n. Up until then, Ali had been taking something of a beating from Foreman, although it certainly was not clear that Foreman was leading the fight. Ali had already demonstrated his skill and dexterity as a boxer by employing two methods that commentators in general had always decried as fool-hardy.
First, he began the first round of the fight leading punches with his right hand, or, as they are called, right-hand leads. Mailer notes that champions usually do not employ right-hand leads with one another because they can generally see the punch coming a mile away and make all sorts of plans to avoid and counter it (179). Nonetheless, Ali did it and it so shocked everyone, including Foreman, that he got some pretty good (and embarrassing) punches in before Foreman was able to re-orient his strategy to avoid them. Second, Ali used a method he had been using for years and that commentators had been decrying for years: his tendency to lean on the ropes and let the other guy have at him while he threw punches off from that position (Mailer 190). However, that night, Ali took it one step further and allowed Foreman to get off so many punches that Foreman practically wore himself out by the end of the seventh round. Ali, then, knocked Foreman out in the eighth.
The moment of which Mailer speaks occurs during the break between the fourth and fifth rounds. Both men have returned to their corners. Foreman's dominance may not be entirely clear but Ali does seem to be in danger of losing the fight. Ali stands in his corner staring at Foreman, but there is a look in his eye that suggests Foreman is not the focus of his thoughts. Mailer believes that in that moment Ali was looking into himself and asking if he had what it took to bring the fight home. Ali had always had a lot of bluster and so had long been predicting to the press and anyone else who would listen that he would knock Foreman out. But now the moment had come when Ali ...