It’s been forty years since Muhammad Ali stunned George Forman in Zaire, as he tricked Forman into punching himself to exhaustion with the now famous rope-a-dope strategy. 25-year-old Forman had recently destroyed Joe Frazier and was a huge 4-1 favorite heading into the fight against the 32-year-old former champ, but he was no match for Ali’s mind games and craftiness.

Here’s a great write-up of the anniversary from Bill Dwyre and the video above has clips from the fight and from a documentary as well.

I miss the days when boxing had so many characters and so much drama. Nothing today can match it.