"Big" George Foreman: The All-American Wrecking Ball

George Foreman is an all-American character and success story. He began life as a troubled youth, took up boxing and rose to become the most fearsome wrecking machine of the 1970s, turned to religion after a catastrophic loss, and then made a comeback when most fighters are entering retirement. His comeback carried him to fame, widespread popularity, wealth, and winning back the world heavyweight title at the age of 45, the oldest champion in history.

Boxing Out of Trouble

George Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas in 1949, and in a story familiar to boxing was a youth often in trouble with the law. He was a hoodlum, engaging in muggings, robberies, and gang fights. After a brush with the police that forced him to hide under a leaking sewage pipe, he swore he would get his life turned around. He joined the Job Corps, went to Oregon, but could not leave behind his belligerent ways, and was soon regularly involved in brawls there. It was while picking fights with his fellow Job Corps trainees that he attracted the attention of a boxing coach. He was a formidable amateur, going to the 1968 Olympics and capturing the Gold Medal. The 1968 Olympics were made famous when two African-American runners raised black-gloved fists at the medal ceremony; although Foreman did not intend it as a counter-gesture, he attracted much attention with his contrasting move of waving a small American flag in the ring. The result was he was viewed by some as a patriot, and others as an "Uncle Tom."

Rise to a Title Shot

George Foreman was 20 years old when he turned pro in 1969. In what would be a substantial influence on his future in boxing, he was soon hired as a sparring partner for former heavyweight champ Sonny Liston. It is often forgotten that Liston, a much-feared puncher in his day, continued to campaign after losing his 1965 rematch with Muhammad Ali, and in mid-1969 was standing on a 13 fight winning streak, mostly by knockout. Foreman's early style owes something to working with Liston, who like Foreman was a big, incredibly strong, hard-hitting fighter. Foreman also modeled his demeanor on the hulking, menacing Liston.

Foreman's early heavyweight career was made up of the typical combination of journeyman and tomato cans, although Foreman's fourth professional bout was with already-veteran journeyman Chuck Wepner. Then 18-4-2, he should have posed a formidable challenge to a neophyte boxer, but Foreman disposed of Wepner in 3 rounds. Foreman's first bout with a real world contender came in August 1970, when he met George Chuvalo. Chuvalo was the single toughest man Canada has ever produced. Neither Foreman nor anyone else was ever able to knock Chuvalo off his feet, although Foreman did manage to hurt Chuvalo badly enough that he was unable to defend himself in the 3rd Round. Foreman came forward, unloading a barrage of bombs on Chuvalo. It looked impressive, but as Chuvalo later pointed out, most of the thunderous shots were landing on his arms or missing altogether. Foreman himself later admitted that (in an ominous foreshadowing of the famed "Rumble in the Jungle"), he had punched himself out on Chuvalo. The referee, however, seeing only an unanswered barrage of haymakers, stepped in and stopped the fight. Chuvalo, ever the tough guy, answered the referee "What are you, nuts?"

Foreman had 15 more fights against non-descript opposition, winning all of them by knockout, when he finally landed a title shot against Joe Frazier, the undefeated, undisputed world heavyweight champion in January 1973. Despite his impressive knockout record, Foreman had fought only one real contender - Chuvalo - and was not favored to win the fight. However, styles make fights and Joe Frazier was tailor-made for George Foreman. Chuvalo described Foreman as "throwing punches out windows." If the traditional martial sports maxim was to aim one inch inside or one inch behind your opponent, Foreman aimed for a target outside the window behind him. He didn't commit to his punches; he threw his entire body and soul into each and every one of them. His jab struck with the force that most heavyweights can only muster with their rights, and in the ring no one could out-muscle "Big" George. Frazier was shorter and fought from a crouch, allowing Foreman to punch downwards, and Frazier came straight at him, giving Foreman an easy target for those ponderous, wrecking-ball bombs. Frazier's bob and weave defense meant that he was easy to hit with part of a shot, but hard to hit dead on. Against a man like Foreman, being caught with part of a bomb was enough. Foreman infamously bounced Frazier off the canvas like the great champion was a basketball, knocking him down six times in two rounds. Each time, the indomitable Frazier climbed to his feet, willing to continue, but eventually enough was enough and the referee stopped the fight. Foreman had scored one of the biggest upsets in sports history. The bout was also made The Ring's 1973 Fight of the Year.

