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According to the popular legend of how the fight was put together, King more or less willed it into existence through a combination of guile and gumption. As the story goes, King first went to George Foreman, told him he could get him five million dollars for fighting Ali, and got him to sign a contract. Then he went to Ali and did the same. However, at that point, Don King had not a penny to actually promote the fight.{{sfn|Gast}}
According to the popular legend of how the fight was put together, King more or less willed it into existence through a combination of guile and gumption. As the story goes, King first went to George Foreman, told him he could get him five million dollars for fighting Ali, and got him to sign a contract. Then he went to Ali and did the same. However, at that point, Don King had not a penny to actually promote the fight.{{sfn|Gast}}


Madison Square Garden matchmaker Teddy Brenner, who knew a thing or two about such matters, said, “Actually, King didn’t promote the fight, al- though he did his best to make it seem that way. Video Techniques put it to- gether, with up front money from a British corporation and the rest from the government of Zaire. King was helpful in lining up the fighters, but the deal could have been made without him. For ten million dollars, which is what Foreman and Ali split, anyone could have done the job”.{{sfn|Hauser|p=263}} The five million dollars each fighter was paid in  is worth a total of roughly $,, now in.{{sfn|CPI}}
Madison Square Garden matchmaker Teddy Brenner, who knew a thing or two about such matters, said, “Actually, King didn’t promote the fight, al- though he did his best to make it seem that way. Video Techniques put it together, with up front money from a British corporation and the rest from the government of Zaire. King was helpful in lining up the fighters, but the deal could have been made without him. For ten million dollars, which is what Foreman and Ali split, anyone could have done the job”.{{sfn|Hauser|p=263}} The five million dollars each fighter was paid in 1974 is worth a total of roughly $52,200,000 now in 2020.{{sfn|CPI}}
 
Brenner’s explanation makes sense. The big money was going to come in through worldwide television coverage and the fight ended up being broad- cast live to an estimated one billion viewers, a record at that time. We’ll never know for sure, but chances are President Mobutu may have put up far less than the ten million he has been credited with. Like Don King, though, he did his best to make it seem that way.
Brenner’s explanation makes sense. The big money was going to come in through worldwide television coverage and the fight ended up being broad- cast live to an estimated one billion viewers, a record at that time. We’ll never know for sure, but chances are President Mobutu may have put up far less than the ten million he has been credited with. Like Don King, though, he did his best to make it seem that way.


Not that Mobutu was entirely without resources—both imagined and real. According to Neil Leifer, who photographed the fight for Sports Illus- trated, Mobutu owned one of only two privately-owned Boeing s at that time. In a phone interview, Leifer related the story of a photo shoot he did at the presidential palace prior to the fight. Ali and Foreman were to be per- sonally escorted down a long, exquisitely beautiful flower-lined path by the president, strolling slowly toward the amassed press corps. Leifer, a con- summate pro, arrived early and secured a good vantage point.
Not that Mobutu was entirely without resources—both imagined and real. According to Neil Leifer, who photographed the fight for ''Sports Illustrated'', Mobutu owned one of only two privately-owned Boeing 747s at that time. In a phone interview, Leifer related the story of a photo shoot he did at the presidential palace prior to the fight. Ali and Foreman were to be personally escorted down a long, exquisitely beautiful flower-lined path by the president, strolling slowly toward the amassed press corps. Leifer, a consummate pro, arrived early and secured a good vantage point.
“An official press aide came out,” he related, “and gave us very specific in- structions that we were not to cross the flower paths. No barricades had been set up.” As Mobutu and Ali approached, the photographers couldn’t contain themselves and the jostling began.
 
“Those Europeans were aggressive,” Leifer laughed. “I think it was a cou- ple of French guys who started it . . . long story short, by the time the session was over, there wasn’t a single flower left . . . What could they do? They weren’t going to shoot the foreign press corps. I pitied the poor press aide, though. I hope they didn’t shoot him!”.{{sfn|Leifer}}
“An official press aide came out,” he related, “and gave us very specific instructions that we were not to cross the flower paths. No barricades had been set up.” As Mobutu and Ali approached, the photographers couldn’t contain themselves and the jostling began.
Born Joseph Desire Mobutu, upon seizing power with CIA help in , Mobutu became Mobutu Sese Seke Kuku Ngbendu waza Banga, which translates to, “the all-conquering warrior, who because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake”.{{sfn|French}} Like Don King, Mobutu was familiar with homicide. Six months after taking office, he had four former cabinet ministers hanged be- fore , spectators.{{sfn|French}} In the film and in his book, The Fight, Mailer relates the unconfirmed tale of Mobutu’s detention cells beneath the Kin- shasa stadium and the summary execution of  unfortunates in order to deter crime during the festival.
 
