KINSHASA, Congo (AP) – Alfred Mamba remembers the madness that gripped the Zaire soccer stadium now generally known as Congoas the hard-fought heavyweight title fight lasted eight rounds between the underdog Muhammad Ali and the seemingly invincible George Foreman.

“It was a big party,” Mamba said, recalling his father, certainly one of the founders of Congo’s boxing federation, taking him to a fight when he was 15.

Looking through a stack of photos he believed were taken during the fight, Mamba recalled the stadium erupting as Ali and Foreman got here out for the long-awaited ” Rumble in the jungle ”, as the competition was commonly called.

“When Foreman was throwing punches, the audience was screaming,” recalls Mamba, now a boxing referee. “But Ali surprised everyone with his hook technique. And how he boxed on the ropes. And voila, that’s how he won the fight.”

The hysteria of the crowd followed the series of blows until Ali’s last blow. It also created a brand new generation of fighters and fans who were inspired to maintain the country on the world boxing stage.

Ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of the Ali vs. Foreman fight, boxers and fans from across Africa descended on Kinshasa, the capital of the Congo, for the just concluded twenty first African Amateur Boxing Championships, during which the Stade des Martyrs stadium and primary roads were illuminated.

Landry Matete Kankonde, who represented Congo in the men’s heavyweight division, lost to Karamba Kebe of Senegal, but said he still dreams of becoming the next Ali, crediting the 1974 fight with putting Congo on the map.

“The next superstar will be me,” Kankonde, 24, said with a giant smile on his face.

But in this impoverished country of 110 million people, most of them young, people like Kankonde fight against adversity to succeed in the highest level.

Although Congo is certainly one of Africa’s most successful boxing nations, it still lacks proper sports infrastructure reminiscent of a gymnasium for the national team, leaving a lot of them to coach in open spaces, Mamba said.

In the eastern region, where a deadly security crisis has resulted in certainly one of the world’s worst humanitarian disastersmany can only dream of getting out of conflict zones and IDP camps to get to an official competition in a distant capital.

Even in Kinshasa, amateurs often train on roadsides and streets without equipment, hiding and moving their arms as they execute their shots.

“Congo is a country where people are motivated by the suffering we experience here,” Kankonde said. “Every time a Congolese boxer gives his all, it gives us strength to see what we go through here.”

The 1974 fight was certainly one of boxing’s most memorable moments.

Mobutu Sese Seko, the Congolese dictator who desired to put the (*50*) African nation in the highlight, partnered with organizers to bring the competition to the country, committing $5 million to the fight.

Just before dawn on October 30, 1974, as soldiers with machine guns surveyed the ringside crowd and an enormous portrait of Mobuto towering over the Stade des Martyrs, spectators from around the world watched the 32-year-old Ali fight – longing for a comeback after being stripped of his world title for refusing to be drafted into the military for the Vietnam War – and the then undefeated 25-year-old Foreman.

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Many believed Ali had no probability against Foreman because he had been out of the ring for years after being sanctioned.

“People were praying before the fight that Ali wouldn’t die,” said Bill Caplan, Foreman’s public relations specialist in Zaire.

“I think it was one of the top 10 upsets in boxing,” Ed Schuyler Jr., a longtime boxing author for The Associated Press who was in Congo to cover the fight, said of Ali’s victory.

The fight ended with Ali dropping Foreman in the eighth round, but that was only the starting of the passion for the sport amongst many Congolese. “From then on, everyone wanted to learn boxing,” Mamba said. He was inspired by each competitions and his father, also a judge.

Congo has continued to thrive for 50 years, producing boxing champions reminiscent of Sumbu Kalambay, a Congolese-Italian champion who held the World Boxing Association (WBA) middleweight world title in the Eighties, and Junior Ilunga Makabu, who held the title WBC cruiserweight in the early Twenties.

People in this country proceed to fall in love with the sport, including Josue Loloje, who was amongst the spectators at the Kinshasa stadium during the African Championships.

“The Ali vs. Foreman fight is the foundation of the talent emerging in Congolese boxing,” Loloje said between fights. “It all started there.”

Jennifer Lopez showed up at AFI Fest 2024 to promote her upcoming film “Unstoppable” which is produced by her soon-to-be ex-husband, Ben Affleck.

The 55-year-old actress’s red carpet appearance at a Hollywood event on October 26 created a lot of buzz due to its revealing nature.

J.Lo arrived on the TCL Chinese Theater wearing a white shirt, fitted jacket, peach mini bubble skirt and brown high-heeled shoes with a 3- to 4-inch platform.

A number of days later she shared video her look on Instagram, which received over 586,000 likes and tons of of comments from people calling her “stunning” and saying, “This look is EVERYTHING. I’m proud of you!”

