The rope-a-dope is a boxing fighting style commonly associated with Muhammad Ali in his 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match against George Foreman.

In competitive situations other than boxing, rope-a-dope is used to describe strategies in which one party purposely puts itself in what appears to be a losing position, attempting thereby to become the eventual victor.

as many are saying ....

"Obama basically did rope a dope to get Romney to play his hand. Many snippets from the debate can now be used in commercials showing Romneys own contradictions. It was said that Romney played checkers in the debate while Obama played chess."