rope-a-dope

A technique in which the boxer assumes a defensive stance against the ropes and absorbs an opponent's blows, hoping to exploit eventual tiredness or a mistake.

He sounded like a retired boxer who'd specialized in the rope-a-dope.

I went into my own version of Ali's rope-a-dope, ducking as many of the heavy blows as I could, and waiting for some kind of idea to come to me.

Any strategy where an apparently losing position is assumed in the hope of eventual victory.

[…] process that in recent years has degenerated, sadly, into one long scorched-earth campaign filled with partisan rancor and legislative rope-a-dope.

Maybe, I suggested, it was the old rope-a-dope to lower expectations, but that was tougher for him than it had been in 2000: He was now the president.

To exhaust someone by stringing them along.

Willis rope-a-doped us all night.