Foreman defended his title twice. In late 1973 he traveled to Tokyo and demolished Puerto Rican journeyman Jose Roman in one round. Then he met Ken Norton in Venezuela. Unlike Roman, Norton was regarded as a top contender; like Joe Frazier, he stood as one of only two men to have defeated Muhammad Ali. Foreman destroyed Norton, knocking him down three times en route to a 2nd Round knockout. Foreman, undefeated in 40 fights with 37 knockouts, was now widely regarded as invincible.

The Rumble in the Jungle

Foreman's next challenger was the great Muhammad Ali, with the bout (an early Don King promotion) scheduled to take place in Zaire. Interestingly, all four title bouts in Foreman's first career took place abroad: Jamaica against Frazier, and then Japan, Venezuela, and Zaire. While training there, Foreman was cut over the eye, postponing the fight. Ali made good use of the time rallying the local people to his side, and taunting Foreman. Foreman was a wide favorite: he had demolished Frazier and Norton, two men Ali had a record of 2-2 against, with all four bouts going to the scorecards. However, styles make fights, and what was being overlooked was how both Frazier and Norton were particularly vulnerable to Foreman's power, strength, and aggression. No such vulnerability applied to Ali.

Ali had talked up a game of dancing and out-boxing Foreman before the fight, so the first surprise on that October 1974 fight night was when the former champion came out and attacked Foreman with a series of lead right hands. Leading with anything other than a jab has an element of risk to it, as all other punches either have greater travel time or leave the boxer's guard more open, thus increasing the risk of being hit with a counter. By leading with his right repeatedly, Ali was in effect saying "I'm so much faster than you, I can nail you with this... and this... and even this... and them big, slow bombs won't even touch me." And they didn't, but they also were doing little except aggravate Foreman. Ali retreated to the ropes and began his famous "rope-a-dope." Ali, at 6'3" the same height as Foreman, leaned back on the ropes, keeping his head out of reach and his elbows pinned to the side of his body. Foreman pounded away, as Ali covered up, slid along the ropes, taunted Foreman, and occasionally bounced back with a sharp counterpunch. Foreman started the 8th Round in deep water: the last time he had fought more than 8 rounds was 4 1/2 years before. He was tired, both mentally and physically, and Ali pounced, dropping Foreman to the canvas and winning the bout by TKO in the 8th. It was the only time Foreman would ever lose a fight by stoppage, and the bout became The Ring's 1974 Fight of the Year, the second year in a row Foreman had been engaged in that year's most exciting fight.

First Comeback

George Foreman did not fight for almost a year and a half after losing in Zaire. When he started his comeback, his first opponent was anything but a creampuff: Foreman met knockout artist Ron Lyle in Las Vegas, January 1976. Lyle, thinking that Foreman would be rusty and his confidence shaken, jumped on Foreman from the outset. The result was a classic see-saw slugfest. Both men landed hard blows in the first few rounds, and then in the 4th Round Lyle hurt Foreman with a right, followed up, and knocked him down. Foreman got right back up, took the standing 8 count, and the two sluggers traded blows. Lyle took the worst of it, and down went Lyle! Lyle got back up, and retreated to the ropes. Foreman followed him, looking for the kill, but Lyle hit Foreman with a smashing left, knocking him down again! The bell rang, ending Round 4. At the start of 5, it was Lyle's turn to come out, looking for the finish. The two men traded blows again, and this time Foreman put Lyle down and out for the count. The fight was made The Ring's 1976 Fight of the Year, the third time Foreman had been involved in such a bout, and continues to be regarded as one of the most action-packed heavyweight non-title bouts of all time.

In his next fight, Foreman engaged Joe Frazier in a rematch. Many consider Frazier a spent force after his brutal rubber match with Muhammad Ali, the famous "Thrilla in Manila." However, Frazier did better in this encounter, effectively neutralizing Foreman's onslaught for a time. However, it was to no avail. Frazier was still little more than a target waiting to be nailed by Foreman, and was stopped in the 5th Round.

