In the years before saturation coverage of everything from news events to sporting finals, sibling royal rivalries to the latest social media witch-hunt, there was a time when a singular moment could still bring the world to a standstill, its images and storylines resonating through the decades.

The assassination of JFK, man walking on the moon, England winning football’s World Cup to name just a few of these landmarks in time, and on October 30, 1974, in the previously uncharted civilisation of Zaire, the Rumble in the Jungle.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of boxing’s high watermark for sporting drama and cultural significance, when the iconic Muhammad Ali defeated the giant George Foreman in a tactical masterclass to regain the world heavyweight title.

On its own, the meeting of the ‘Greatest’ as Ali referred to himself and the unbeaten champion who had slain all before him, with the heavyweight championship of the world on the line, was a typically compelling starting point. But there was so much more to an event on which millions of words have been written and countless hours of footage aired.

Former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (L) and titleholder US George Foreman (R) fight on October 30, 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire during their world heavyweight championship match. Ali won by knocking out Foreman in the eighth round. (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Kinshasa, Zaire, for a start, the unlikely destination for a fight of such significance.

It was the African country’s power-crazed dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, who put up the purse to host the fight and Don King, the ambitious young promoter with the shock of black hair, who seized the opportunity and coined the infamous Rumble in the Jungle name.

The cultural backdrop was like nothing ever witnessed for a fight of such importance.

Ali was already the voice of the under-privileged and a champion of the oppressed, who had refused to go to war in Vietnam.

In this photo taken on October 30, 1974 shows US boxing promoter Don King (C) and US boxing heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (C right) (born Cassius Clay) during a press conference after the heavyweight world championship in Kinshasa. On October 30, 1974 Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in a clash of titans known as the "Rumble in the Jungle", watched by 60 000 people in the stadium in Kinshasa and millions elsewhere (Picture: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

He split opinion back in the States because of that and his ties to Islam, but from the moment he touched down in Zaire he was embraced by the African people, who followed with him on his training runs and packed out his gym to watch him shadow box, serenading him with chants of “Ali - booma-ye!” (Ali - kill him).

In an era of civil rights, this was a fight for black empowerment and Ali was its figurehead.

Formidable Foreman let Ali do the talking and the entertaining. He had relied on his long reach and sledgehammer fists to punch a hole in an iconic era of heavyweight boxers.

Nowadays the bluster of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, and the cluttered nature of too many belts and too many bickering promoters, make one yearn for the days of a single heavyweight champion of the world and the great names that had contested it, particularly in that era of behemoths - Ali, Foreman, Joe Frazier and Ken Norton. After being stripped of his world title in 1967 and living through a three-year ban for refusing to go to war, Ali had tried to win the title from Frazier in 1971 in a bout billed as the ‘Fight of the Century’ which lived up to the hype. Foreman won the title from Frazier in January 1973, chopping him down like a lumberjack felling a tree, inside two rounds.

Down he goes: George Foreman is floored by Muhammad Ali (Picture: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

He had won all 40 of his fights, 24 in a row by knockout, and was favourite to beat Ali, seven years his elder and seemingly a shadow of his former self in the ring.

Out of it, he was the same trashtalker who reduced Sonny Liston to rubble 10 years prior, coming up with some of his most iconic lines in the build-up: “I done something new for this fight. I wrestled with an alligator. I tussled with a whale. I handcuffed lightning, I thrown thunder in jail. Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick. I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”

In a fight staged at 4am local time to suit the American audience, Ali produced his finest moment. Instead of dancing like he promised, Ali retreated to the ropes to absorb Foreman’s huge blows, adopting what would become known as the rope-a-dope. Round after round, Foreman swung away, growing more tired with every shot, Ali more resilient.

“That all you got, George? That all you got?,” Ali taunted. In the eighth he unleashed a combination that sent the shattered Foreman crashing to the canvas.

“Oh my God, he’s won the title back at 32,” screeched BBC commentator Harry Carpenter. Within minutes the heavens opened and the mother of all downpours swept the fans out into dusty streets in jubilation.

Ali was the king of Africa and king of the world again. It would take Foreman years to recover.

No fight has ever mattered quite so much, or will do so again, than the Rumble in the Jungle, half a century ago today.

Rumble in the Jungle at 50: Remembering the iconic fight between Ali and Foreman