Rumble in the Jungle Turns 35

"Beyond the stucco villa, the Congo River flowed swiftly," Dave Anderson wrote in The New York Times. "On the law several dozen Africans, men in their slacks and bright shires and women in their long dresses had come for a glimpse of the famous man now that he was the world heavyweight champion again."

Anderson's words are of no recent vintage, but they remain as vivid and as lucid as the day he crafted them 35 years ago.

His words are remembered today because this is the anniversary of the title fight Anderson wrote about. Now as then, you can hardly forget it, not if you consider yourself a Muhammad Ali fan.

Even if you didn't watch the bout live or weren't born until after that autumn day in 1974, you have seen film of it or have read about Ali's "Rumble in the Jungle."

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Tyson Opens Up to Oprah

The documentary was crass and coarse -- a vulgar, unedited introspective into Mike Tyson the man. The film, a hauntingly brutal look inside one of boxing’s most enigmatic figures, left people with not much to like about Tyson.

They had long ago learned to revile Tyson the person as they revered Tyson the prizefighter, so nobody needed a film to expose that hard side of his character. Yet as much as people knew about Tyson, they couldn’t possibly know all of him, which made his documentary even more riveting.

"I was so impressed with what you were able to reveal about yourself," talk show queen Oprah Winfrey told Tyson when he sat in front of her for an interview that aired Monday. "It feels like it's more than about you; it really is a study in humanity."

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Oscar's Wrong: Pretty Boy Will Win

Don’t listen to Oscar De La Hoya. I’m not saying De La Hoya has lost his damn mind, but, well … if the man thinks Juan Manuel Marquez will beat Floyd Mayweather Jr., then the "Golden Boy" has taken a few too many blows to the head.

The Marquez-Mayweather fight, which De La Hoya is promoting, takes place tomorrow night in Las Vegas, and the bout has the potential to be the 2009 Fight of the Year, which isn’t saying much for a sport that is becoming as irrelevant in the United States as cricket.

For a lot of reasons, Mayweather and Marquez should have fought awhile ago -- long before Mayweather took a 21-month sabbatical to do whatever uber-rich, self-absorbed personalities like him do when they have too much idle time and money but no common sense.

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