Foreman then knocked out Canadian fringe contender Scott LeDoux in 3 rounds, and demolished two journeymen before meeting the crafty Jimmy Young in March 1977. Young handily out-boxed Foreman's lumbering style on his way to a unanimous decision victory (the scores were 115-114, 116-112, and 118-111). After the fight, Foreman became ill with heatstroke and suffered what he called a near-death experience. He became a born-again Christian, and although he never formally retired from boxing, he did not fight again for a decade.

Second Comeback
Shocking the boxing world, Foreman announced his comeback in 1987. Although it is now common for a heavyweight to fight on into his mid-to-late 30s, it was not then. Foreman was 38, had not fought in 10 years, and looked badly out of shape at 267lbs. However, he said he was coming out of retirement to raise money for his church and to show that age was no barrier in achieving goals.

Foreman's style had changed somewhat since the days of his youth. He shortened his punches somewhat, and adopted an awkward cross-armed guard similar to Ken Norton's. He also adopted one of Muhammad Ali's psychological tactics. Ali sometimes stood in the corner between rounds, to show that he wasn't tired; now Foreman always did. Foreman's maturity gave him poise in the ring, which was lacking in his earlier days. Having always been something of a plodding fighter, George lost none of his mobility as he had so little to lose. Also, he remained a physically strong, hard-hitting opponent. Punching power is always the last thing to go in a fighter, and Foreman still had plenty of it. Evander Holyfield once said that Foreman hit him harder than anyone he had ever fought: "He never knocked me down, but with one punch I thought he had knocked all my teeth out."

Foreman put together a mixed winning streak of 17 wins, 17 knockouts through 1988 and 1989. It was mixed because while he won a lot of fights in a short span of time, all by knockout, it was entirely against lesser opposition. However, in the June and July of 1989 he met two men that would become fixtures as "gatekeepers" - fighters you have to beat to establish a reputation - in the heavyweight scene: "Smokin" Bert Cooper and Everett "Bigfoot" Martin. He knocked out Cooper, and decisioned Martin. The points win over "Bigfoot" Martin was Foreman's first since February 1970. He then demolished Gerry Cooney at the start of 1990, who was making a comeback of his own and had never recovered from his 1982 loss to Larry Holmes. Cooney wobbled Foreman, but didn't have the confidence to sustain Foreman's return blows, and was knocked out in the 2nd.

It was during this time that Foreman became something of a minor crossover celebrity. The menacing figure of 1974 had been replaced by a smiling, bald, somewhat rotund older man, touting mufflers and his now famous electric grills. Foreman later branched into TV, becoming a color commentator for HBO boxing and making guest appearances on various entertainment programs.

This friendly version of George Foreman marketed himself brilliantly: when boxing pundits made fun of his age and his weight, Foreman retuned the jibes by claiming he was on an all-cheeseburger diet. He appeared on the advertisement for his fight with Tommy Morrison doing roadwork while munching on pizza straight out of the box. Meanwhile, Foreman was towing a jeep around his Texas ranch because his knees couldn't take the pounding of a 260lbs man going for a run anymore. Foreman himself said boxing was a business about fitness, and he was one of the fittest guys around. He might be old and have a spare tire, but all those guys with rippling abs were lying unconscious at his feet.

Rather than climb over legitimate contenders, Foreman marketed himself into his April 1991 title shot at the then-undefeated, undisputed champion Evander Holyfield. Foreman was 42, 6'3", and weighed in at 257lbs. Holyfield was 28, 6'2", and weighed in at an incredibly fit-but-small 208lbs. Holyfield did not try to take advantage of Foreman's immobility by dancing around the man, but instead stayed close, worked the angles on smaller movements, and traded with the much bigger, but much older bomber. Holyfield absorbed Foreman's best single blows, returning them with vicious combination punching. Round 7, where Foreman staggered Holyfield, only to find himself staggered in turn, covering up behind his cross-armed guard as Holyfield used him as a standing punching bag, was declared by The Ring to be 1991's Round of the Year. Ultimately, the younger fighter just had too much for him, and Foreman dropped a clean points loss.