With borders on nine countries, Mobutu promoted Zaire to Washington, D.C. and Paris. He received economic and political support in exchange for allowing Zaire to be used as a staging area for Cold War era interventions and covert activities throughout Central Africa, most notably against the Marx- ist regime in Angola. Moreover, Zaire had extensive mineral deposits, espe- cially copper, which provided revenue for his grandiose economic schemes. Despite these projects, such as the world’s largest hydroelectric dam near Kinshasa, the country had few viable roads or other infrastructure. In a spe- cialreporttotheNewYorkTimesInternationalEditionsubtitled,“Masterof Ruin,”HowardFrenchwrotein,whenMobutuwasstillpresident,“Life
“Those Europeans were aggressive,” Leifer laughed. “I think it was a couple of French guys who started it . . . long story short, by the time the session was over, there wasn’t a single flower left . . . What could they do? They weren’t going to shoot the foreign press corps. I pitied the poor press aide, though. I hope they didn’t shoot him!”.{{sfn|Leifer}}
BILL LOWENBURG • 215
 
Born Joseph Desire Mobutu, upon seizing power with CIA help in 1965, Mobutu became Mobutu Sese Seke Kuku Ngbendu waza Banga, which translates to, “the all-conquering warrior, who because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake”.{{sfn|French}} Like Don King, Mobutu was familiar with homicide. Six months after taking office, he had four former cabinet ministers hanged before 50,000 spectators.{{sfn|French}} In the film and in his book, ''The Fight'', Mailer relates the unconfirmed tale of Mobutu’s detention cells beneath the Kinshasa stadium and the summary execution of 100 unfortunates in order to deter crime during the festival.
 
With borders on nine countries, Mobutu promoted Zaire to Washington, D.C. and Paris. He received economic and political support in exchange for allowing Zaire to be used as a staging area for Cold War era interventions and covert activities throughout Central Africa, most notably against the Marxist regime in Angola. Moreover, Zaire had extensive mineral deposits, especially copper, which provided revenue for his grandiose economic schemes. Despite these projects, such as the world’s largest hydroelectric dam near Kinshasa, the country had few viable roads or other infrastructure. In a special report to the ''New York Times International Edition'' subtitled, “Master of Ruin,” Howard French wrote in1997,when Mobutu was still president, “Life in a vast country deprived of roads, health care, electricity, telephones, and often education has reverted to a brutishness not known since the 1940s”.{{sfn|French}}
 
Using other autocrats as role models, Mobutu’s personality cult had few rivals during his era. For weeks at a time, the press in Zaire was forbidden to mention any Zairian other than the president. “Mobutism” was cultivated, being described as, “The sum total of his actions . . . just as the sum total of Mao’s actions constitute Maoism.” A Zairian citizen related years later that the first 15 minutes of the day in elementary school required students to dance and shout the name of the president.{{sfn|French}}
 
Unlike the open secret of Muhammad Ali’s dalliances, Mobutu’s sexual conquests were celebrated. Described as “looking like a sadist,” by Mailer, Mobutu fathered twenty-one children by official count. However, it should come as no surprise that he adopted ''driot de cuissage'', the right to deflower, as local chiefs offered him virgins on his trips across Zaire. The practice was considered–-or required to be considered—an honor by the virgin’s family.{{sfn|Van Raybrouck|p=384}}
 
Mobutu’s usefulness to Washington and Paris faded as the Cold War wound down. In 1994, he briefly returned to importance as over a million Rwandan Hutus, many of whom had perpetrated mass genocide, fled into Zaire. Surviving Tutsis, of whom up to a million had been slaughtered, had, in a bizarre twist, assumed power. Mobutu reinstituted relations with France, who had been a major backer of the genocidal Hutus.{{sfn|French}} Like boxing, the backstories of international politics are almost always ugly.
 
