When We Were Kings Page #6

Sucker, look at you!

You out, sucker.

Ali, boma ye!

Ali, boma ye!

Ali, boma ye!

Ali, boma ye!

That mean kill him!

When I walk

down the street kids follow me

screaming "George Foreman, bumba yu"

er, "boma ye", yeah.

And that hasn't...

I don't think that's so nice.

I'd like, if they have anything

to say about me they could say

"George Foreman loves Africa"

or "George Foreman loves being here"

not "George Foreman, kill him,"

I don't like that.

Boma ye!

Boma ye!

George Foreman.

Boma ye! Boma ye!

- There he is!

- Boma ye!

Sucker, you wasn't nothing!

Even they understand English.

'We were all for Muhammad Ali.

'Foreman? We didn't know him.

'Foreman said "Why?

'"I'm black,

blacker than Muhammad Ali.

'"Why all this bias?"

'Yes, Muhammad Ali, he was lighter,

'but he was a real person,

he was genuine.

'Muhammad Ali could have been

even lighter-skinned

'but for us

he was defending the good cause,

'for Africans and the whole world.'

Watch this, seven punches.

I'm gonna fight for the prestige,

not for me

but to uplift my little brothers

who are sleeping

on concrete floors today in America.

Black people living on welfare,

who can't eat,

Black people who don't know no

knowledge of themselves or no future.

I wanna win my title and walk down

the alleys with the wine-heads,

walk with the dope addicts,

the prostitutes.

I could help people, show 'em films,

take this documentary,

and help uplift my people

in Louisville, Kentucky;

Indianapolis, Indiana;

Cincinnati, Ohio;

go through Tennessee, Florida

and Mississippi

and show Black Africans who didn't

know this was their country,

"You look like your brothers

in Alabama, in Georgia.

"They never knew you was over here."

God is blessing me

and it was an accident

to help get to all these people

and show them films I haven't seen!

I'm well and I haven't seem them!

Now I can get all these films, you

governments can let me take pictures

and I can take

all this back to America!

But - it's good to be a winner,

all I've got to do is whup Foreman.

I realise how unfortunate

and uncomfortable it is

for you guys to have travelled so far

and expecting so much

and getting so little.

'George Foreman

was a phenomenon.

'He was almost like a physical guru.

'He almost never spoke

but it was always arresting.

'You never quite knew what he meant,

it might be deep or non-responsive.

'He was Negritude.

He was this huge Black force.'

Because of this I had expected

Muhammad Ali to be here today.

I was gonna hit him in his mouth

to give you some entertainment.

Now when I go in the ring,

you see what kind of mind I got now?

Oh! Oh!

I just got to pound him.

I'm not gonna even realise...

I might look at his face

and say, "How'd I do that?"

Allah, God, I'm his tool. God got

in me on purpose for my people.

God has made this man

look like a little kid.

His so-called right hand ain't

nothing now, I don't even feel 'em!

I walk right in and take my shots

because I have God in my mind.

I'm thinking of my people being free

and I can help with just one fight.

He looks little in comparison

to what I'm getting from it!

But if I think about just me...

George Foreman knocked out

Joe Frazier like he was God.

He knocked out Ken Norton.

And the white press,

the power structure

rank me to get tired in five or six,

then I go in like Norton

and the rest of them and get scared.

But my God controls the universe.

'I was interested

in people called "fticheurs".

'They are witches, soothsayers,

'and in Western Africa

almost everybody has one.

'They go to a witch doctor

the way we would go to a dentist.'

Muhammad Ali had been

to Mobutu's fticheur.

And...

He had said that...

The fticheur had said

that a woman with trembling hands

would somehow get to Foreman.

A succubus.

'And that impressed me enormously.'

'The heavyweight

championship produces an excitement

'that's unlike

almost any other spectacle.

'It's almost physically unendurable

'to wait for that bell

to ring for the first round.

'In 1974 in Zaire, the fight started

at four in the morning,

'in order that it could be shown

on TV in America

'at a reasonable hour like 10.'

Boma ye! Boma ye!

'Before the fight,

I saw a scene that was incomparable.

'Ali's dressing room

was like a morgue.'

It was like The Last Supper.

And at a certain point Ali said,

"Why is everyone...

"so unhappy?

"What is the matter with all of you?"

The sense was that we were watching

a man who was going out to be...

going out to the gallows.

They all believed he was gonna get

defeated and they were terrified.

They thought that with his pride

he would take one of the world's

worst beatings ever

and he wouldn't give up.

And he was gonna be destroyed.

Killed or maimed, they knew not what.

But they were deeply frightened,

as if they were taking whatever fear

Ali might have had and absorbing it.

After a while he looked at Bundini

and said,

"We're gonna dance tonight."

They said, "You're gonna dance!"

Muhammad Ali was so funny

repeating this.

"What am I gonna do?!"

They said, "Dance!"

He said, "Yes!

And that man's gonna be bewildered!

"I'm gonna dance and dance!"

And they said, "You're gonna dance!"

I swear they were all crying.

And he built them up to a degree

so that for him

they became half-happy.

Here comes the

Ali people out of the dressing room

and all of the questions

will be answered.

The awesome power of George Foreman

against the varied boxing skills

of Muhammad Ali.

It's age against youth.

The experience of Muhammad Ali

against the youth and brute force

and blinding speed.

You can hear the band strike up

in the background

as Ali moves to the ring.

This is what Muhammad Ali lives for,

this is the man's life.

This may be an historic event,

Muhammad Ali coming into

the boxing ring for the last time.

Should Muhammad Ali retire,

this will be, what you're seeing now,

a very historic event.

Here comes the heavyweight champion

of the world, George Foreman,

jogging out!

George Foreman

decked out in his red robes,

coming in with his people.

'No one in the press

ever saw Mobutu

'and he didn't come to the fight.

'He watched the fight

on closed circuit.

'It was the only one in Zaire.

'He was terribly afraid

of assassination.

'This stadium

was a true arena for gladiators.

'The floor you could not see beneath

the floor was covered with blood.

'That blood had been washed away

but the effect was still there.'

There was talk

about the possibility of rain,

I don't think the weather could be

any more beautiful than it is.

Ali is getting the people to chant!

"Ali, boma ye,"

that means "Ali, kill him."

'The atmosphere before

the bell rang for that first round

'was as intense

as any I ever recall.'

As they stare, Muhammad

Ali talking to George Foreman.

Really staring at each other.

Foreman looking serious,

Ali definitely talking.

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