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George Foreman: King of the Super-Heavyweights Part 1
By Monte D. Cox
Due to my boxing web site Cox's Corner and You Tube videos I am often asked a lot of questions by boxing fans. One of the questions I am asked is "Who is the most under rated heavyweight champion of all time?" There are a number of good candidates, but the one heavyweight that is greatly under rated by my peers and is not justly appreciated for what he brought to the ring is one George Foreman.
George accomplished 3 truly remarkable things:
1. He won an Olympic Gold Medal after boxing only 1.5 years and with only 20 amateur fights going into the Olympics. That is just unbelievable, in some ways his most notable achievement.
2. He destroyed an undefeated heavyweight champion who was considered the best heavyweight in the world at the time, crushed him in only 2 rounds and ruined his reputation to this day, Joe Frazier who was a true all time great. Smokin' Joe is an equal to Marciano, but does not get the credit he deserves because of his loss to Foreman.
3. Big George came back and won the lineal heavyweight title 20 years after losing it. That is just mind boggling. No one and I mean no one else could do that, not Jack Johnson, not Jack Dempsey, not Joe Louis, not Rocky Marciano, and not Muhammad Ali. Nobody.
Imagine the 1988 Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins lead by Jay Schroeder, George Rogers, Darrell Green, Mark May, Joe Jacoby and company coming out of retirement to win the Super Bowl in 2008. Or imagine former Wimbledon tennis champion Stefan Edberg coming back and winning that tournament. Doesn’t seem possible? Couldn’t happen in a million years? But that is precisely what happened when an old George Foreman came back against the odds and won the world heavyweight championship, the greatest prize in sports, when he regained the title in 1994 some 20 years after having lost it. On longevity alone George Foreman deserves to be considered among the all time great heavyweights, but he is often over-looked because he was over-shadowed by and lost to Muhammad Ali. However, this is no disgrace as Ali is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight champion ever by modern observers.
George Foreman at his awesome best was the most powerful heavyweight champion ever. At 6’3 ½” and 220-225 pounds, with an 82” reach he was the best of the “super-heavyweights.” Consider that George Foreman, in his prime had the highest knockout percentage in boxing history. After his destruction of Norton, he was 40-0 with 37 knockouts, for a knockout percentage of 92.50. In his career Foreman had 15 first round knockouts and 18 second round knockouts. That's 33 knockouts inside of the first 2 rounds! He had 46 knockouts that were 3 rounds or less, which is more than any other heavyweight champion. George Foreman’s incredible two round destruction over Joe Frazier was the most one-sided beating ever delivered upon an undefeated heavyweight champion.
Foreman was a man of great physical strength and can be favorably compared to the legendary strongmen of the past. It was said that John L. Sullivan once single handedly lifted a derailed trolley car back onto the tracks. Jim Jeffries once ran 9 miles to camp carrying a deer on his shoulders ahead of his entourage. Likewise George Foreman once trained using a harness so he could pull a car uphill as he did his roadwork. Strength, size and power are the adjectives used to describe a true super heavyweight. George Foreman was as big and as bad as they come.
After destroying # 1 contender Ken Norton the Aug. 1974 International Boxing magazine wrote, “The pre-fight strategy, the planning, the training, the waiting…they were all ended in less than two rounds by the punishing fists of possibly the most powerful heavyweight champion ever.” Indeed such was the devastation that Foreman’s sledgehammer fists had laid on opponents that all time greats such as Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis both commented that Foreman was the strongest heavyweight hitter that they had ever seen.
At his peak Foreman had a true aura of invincibility. When he glared down opponents with his baleful stare it was not an act of false bravado as it was with some fighters, it was out of a belief that no man could stand up to his crushing power. George Foreman, in his prime, truly believed that he was unbeatable.
Just watching George train with a heavy bag was a terrifying experience. The rafters shook, the floor rumbled. His trainer **** Sadler commented, “It’s hard to imagine anyone surviving those punches, much less staying on his feet.”
In his title winning performance against Joe Frazier Foreman used a hard left jab, shoved Joe’s shoulders back to create punching room against the swarming fighter and scored knockdowns with short right hands, uppercuts, hooks, and a long overhand right. Foreman was nothing short of devastating as he bounced Frazier like a basketball off the canvas six times. George was a very heavy hitter, and he threw more correct punches than he is given credit for and he often put the full weight of his super-heavyweight sized body into his punches. One can see this in his films when George turns his hips into his punches as in his rematch against Frazier.
As a fighter George brought to the ring not only exceptional raw power and confidence but also a frightening arsenal of deadly punches. His uppercuts could lift a man off their feet, his hooks were paralyzing, his strong left jab was true, his right hand, although not often thrown straight was a decapitating blow thrown short or long. He used his massive arms to block punches and could parry punches with his rear hand. He would sometimes slap opponent’s guards down with his hands and then slam home massive power shots to the head and body. The Foreman of 73-74 also became very good at cutting down the ring on his opponents.
In Zaire Muhammad Ali defeated George and shattered his aura of invincibility. The mistake that many make when considering this fight is the misguided belief that Ali “out-boxed” George. Muhammad Ali did not defeat George Foreman by keeping the fight at ring center; he did not beat Foreman by keeping him off of him at all. George cut the ring down on Ali and forced him to fight off the ropes. In his autobiography The Greatest My Own Story Ali said, “All during training I had planned to stay off the ropes…but now I’ve got to change my plans. Sadler and Moore have drilled George too well. He does his job like a robot but he does it well…I’m famous for being hard to hit in the first rounds, but no fighter can last fifteen if he has to take six steps to his opponents three.”
