Zaire 74 footage from the festival. Zaire 74 Zaire 74 was a three-day live music festival that took place on September 22 to 24, 1974 at the 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). The concert, conceived by South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and record producer Stewart Levine, was meant to be a major promotional event for the heavyweight boxing championship match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, known as The Rumble in the Jungle. When an injury forced Foreman to postpone the fight by six weeks, the festival's intended audience of international tourists was all
The Rumble in the Jungle dubbed the rope-a-dope). As a result, Foreman spent his energy throwing punches (without earning points) that either did not hit Ali or were deflected in a way that made it difficult for Foreman to hit Ali's head, while sapping Foreman's strength due to the large number of punches he threw. This loss of energy was key to Ali's "rope-a-dope" tactic. Meanwhile, Ali took every opportunity to shoot straight punches to Foreman's face (which was soon visibly puffy). When the two fighters were locked in clinches, Ali consistently out-wrestled Foreman, using tactics such as leaning on Foreman to make Foreman support