Rope-a-Dope

A modern doctor traps himself in 1974 Kinshasa—where the only way to save Muhammad Ali’s life is to let him take the beating of the century. When twenty-first-century sports traumatologist Caleb Reed wakes up in the sweltering, blood-stained dressing rooms of Zaire's 20th May Stadium, he thinks he’s experiencing a vivid hallucination. Instead, he’s standing in the shadow of the greatest sporting event in human history: the "Rumble in the Jungle." But the history books lied. Muhammad Ali isn't just an underdog; he is on the verge of a fatal cardiovascular collapse before the first bell even rings. Trapped under the watchful, paranoid eye of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and surrounded by armed guards who view any failure as political treason, Caleb must masquerade as an assistant cornerman. Armed with nothing but modern physiological secrets and primitive local ingredients, his mission is simple: keep Ali alive. To survive the night and return to his own time, Caleb has to convince the legendary fighter to abandon classic boxing and execute a desperate, high-risk strategy—absorbing a brutal, bone-crushing assault from an unstoppable George Foreman. In a ring built to break, where every punch alters the timeline, Caleb must rely on raw science to engineer a miracle, or become a forgotten casualty of a historic war. Step through the gates of history in Book 4 of the Time Out series. Scroll up and click "Buy Now" to enter the ring tonight!