Rope-a-dope take punishment in the belly". Kalinsky told him: "Do what you do in a training session: Act like a dope on the ropes." Ali then replied: "So, you want me to be a rope-a-dope?" According to Angelo Dundee, Kalinsky told Ali: "Why don't you try something like that? Sort of a dope on the ropes, letting Foreman swing away but, like in the picture, hit nothing but air." The publicist John Condon popularized the phrase "rope-a-dope". The maneuver is most commonly associated with the match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, known as The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was
George Foreman later charged that Angelo Dundee had loosened them, and this story is supported by Norman Mailer in the book "The Fight"), allowed Ali to lean back and away from Foreman's wild swings and then to clinch Foreman behind the head, forcing Foreman to expend much extra energy untangling himself. Ali also constantly pushed down on Foreman's neck but was never warned about doing so. To this day, it is unclear whether Ali's pre-fight talk of using speed and movement against Foreman had been just a diversionary tactic or whether his use of what became known as the "rope-a-dope" tactic was