World Book Day 2022: Five Unmissable Reads From The Ring

Mailer’s The Fight comes out on top in “World Book Day 2022: Five Unmissable Reads From The Ring.” Kieran Spratt writes:

The meeting between an aging Muhammad Ali and the seemingly unstoppable George Foreman in the jungle of Zaire remains as important now as it did 48 years ago. This is when Ali shocked the world (and Big George) with his infamous rope-a-dope technique to regain the heavyweight title.

Written by Norman Mailer, one of the pioneers of ‘New Journalism’ alongside Truman Capote and Hunter S. Thompson, The Fight puts the reader smack bang in the middle of the biggest sporting event the world has ever seen, with unprecedented access to both camps that expands the mythology of ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ even further.

“And Ali, gloves to his head, elbows to his ribs, stood and swayed and was rattled and banged and shaken like a grasshopper at the top of a reed when the wind whips.” Quotes like this are worth the price of admission alone.