Nothing would be easier than to apply 20/20 hindsight in the year 2020 to attack Muhammad Ali’s culpability in accepting five million dollars to fight in a country ruled by a brutal dictator whose crimes were well-known, especially given Ali’s even-then growing reputation as a crusader for human rights and humanitarian causes. At the time, however, Ali expressed nothing but appreciation, even awe, at Zaire’s very existence. “It don’t seem possible,” he said, “but 28 million people run this country and not one white man is involved”.{{sfn|Goldstein|p=111}} As for the money coming from Mobutu and the dictator’s goal to promote himself and Zaire, Ali was only too happy to take it. “Countries go to war to get their names put on the map. And wars cost a lot more than ten million dollars”.{{sfn|Gast}} As Ali told British challenger Joe Bugner in private before they fought the following year, “Whatever happens, boxing is like business”.{{sfn|Brunt|p=153}}
 
The same 2020 self-righteous political correctness epidemic in our culture today could be applied to Ali’s embrace of the chant “Ali, ''boma ye''”—Ali, ''kill him'', by Zairian fans. In the context of the times, from his pre-fight antics to waving his glove to lead the crowd in the chant between rounds, it was all theater for Ali. Conversely, in what may be the film’s most poignant moment, one day, while receiving a post-workout rubdown, Foreman reflected, quietly, “When I walk down the street, the kids follow me, some screaming, George Foreman, ''boma ye''. I don’t like that. If they say anything about me, they should say George Foreman likes being here, George Foreman loves Africa, not George Foreman, ''kill him''. I don’t like that”.{{sfn|Gast}}
 
With scenes like this, ''When We Were Kings'' does an admirable job of chronicling the weeks up to the fight, adding montage sequences set to musical performances from the Zaire 74 festival. The film has been criticized by some as depicting life in Zaire with more of a positive spin than it deserves, and while I can see the point, it doesn’t spoil the movie for me.
 
What does spoil the film for me in places is the heavy-handed return to the succubus reference, both visually and with the leitmotif. I remember being angered by it when the film was originally released. Now, after repeated viewings, the effect has diminished, but I find myself deliberately ignoring it and still wishing they’d stuck to boxing. It is, after all, primarily a boxing film. According to the Yale Film Archive, Gast recovered 250 hours of exposed 16mm film and audio tape from Liberian investors, from which he edited the Zaire parts of the movie. I wish he’d included more of that material instead of relying on Plimpton’s comment to establish what turned out to be, for me at least, an unsuccessful sub plot.
 
In Gast’s defense, though, who knows what personal and financial dynamics came into play when producer Taylor Hackford joined the project in 1995 and arranged for the studio interviews? Plimpton floated that comment and the editing team must have thought it too good to end up on the cutting room floor. The effect is one of the tail wagging the dog. And I wonder what Miriam Makeba thought of it.
 
The early betting line on the fight was seven-to-one, Foreman. By fight time, the odds had dropped to four-to-one, little consolation considering many in the sports world believed Ali would, at best, be knocked out, and, at worst, killed. Plimpton said, “The sense was, we were watching a man about to go to the gallows.” Howard Cosell, the toupee’d, verbose ABC commentator who had supported Ali throughout his career, delivers a morbid, premature eulogy that is included in the film, representing the mood of the moment.{{sfn|Gast}}


