A PUNCH crunches into the side of Daniella Muleketsi’s face. She grimaces at the sting of it and the crowd holds its breath in fear for their homegrown boxing hope.

GOMA, Congo

It is the 20-year-old Muleketsi’s first professional fight and it’s in her hometown of Goma in eastern Congo. It’s a mark that will be on her record forever — a triumphant debut or a bitter loss.

This tournament was held over the weekend by the Nyama Boxing Club to remember perhaps the greatest fight ever. Muhammad Ali came to the central African country and beat then-undefeated George Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle” on Oct. 30, 1974, to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion again.

That fight a half-century ago made Ali a legend. It also offered a glimpse of Congo, then called Zaire and in the grip of the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

As Congo marks the 50th anniversary of the Rumble on Wednesday, boxing dreams live on not only in the capital, Kinshasa — where the Ali-Foreman fight happened — but also in the grassroots promotions like Nyama’s out in Goma, a city in the heart of a region that has seen decades of conflict, displacement and crisis.

While that shadow of suffering and hardship hangs over nearly everything that happens in Goma now, the boxing tournament drew a surprisingly large and enthusiastic crowd to the open-air arena in the Volcans neighborhood.

“My goal is to one day be a world champion. I won’t stop working until I get there,” said Muleketsi, who stands 5-foot-3, weighs 74 kilograms (163 pounds) and began boxing at age 16 under the tutelage of her uncle, a regional boxing official.

She wasn’t born when Ali beat Foreman but she has, like so many Congolese, heard tales of the Rumble in the Jungle.

“The fight of the century between Mohammed Ali and George Foreman inspires every professional boxer,” she said. “I want my name to be registered in boxing in my country and throughout the world.”

AP