Restraint
May 18th, 2009
Ali accepts Foreman’s blows
“The crutch of Time can do more than the steely club of Hercules.” Baltasar Gracián
Nothing can be more disarming than restraint in the face of powerful forces you can’t control. To simply lay against the ropes. Hold back. Let the forces around you work themselves out. Sometimes it means accepting the blows, while protecting yourself in the best way possible until the time is right for you to act. The right time to make your move.
No one thinks of the courage, strength, and fortitude that restraint requires of us. Our instincts compel us to act quickly in face of perceived threat or danger. Push out, quickly. Fight or flee. Our evolutionary heritage has wired us with the decision rule, “it’s better to be wrong and act quickly, than to weigh it all out to be accurate.” In the wilds, the time you take for accuracy, could be the last time you see. When running from lions, it’s a great strategy.
But what if you’re in the ring and there’s no running, no readily available escape. And what if to fight, at least at that moment, puts you in even greater jeopardy. It takes over-riding millions of years of evolutionary programming to lay back, protect yourself, and wait.
On the night of Octoer 20, 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire, one of the greatest and most cunning fighters ever, Muhammad Ali, came to such a moment. After the first round, Ali came to the sudden realization that he couldn’t master his opponent, the powerful George Forman, by taking him head on. He couldn’t out punch him. Forman was far stronger. He couldn’t out dance him. Foreman was far younger, and would endlessly stalk him. He couldn’t intimidate him. Foreman was confident and fearless.
Foreman had dominated every opponent who had entered the ring with him. He’d readily knocked out Joe Fraziar and Ken Norton. Two boxers who had handed Ali his only losses.
Foreman crushes Joe Frazier
What strategy did Ali come to? He laid against the ropes and waited. The famous Rope-a-Dope. It’s unimaginable to think of the blows Ali suffered for three rounds. Foreman owned arguably one of the most powerful punches of any boxer in history. The continuous volley of blows to Ali’s gut and head were punishing, even as Ali did the best he could to protect himself.
But Ali waited. He waited knowing that eventually Foreman’s force would punch itself out. All he had to do was survive until that time.
Of course, most of us aren’t boxers in a ring. But in our day to day there are times when we find ourselves against the ropes with no place to go, and lashing out would make matters even worse. There are forces around us we can’t seem to control. Sometimes, the best strategy? Hold back. Restraint.
By the 8th round Foreman had punched himself out. In one of the most amazing moments in boxing history, George Foreman was knocked out. As the old saying goes, “Time and I can take on any two.”
from When We Were Kings, Ali masters the beast in Zaire (Watch it!)