When We Were King Page #4

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The dream is becoming a reality.

'Don King

went to George Foreman

'and got him to sign an agreement

'saying that if King could deliver

$5 million, Foreman would fight Ali.

'Then King went to Ali

and made the same deal,

'so Don King now had both fighters,

'their signatures

on a piece of paper.

'What he didn't have

was $10 million.'

..a festival to complement

this great sporting event,

the greatest sporting event

in history.

- Of all time!

- All time, as the champ says.

Greatest event of all time!

Bigger than Evel Knievel and

the Kentucky Derby on the same day.

The president of Zaire was willing

to put $10 million

of his country's own very scarce,

hard-earned currency on the line,

not for any

short-term economic reason

but because he felt

that the fight would be good

in terms of promoting Zaire and also

in terms of promoting himself,

and as Ali said at the time,

countries go to war

to get their names on the map

and wars cost

a lot more than $10 million.

Some of the most dynamic

performers from Afro-America

will appear at the stadium in

Kinshasa on the 20th, 21st and 22nd,

with this theatrical release.

It will be James Brown,

soul brother number one...

- Is he playing?

- Yes, James Brown will be there.

We will have BB King, The Spinners...

This is the first assembly in history

where the top-notch Blacks of America

and the people of Africa had

something together, all on a level,

we're all meeting and learning more

about each other,

the first assembly among American

Black men and Africans in history

and it's a big honour.

Plus I gotta whup George!

'Got to whup George!'

We're gonna rumble in the jungle!

Come on, come on.

Speak up, boy. Go ahead.

- Good boy.

Get down.

- Quiet.

- George?

Is this fight against Ali

the toughest of your career?

Could be, could be. I doubt it.

This is Muhammad Ali, September 10th

at New York City airport,

en route to Zaire to reclaim

the heavyweight title of the world.

Champ, what would you like to say

to the children of the world?

I'd like to say, mainly where they

understand English in America,

to...live a clean life,

stay off the dope.

It's tearing the country up.

Also, if they wanna be like me,

I'm going to whup George Foreman,

and when they see this

I will have beaten him.

Tell them to quit eating

so much candy,

I have three rotten teeth

and I had to have one of 'em pulled,

I can't chew my food like I should.

Eat natural foods

because we must whup Mr Tooth Decay.

I got one right there and one there.

Ali told us he's going to use part

of his money to build a hospital.

Do you intend to use part of your

money for something, a project?

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