In 1974, a billion people — then a quarter of the world’s population — sat down at their televisions. They were waiting for a man with thunder on his face to walk into a ring at 4.30am, his time, to break a fallen champion seven years his elder.
The glowering man was George Foreman; perhaps the hardest puncher of all time, built from rage and concrete, and considered invincible. The fallen champion was Muhammad Ali; a protester of the Vietnam War and champion of black rights, who had been banned from fighting for three and a half years at the height of his powers for his conscientious objection. He returned older, slower, no longer dancing. He had two losses on his record.
