look, and there are some fascinating snorries and stories about the snories are the ones that are a bit dull.

But the stories. Like I made Turkumbashi, that was, we've never heard of him. No, never heard of any before. And that was the best. Anyway, let's go to bed. Yeah. All right, guys, get in the, get in the truck. I'll keep driving all night. I've got a boxing match at 430 and I'm pulling an all night. I don't know about you. Thanks everyone. Bye.

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