The Rumble in the Jungle age 45 — at that time, the oldest man ever to win the title. Foreman and Ali became friends after the fight. Ali had trouble walking to the stage at the 1996 Oscars to be part of the group receiving the Oscar for "When We Were Kings" (1996), a documentary of the fight in Zaire, due to his Parkinson's syndrome. George Foreman helped him up the steps to receive the Oscar. Over the years, George Foreman revised his opinions on Muhammad Ali and on The Rumble in the Jungle, on several accounts. In 2012, "The Telegraph" reported Foreman's declaration: "We
Muhammad Ali corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counter-punching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the "Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom—letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will—that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round,