Colonel Remembers Jungle Rumble » January 16, 2023

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Hall of Fame Broadcaster Colonel Bob Sheridan tells Fightnews.com® about the famous Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle.”

Promoter of Rumble in the Jungle

“I was not encouraged by Don King to work on Rumble in the Jungle. He was not the promoter. They were only going to England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, so they were going to bring in a famous announcer from New York to fight.

“Promoter Chris Dundee, who I did a weekly show with here, said, ‘There’s a young kid here who can call boxing better than anyone.’ So they said they like my work. Guys named Barry Bernstein and Hank Schwartz, they were engineers working on rear screen projection in the early days. So they hired me and I was in charge of all the fights that followed, including “The Rumble in the Jungle.”

Gene Kilroy

“Of all the people involved in the Ali vs. Foreman fight in Zaire, not many are still alive. Jerry Eisenberg, who said it was just you and I left, Jim Brown, the famous footballer who was a guest commentator, Gene Kilroy, at the 1960 Rome Olympics. After meeting a young Cassius Clay for the first time, he became Muhammad Ali’s manager, and Gene was a publicist for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League, from where he began working with Muhammad.

“He was the only sane person involved in that corner, other than Angelo Dundee, who was also a stabilizing factor in the Ali camp. I get to exercise every day Gene has cancer We talk to each other a lot and go out to dinner with the famous boxing writer Jerry Eisenberg We all live in Las Vegas. Dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant.Jerry is 93 and writes a weekly column for the Newark Star.He’s a great writer and has several books.We’re both in the Hall of Fame.That That same weekend, Gene Kilroy held Muhammad Ali’s funeral in Kentucky, and I was going to speak there, but I was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, so I couldn’t.”

Jerry Eisenberg

“Jerry Eisenberg told me the story of the night after the Ali vs. Foreman fight. I got all the exposure Muhammad needed so I wasn’t Muhammad’s groupie He was more of a friend Jerry was taking a walk near the palace and was walking by the Congo River I saw Ali thanking God for giving him the strength to overthrow Foreman, and I thought that was pretty unique, which says something about Muhammad’s religious beliefs. He was a true Muslim, he really believed that.”

James Brown

“What a man James Brown was, the singer who performed at three days of concerts in Zaire. Redd Foxx was also a commentator: James was drinking Qualudes and at one point he said to me, ‘Bob, you’re calling before those punches happen.’ James’ mic was dead except between rounds, after which Red Fox says he was doing cocaine at ringside. David Fox said Mike is dead.People don’t understand the distractions that broadcasters have to go through sometimes.HBO and Showtime are true professionals.”

David Frost

“My commentator at Zaire was David Frost. He was sitting next to me as the main co-commentator, he was so cheering and jumping around, and I said, ‘David, you gotta calm down.’ “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” he said during the match. ”

don king

“It was Don King who came up with the Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman fight in Zaire. He came up with the idea to fight in Zaire, no one had ever heard of Zaire, before it was Belgium-Congo, now it’s the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I don I respect him with all my heart.To this day he is a genius.”

Larry Holmes

“I witnessed Muhammad Ali’s sparring sessions with Larry Holmes on numerous occasions and it was clear that Larry would one day become world champion. Not necessarily spinning.Ali’s sparring partner was working as hard as he could.It’s a big difference between the real thing and the real thing.But Larry had very fast hands and great footwork. was evident, working with trainer Richie Giacetti, who was very close to Don King, dating back to his Cleveland days, and they remained good friends until later in life.

“Larry is still my best friend. I felt he might be the greatest heavyweight of all time. I’ve been in business for 60 years, watched many fights, broadcast thousands of fights, and I have a right to have an opinion.”

sparring foreman cut

“When George Foreman was cut in sparring[Bill McMurray]and couldn’t play on September 24th and the game was postponed until October 30th, there was a real problem with that. We only have four satellites and this was the first time they were used at the same time.”

rope a dope

“It was definitely Ali’s idea to use the ‘rope-a-dope’ tactic. Nobody had ever heard of it. When Ali was training, a guy from Cuba, Luis After training in public behind closed doors with Solaire, Ali was doing 1,000 sit-ups Ali did sit-ups on the edge of the bench in sets of up to 1,000, Angelo instructed. But Luis Solaire helped Ali shape his body.

“The background story is before the fight where Angelo wanted to tighten the ropes. Ali was able to absorb the thunderous punches by drawing his elbows and covering his chin. Ali’s tactic of tiring George and stopping him in the late rounds worked. ”

1 billion people watch the game live

“The battle was that there were 1 billion people living in the world, compared to a world population of 4 billion in 1974. was 56 million, almost half of the population watched the fight in England, not only the biggest sporting event, but also a historic television event.

“This is unbelievable in sports and in television.”

How Don King Got Financial Backing

“Fred Weimar, an American adviser to Mbutz in Zaire, persuaded the dictator that propaganda of such a high-profile event would create and help his regime.” , said Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was involved in paying athletes’ wallets and other major expenses, though the exact process was not disclosed. It put together a consortium that included Hemdale Films Corporation in the UK, Video Techniques Inc. in New York and Don King Productions, who was most closely involved in the match, although King was the director. Hemdale and Video Techniques Inc. were the official co-promoters of the bout, which was broadcast on cable and radio television in US theaters.”