Foreman was now considered a legitimate top contender again. His next fight was a very hard majority decision win over Alex Stewart. Later, in June 1993, he fought Tommy "The Duke" Morrison for the then-lightly regarded vacant WBO world title. Morrison, a '90s Great White Hope, took the easy option and stayed on his toes, backing away from the lumbering Foreman and boxing on the outside. Whenever Foreman did manage to cut the ring off on Morrison, "The Duke" turned his back on Foreman, forcing Foreman to stop. To have hit Morrison then would have been a foul, although repeatedly using the tactic should have counted as a foul against Morrison. Thus, Morrison won the WBO strap on a very questionable points decision.

Winning the Dream

Meanwhile, Michael Moorer had won the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles from Evander Holyfield to become boxing's first southpaw heavyweight champion. Looking at Foreman as a big-but-easy payday, Moorer agreed to fight Big George. Moorer was 27 years old, stood 6'2", and now weighed in at 212lbs. Foreman tipped the scales at his lowest weight in years: 250lbs. He came into the ring wearing the very same trunks he had worn when he fought Muhammad Ali in Zaire, more than 20 years before. It was do-or-die time for the aged, former champion.

Moorer used his youth, speed, and awkward southpaw stance to pummel the slower Foreman, repeatedly scoring with his right jab and busting Foreman up. However, ominously, Moorer did not move as much as he could have, standing more and more right in front of Foreman as the fight progressed and his confidence in finding Foreman so easy to hit increased. His trainer, Teddy Atlas, begged Moorer to not stand in front of Foreman. Moorer arrogantly did not realize how vulnerable he was. He had started his pro-career as a lightheavyweight puncher, and even in that division he had a suspect chin. Now he was in the ring at a full 40 pounds heavier, with an aged-but-powerful man who was 38 pounds heavier still. Going into the 10th, Foreman was way behind on all the scorecards, but he finally saw his opening, landed a short, two-punch combination, and crushed Michael Moorer. The champion lay on the canvas, looking around, but unable to rise. With those two punches, Foreman had won the world heavyweight title back. He immediately went to his corner, bent his knees, and prayed.

Foreman had made sports history. At 45, he was the oldest heavyweight champion ever. He also joined a small group of men to have won that crown twice, and is the only one of them to have an interval of 20 years between reigns - by far and away the longest interval in history.

Second Title Reign

Foreman now had the title, and once he got it he reverted back to the business model that marked the early stage of his comeback: fight hand-picked nobodies unless you have no other choice. He was soon stripped of the WBA belt for refusing to fight their mandatory contender, former champion Tony Tucker. Instead, Foreman's first defense was against Germany's Axel Schultz, who turned out to be better than Foreman thought he was. The German out-boxed Foreman with his better footwork and his jab, but Foreman squeaked by with a highly questionable majority decision. The IBF ordered Foreman to give Schultz a rematch, which Foreman refused to do. The IBF promptly stripped Big George of his remaining title, but Foreman continued to campaign as the "lineal world champion," on the basis that you have to beat the man to be the man.

Foreman's next opponent was undefeated Crawford Grimsley, a former heavyweight kickboxer. Foreman out-boxed Grimsley to a points win. That victory soon counted for little when Grimsley was revealed to be one of the most protected fighters in modern memory, when he was knocked out in 13 seconds by journeyman Jimmy Thunder. Boxing fans began to turn against Foreman, who blatantly refused to defend the title against anyone with a pulse. So, in his next bout (and the third in a row where he was challenged by a white heavyweight), Foreman stepped up a bit and met fringe contender Lou Savarese, who proved to be made of tougher stuff. The big-but-limited Savarese stood toe-to-toe with Foreman for all 12 rounds, taking a big pounding and losing a split decision.

Finally, Foreman fought the up-and-coming Shannon Briggs in November 1997 for the right to challenge WBC champion Lennox Lewis. Foreman put in his best performance in years. Briggs took the tried-and-true method of trying to outbox Foreman by outmaneuvering him, but Foreman was able to apply pressure and sometimes walk down and cut the ring off on his younger opponent. Famously and amusingly, Foreman ended the bout by jogging after the retreating Briggs, flaunting that he still had plenty of gas left in the tank. However, this time it was Foreman who got the bad end of a controversial majority decision loss. At the age of 48, Foreman retired for the second time. His record was 76-5 with 68 KOs. In 2003 he was inducted into boxing's Hall of Fame.