George Foreman: King of the Super-Heavyweights Part 1
By Monte D. Cox
Due to my boxing web site Cox's Corner and You Tube videos I am often asked a lot of questions by boxing fans. One of the questions I am asked is "Who is the most under rated heavyweight champion of all time?" There are a number of good candidates, but the one heavyweight that is greatly under rated by my peers and is not justly appreciated for what he brought to the ring is one George Foreman.
George accomplished 3 truly remarkable things:
1. He won an Olympic Gold Medal after boxing only 1.5 years and with only 20 amateur fights going into the Olympics. That is just unbelievable, in some ways his most notable achievement.
2. He destroyed an undefeated heavyweight champion who was considered the best heavyweight in the world at the time, crushed him in only 2 rounds and ruined his reputation to this day, Joe Frazier who was a true all time great. Smokin' Joe is an equal to Marciano, but does not get the credit he deserves because of his loss to Foreman.
3. Big George came back and won the lineal heavyweight title 20 years after losing it. That is just mind boggling. No one and I mean no one else could do that, not Jack Johnson, not Jack Dempsey, not Joe Louis, not Rocky Marciano, and not Muhammad Ali. Nobody.
Imagine the 1988 Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins lead by Jay Schroeder, George Rogers, Darrell Green, Mark May, Joe Jacoby and company coming out of retirement to win the Super Bowl in 2008. Or imagine former Wimbledon tennis champion Stefan Edberg coming back and winning that tournament. Doesn’t seem possible? Couldn’t happen in a million years? But that is precisely what happened when an old George Foreman came back against the odds and won the world heavyweight championship, the greatest prize in sports, when he regained the title in 1994 some 20 years after having lost it. On longevity alone George Foreman deserves to be considered among the all time great heavyweights, but he is often over-looked because he was over-shadowed by and lost to Muhammad Ali. However, this is no disgrace as Ali is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight champion ever by modern observers.
George Foreman at his awesome best was the most powerful heavyweight champion ever. At 6’3 ½” and 220-225 pounds, with an 82” reach he was the best of the “super-heavyweights.” Consider that George Foreman, in his prime had the highest knockout percentage in boxing history. After his destruction of Norton, he was 40-0 with 37 knockouts, for a knockout percentage of 92.50. In his career Foreman had 15 first round knockouts and 18 second round knockouts. That's 33 knockouts inside of the first 2 rounds! He had 46 knockouts that were 3 rounds or less, which is more than any other heavyweight champion. George Foreman’s incredible two round destruction over Joe Frazier was the most one-sided beating ever delivered upon an undefeated heavyweight champion.
Foreman was a man of great physical strength and can be favorably compared to the legendary strongmen of the past. It was said that John L. Sullivan once single handedly lifted a derailed trolley car back onto the tracks. Jim Jeffries once ran 9 miles to camp carrying a deer on his shoulders ahead of his entourage. Likewise George Foreman once trained using a harness so he could pull a car uphill as he did his roadwork. Strength, size and power are the adjectives used to describe a true super heavyweight. George Foreman was as big and as bad as they come.
After destroying # 1 contender Ken Norton the Aug. 1974 International Boxing magazine wrote, “The pre-fight strategy, the planning, the training, the waiting…they were all ended in less than two rounds by the punishing fists of possibly the most powerful heavyweight champion ever.” Indeed such was the devastation that Foreman’s sledgehammer fists had laid on opponents that all time greats such as Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis both commented that Foreman was the strongest heavyweight hitter that they had ever seen.
At his peak Foreman had a true aura of invincibility. When he glared down opponents with his baleful stare it was not an act of false bravado as it was with some fighters, it was out of a belief that no man could stand up to his crushing power. George Foreman, in his prime, truly believed that he was unbeatable.
Just watching George train with a heavy bag was a terrifying experience. The rafters shook, the floor rumbled. His trainer **** Sadler commented, “It’s hard to imagine anyone surviving those punches, much less staying on his feet.”
In his title winning performance against Joe Frazier Foreman used a hard left jab, shoved Joe’s shoulders back to create punching room against the swarming fighter and scored knockdowns with short right hands, uppercuts, hooks, and a long overhand right. Foreman was nothing short of devastating as he bounced Frazier like a basketball off the canvas six times. George was a very heavy hitter, and he threw more correct punches than he is given credit for and he often put the full weight of his super-heavyweight sized body into his punches. One can see this in his films when George turns his hips into his punches as in his rematch against Frazier.
As a fighter George brought to the ring not only exceptional raw power and confidence but also a frightening arsenal of deadly punches. His uppercuts could lift a man off their feet, his hooks were paralyzing, his strong left jab was true, his right hand, although not often thrown straight was a decapitating blow thrown short or long. He used his massive arms to block punches and could parry punches with his rear hand. He would sometimes slap opponent’s guards down with his hands and then slam home massive power shots to the head and body. The Foreman of 73-74 also became very good at cutting down the ring on his opponents.
In Zaire Muhammad Ali defeated George and shattered his aura of invincibility. The mistake that many make when considering this fight is the misguided belief that Ali “out-boxed” George. Muhammad Ali did not defeat George Foreman by keeping the fight at ring center; he did not beat Foreman by keeping him off of him at all. George cut the ring down on Ali and forced him to fight off the ropes. In his autobiography The Greatest My Own Story Ali said, “All during training I had planned to stay off the ropes…but now I’ve got to change my plans. Sadler and Moore have drilled George too well. He does his job like a robot but he does it well…I’m famous for being hard to hit in the first rounds, but no fighter can last fifteen if he has to take six steps to his opponents three.”
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