But when the comments were completely different Daily Mail. posted an article in regards to the singer’s band, wherein many individuals criticized the looks of the 170 cm tall celebrity within the comments.

One commenter wrote: “Stripper again! She won’t ever learn. The response to this comment was, “She doesn’t like being short. Let her pretend. The poor girl has had such a miserable yr.

Lopez has also been dragged online for allegedly pretending to be desperate for attention.

A 3rd said: “Way too old for this revealing outfit. She must have some pride and leave these skimpy outfits to the younger generation. Plus there’s that lip quiver that makes her look like she’s desperate to look sexy, however the effect is the other. Poor woman.

Another person wrote, “Aging gracefully defies this. The outfit, the wig, the shoes – she shouts, “Everyone is looking at me.” I’m ashamed of her.”

Commenters also brought up her pending divorce from Affleck, 52, but in response to J.Lo’s latest outfits, including one which said, “You came out just in time, Ben!”

“Unstoppable” is scheduled for a limited theatrical release on December 6. In addition to Lopez, the film also stars Emmy winner Jharrel Jerome of Netflix’s “I’m a Virgo” and “When They See Us.”

Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña and Don Cheadle are also a part of the solid of the sports drama directed by William Goldenberg.

In addition to Affleck as a producer, “Unstoppable” is also produced by his longtime business partner Matt Damon through their production company Artists Equity.

Principal photography on “Unstoppable” began in Los Angeles in May 2023, before filming had to be halted due to the Writers Guild of America strike later that yr.

Production resumed in December 2023, after a 148-day work interruption. “Unstoppable” premiered in September on the Toronto International Film Festival.

Between “Unstoppable” filming in 2023 and TIFF in 2024, Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck on August 20, 2024. They formally separated in April.

Lopez and Affleck initially became a public couple in 2002. The duo formerly generally known as Bennifer announced their engagement in November of that yr before splitting in 2004.

The “Gigli” co-stars began dating again in 2021, and in July 2022, they officially married in Las Vegas. The following month, JLo and Ben hosted a special wedding celebration for family and friends.

As previously reported, Lopez filed divorce papers just hours after Ben Affleck flew his ex-wife Jennifer Garner from New Haven, Conn., to Los Angeles in August.

Affleck and Garner traveled across the country to drop off their daughter Violet at Yale University in Connecticut. The “Daredevil” castmates were married from 2005 to 2018.

Despite the divorce drama, Lopez, Affleck and Garner recently attended the identical event on October 18 in Los Angeles.

Affleck and Garner arrived with their 15-year-old daughter Seraphina. The other two children, Violet, 18, and Samuel, 12, weren’t seen. JLo showed up within the Brentwood neighborhood with Emme, one in every of her 16-year-old twins with ex-husband Marc Anthony, and two unknown guests.

It’s often said that hindsight is 20/20 – and within the case of Cynthia Erivo, it proves true. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight on the 2024 CFDA Fashion Awards on Monday night, the award-winning actress reflected on her recent backlash against a superfan-edited version of the poster for the highly anticipated film adaptation of “Wicked.”

“It wasn’t necessarily a slap. I actually protect this role. I’m very enthusiastic about it and I do know the fans adore it too,” she said publication. “I believe for me it was only a human moment where I wanted to protect little Elphaba, and it was like a human moment. I probably should have called my friends, but I’m nice.

Earlier this month, Erivo made headlines after reacting to a fan-modified version of the film’s official poster. Despite the intention to mirror the illustrated artwork of the unique and much-loved Broadway musical, Erivo was offended by the fan-made poster, which was edited to obscure the star’s eyes.

“This is the wildest and most offensive thing I have ever seen,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories on the time. “None of this is funny. None of this is sweet. This humiliates me. It humiliates us. The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real person who chose to look straight into the camera barrel, at you, the viewer… because without words we communicate with our eyes.”

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The actress went on to explain that the video and its official artwork were intended to pay homage and never to recreate the unique poster.

“Editing my face and hiding my eyes is erasing me. And it’s just deeply painful,” she added.

This response was followed by a fan who reportedly created a poster that Erivo found offensive on Xexplaining the intentions behind the poster.

“This is and always has been an innocent fan edit intended to pay homage to the original Broadway poster and there is nothing wrong with that,” they wrote within the X thread, reposting the photo. “Although I initially removed it because I felt it was the right thing to do, fan posters have been around for as long as movies have existed. I never intended to cause any harm… I will also say that Cynthia is right to have her feelings on this matter, and I am also right to want to stand by my version of the poster because I truly meant no harm and I just created it to show love for the original. Both may be true.”

The first a part of the film adaptation of “Wicked” will hit theaters on November 22, and the sequel is scheduled for release next yr.