216 • THE MAILER REVIEW
In Ali’s pre-fight dressing room, according to Mailer, there was tense silence, until Ali led his entourage in a half-hearted call-and-response promising to dance. What Norman may not have heard was when, according to Bernie Yuman, who was also there, Ali first said to his shaky followers, “What’s the matter? This ain’t nothing but another day in the dramatic life of Muhammad Ali”.{{sfn|Hauser|p=273}} To this day, I’m not convinced by Mailer’s contention that Ali was terrified of Foreman. Norman may have been projecting his own awe for Foreman on to Ali, as conveyed in his description of George hitting the heavy bag. But as Ali told the press earlier, “Us Black folks ain’t afraid of one another the way White folks is afraid of us”.{{sfn|Hauser|p=270}}
in a vast country deprived of roads, health care, electricity, telephones, and often education has reverted to a brutishness not known since the s”.{{sfn|French}}
Using other autocrats as role models, Mobutu’s personality cult had few rivals during his era. For weeks at a time, the press in Zaire was forbidden to mention any Zairian other than the president. “Mobutism” was cultivated, being described as, “The sum total of his actions . . . just as the sum total of Mao’s actions constitute Maoism.” A Zairian citizen related years later that the first  minutes of the day in elementary school required students to dance and shout the name of the president.{{sfn|French}}
Unlike the open secret of Muhammad Ali’s dalliances, Mobutu’s sexual conquests were celebrated. Described as “looking like a sadist,” by Mailer, Mobutu fathered twenty-one children by official count. However, it should come as no surprise that he adopted driot de cuissage, the right to deflower, as local chiefs offered him virgins on his trips across Zaire. The practice was considered–-or required to be considered—an honor by the virgin’s family.{{sfn|Van Raybrouck|p=384}}
Mobutu’s usefulness to Washington and Paris faded as the Cold War wound down. In , he briefly returned to importance as over a million Rwandan Hutus, many of whom had perpetrated mass genocide, fled into Zaire. Surviving Tutsis, of whom up to a million had been slaughtered, had, in a bizarre twist, assumed power. Mobutu reinstituted relations with France, who had been a major backer of the genocidal Hutus.{{sfn|French}} Like boxing, the backstories of international politics are almost always ugly.
Nothing would be easier than to apply / hindsight in the year  to attack Muhammad Ali’s culpability in accepting five million dollars to fight in a country ruled by a brutal dictator whose crimes were well-known, especially given Ali’s even-then growing reputation as a crusader for human rights and humanitarian causes. At the time, however, Ali expressed nothing but appreciation, even awe, at Zaire’s very existence. “It don’t seem possi- ble,” he said, “but  million people run this country and not one white man is involved”.{{sfn|Goldstein|p=111}} As for the money coming from Mobutu and the dictator’s goal to promote himself and Zaire, Ali was only too happy to take it. “Countries go to war to get their names put on the map. And wars cost a lot more than ten million dollars”.{{sfn|Gast}} As Ali told British challenger Joe Bugner in private before they fought the following year, “Whatever happens, boxing is like business”.{{sfn|Brunt|p=153}}


The same  self-righteous political correctness epidemic in our culture today could be applied to Ali’s embrace of the chant “Ali, boma ye”—Ali, kill him, by Zairian fans. In the context of the times, from his pre-fight antics to waving his glove to lead the crowd in the chant between rounds, it was all theater for Ali. Conversely, in what may be the film’s most poignant mo- ment, one day, while receiving a post-workout rubdown, Foreman reflected, quietly, “When I walk down the street, the kids follow me, some screaming, George Foreman, boma ye. I don’t like that. If they say anything about me, they should say George Foreman likes being here, George Foreman loves Africa, not George Foreman, kill him. I don’t like that”.{{sfn|Gast}}
The fight starts and Mailer does a brilliant job of describing the action, summarizing his even-better blow-by-blow account fleshed out in ''The Fight''. Norman is at his best here, nearly equaling his famous description of the 1962 ring death of Benny Paret at the hands of Emile Griffith and his piece for ''Life'' magazine on the first Ali-Frazier fight.
With scenes like this, When We Were Kings does an admirable job of chronicling the weeks up to the fight, adding montage sequences set to mu- sical performances from the Zaire  festival. The film has been criticized by some as depicting life in Zaire with more of a positive spin than it deserves, and while I can see the point, it doesn’t spoil the movie for me.
What does spoil the film for me in places is the heavy-handed return to the succubus reference, both visually and with the leitmotif. I remember being angered by it when the film was originally released. Now, after repeated viewings, the effect has diminished, but I find myself deliberately ignoring it and still wishing they’d stuck to boxing. It is, after all, primarily a boxing film. According to the Yale Film Archive, Gast recovered  hours of ex- posed mm film and audio tape from Liberian investors, from which he edited the Zaire parts of the movie. I wish he’d included more of that mate- rial instead of relying on Plimpton’s comment to establish what turned out to be, for me at least, an unsuccessful sub plot.
In Gast’s defense, though, who knows what personal and financial dy- namics came into play when producer Taylor Hackford joined the project in  and arranged for the studio interviews? Plimpton floated that comment and the editing team must have thought it too good to end up on the cut- ting room floor. The effect is one of the tail wagging the dog. And I wonder what Miriam Makeba thought of it.
The early betting line on the fight was seven-to-one, Foreman. By fight time, the odds had dropped to four-to-one, little consolation considering many in the sports world believed Ali would, at best, be knocked out, and, at worst, killed. Plimpton said, “The sense was, we were watching a man about to go to the gallows.” Howard Cosell, the toupee’d, verbose ABC com- mentator who had supported Ali throughout his career, delivers a morbid,
BILL LOWENBURG • 217


