Forty years since Ali's rumble in the jungle: Congo to celebrate

Muhammad Ali is renewing his ties with Congo where he won his epic "Rumble in the Jungle" fight four decades ago.

The museum and cultural center that bears Ali's name announced plans today for a September 20 benefit concert featuring Grammy-winning singer Bruno Mars in Louisville, the boxing great's hometown.

The concert will air via satellite in Congo as part of a weeklong music, sporting, economic and cultural festival in the African country called CONGO14.

A concert in the country's capital of Kinshasa will take place in the same stadium where Ali defeated George Foreman, completing Ali's quest to reclaim the heavyweight boxing title stripped from him years earlier for refusing to be drafted for military service during the Vietnam War.

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"Forty years later, even though I now have a quieter rumble, I still have great passion for what the fight and its build-up meant to the world," the 72-year-old Ali, who is battling Parkinson's disease, said in a news release tosday.

The event wasn't billed as a fundraiser for the impoverished African country, but the Ali Center said any surplus funds would be used in the Congo for youth education, leadership and empowerment initiatives.

Steering young women toward education, sports and cultural activities will be a main cause.

"This event is the kickoff of the Muhammad Ali Center starting to make an impact on a global basis, specifically in Africa," Donald Lassere, president and CEO of the Ali Center, said today.

The Louisville concert also will raise money to help support the Ali Center's operations.

Faida Mitifu, the African country's ambassador to the United States, said in a statement that he is fully supporting the CONGO14 Festival. He said the event will "impart Muhammad Ali's legacy of solidarity and conviction to a new generation."

Associated Press