Ali & Foreman & Norman Mailer

In 1974, Muhammed Ali vs George Foreman was billed as The Rumble in the Jungle
Foreman was the undefeated Heavyweight Champion and Ali was the former champion.
Each man received five million dollars to stage the fight in Zaire, Africa.

Boxing is carnality
Meat against meat.
Ali was master
When it was time to receive.
He got the juice out of it:
The aesthetic juice of the punches
He blocked or slipped.
Plus all the libidinal juice
Out of the man
Banging away at his
Indestructibly pretty face.

≈ Norman Mailer






Mailer goes on to explains why the ropes figure significantly
in the collaged illustration by Leroy Neiman

Genius is balance
On the edge of the impossible...
Ali lay back on the ropes
In the middle of the second round...
From that position
He would work for the rest of the fight
Reclining at an angle
Of ten or twenty degrees
From the vertical...
A cramped near-tortured angle
From which to box


And regain the Heavyweight Championship after knocking out
George Foreman in the eighth round.



The book cover photographer is Jack Baletti