218 • THE MAILER REVIEW
premature eulogy that is included in the film, representing the mood of the moment.{{sfn|Gast}}
In Ali’s pre-fight dressing room, according to Mailer, there was tense si- lence, until Ali led his entourage in a half-hearted call-and-response prom- ising to dance. What Norman may not have heard was when, according to Bernie Yuman, who was also there, Ali first said to his shaky followers, “What’s the matter? This ain’t nothing but another day in the dramatic life of Muhammad Ali”.{{sfn|Hauser|p=273}} To this day, I’m not convinced by Mailer’s contention that Ali was terrified of Foreman. Norman may have been pro- jecting his own awe for Foreman on to Ali, as conveyed in his description of George hitting the heavy bag. But as Ali told the press earlier, “Us Black folks ain’t afraid of one another the way White folks is afraid of us”.{{sfn|Hauser|p=270}}
The fight starts and Mailer does a brilliant job of describing the action, summarizing his even-better blow-by-blow account fleshed out in The Fight. Norman is at his best here, nearly equaling his famous description of the  ring death of Benny Paret at the hands of Emile Griffith and his piece for Life magazine on the first Ali-Frazier fight.
In round two, Ali begins the rope-a-dope, so it’s time to shine some light on the myth of Ali’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, loosening the ropes prior to the fight. Mailer has, to some degree, helped to perpetuate this myth. Ac- cording to Dundee’s autobiography, My View From The Corner (a great read for all boxing fans), upon inspecting the ring the afternoon before the fight, Angelo and assistant Bobby Goodman discovered it had been set up by peo- ple who had never seen a boxing ring.{{sfn|Dundee|p=181}} Having set up a ring myself several times before matches I promoted, I can attest to the fact that it requires experience to do so properly.
In round two, Ali begins the rope-a-dope, so it’s time to shine some light on the myth of Ali’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, loosening the ropes prior to the fight. Mailer has, to some degree, helped to perpetuate this myth. Ac- cording to Dundee’s autobiography, My View From The Corner (a great read for all boxing fans), upon inspecting the ring the afternoon before the fight, Angelo and assistant Bobby Goodman discovered it had been set up by peo- ple who had never seen a boxing ring.{{sfn|Dundee|p=181}} Having set up a ring myself several times before matches I promoted, I can attest to the fact that it requires experience to do so properly.
The ring in the th of May Stadium had a pronounced list, one corner support having sunk into the turf. The ropes were sagging due to improper installation along with the tropical heat and humidity. Angelo and Goodman worked for several hours to jack up the sunken corner and install blocks under it. As for the ropes, they had to scrounge up a razor blade and use it to cut over a foot of slack from each rope before reinstalling and tightening them. According to Dundee, if they hadn’t attended to the ring, by fight time the ropes would have been sagging onto the canvas.{{sfn|Dundee|p=182}} His ac- count is verified by Goodman in a separate interview.{{sfn|Hauser|p=272}}
The ring in the th of May Stadium had a pronounced list, one corner support having sunk into the turf. The ropes were sagging due to improper installation along with the tropical heat and humidity. Angelo and Goodman worked for several hours to jack up the sunken corner and install blocks under it. As for the ropes, they had to scrounge up a razor blade and use it to cut over a foot of slack from each rope before reinstalling and tightening them. According to Dundee, if they hadn’t attended to the ring, by fight time the ropes would have been sagging onto the canvas.{{sfn|Dundee|p=182}} His ac- count is verified by Goodman in a separate interview.{{sfn|Hauser|p=272}}
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