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In October 1974, a boxer past his prime walked into a ring in Kinshasa against a champion nobody thought he could beat.
George Foreman hit harder than anyone in the sport. Muhammad Ali knew that head-on, he loses. So he did something that looked, to the crowd ringside, like defeat in slow motion. He leaned back against the ropes and let Foreman swing.
Round after round, Foreman unloaded everything he had, and Ali just absorbed it, covered up, and waited. By the eighth round, Foreman had punched himself into exhaustion. Ali uncoiled, landed five clean shots, and Foreman hit the canvas.
The crowd that thought Ali was losing had it backward the entire time. He was not retreating. He was setting up the knockout.
