“It’s clear that you can’t keep track of everyone, and I had freedom. I started hanging around on the street with just about anyone, stealing, and even robbing on the corner. My whole goal in life was to keep an eye out so that the police wouldn’t catch me. I left school. More precisely, I was kicked out because I stopped going to classes. At the age of 16, I was essentially simple. street punks", Forman recalled. At the same time, the American said that he very often fought on the streets: “I’m amazed that I survived.”
Foreman's transformation from a street hooligan to a law-abiding citizen occurred at the age of 16. While running away from the police after the robbery, as the boxer himself said, he remembered his sister’s words that none of their family had ever been or would become anyone, and “Big George” decided to dramatically change his life. It was then that the US government established a program to combat poverty - “Work Corps”, where Forman entered. At the same time, Foreman, a fan of swinging his fists, naturally took a liking to boxing a long time ago, and in the “Workers’ Corps” there was an opportunity to take it up professionally. At the same time, Foreman himself often made a reservation: “To say that a turbulent childhood made me a boxer is not entirely true.”
At the age of 18, Foreman achieved his first success, becoming the winner of the amateur Golden Glove championship. And the next year he received a ticket to the 1968 Olympic Games, winning the national championship. These Games in Mexico City brought the young boxer world fame - in the final, Foreman knocked out boxer from the USSR Jonas Cepulis.
Already in 1969, Foreman made his debut on professional ring, and within six months scored 13 victories, gaining a reputation as a boxer with a very hard punch. "Amateur experience is good, but if you don't have it, then there's no point in looking back, because professional boxing differs radically,” said the American.
Four years later, the first title fight took place. Foreman's opponent was the hitherto undefeated Joe Frazier, who was considered the favorite of the fight. The fight lasted just over four minutes. Foreman knocked down Frazier three times in the first round, then the same number in the second, and on the seventh time the judge awarded victory by technical knockout to Foreman, who became the newly-minted WBA and WBC champion.
Defeat from Ali, then the life of a righteous man
During the year, Foreman entered the ring twice more, knocking out his opponents in the first (Jose Roman) and second (Ken Norton) rounds. And already in October 1974, one of the best fights in the entire history of boxing took place. His fight with Muhammad Ali was called "Rumble in the Jungle". At the beginning of the fight, the initiative was entirely on Foreman’s side, but by the middle of the fight, “Big George” was exhausted. And in the 8th round, Ali went on a counterattack, knocking out Foreman, who suffered his first failure and, accordingly, lost his titles. By the way, it was after the fight with Foreman that Ali acquired the nickname that he awarded himself - The Greatest.
“Ali had never been knocked out in his life. And then I understood why. My strongest blows, from which 99 percent of other boxers would have fallen into the ring, only had an exciting effect on him. He looked at me as if he wanted to say: “I’m going nowhere.” I'm not leaving, George. You will not get rid of me." I have never seen such brave people. Neither in the ring, nor in life. Words cannot describe the courage of this man. I remember in one episode I had an excellent episode. There were several good shots on the body and head, and the final one - on the liver. Well, just a very good series. I was sure that he was mine. He swayed, he leaned towards me... and suddenly said: “Is that all, George?” I will never forget these words. What kind of devil is this, I think? That was really all - everything I could give him, I gave him in this series. According to all boxing canons, this was a victory. According to everyone, except Ali’s canons,” Foreman shared his memories of the fight.
In January 1976, Foreman entered the ring against Ron Lyle; this fight was a real showdown: both boxers were knocked down more than once, but “Big George” still won in the fifth round. In June of the same year, Foreman's second fight with Frazier took place. The result was the same, but now Fraser’s presence in the ring lasted not until the second, but until the fifth round. In March 1977, Foreman, after an unexpected defeat on points from Jimmy Young, decided to leave boxing and abruptly changed his activity - he became a preacher.
“I felt Christ awaken in me,” the athlete explained. “I got into the shower and came out born again. I glorified the name of God. Hallelujah, hallelujah!” Foreman built a church in Houston, created a youth center and traveled around the country to collect donations. According to the stories of those around him, Forman changed a lot while mowing lawns and thinking about God.
In January 1987, when Foreman was a year shy of his fortieth birthday, the American shyly announced his return to the ring and his desire to become a world champion again. Naturally, people are still interested in the reasons for this decision. However, Foreman’s answer is quite honest and logical: “Money. I’ve run out of it. People ask me this question all the time. Apparently, they are waiting for a pretentious answer. I don’t have such an answer, everything is banal: I’m impoverished. I, of course, would prefer to be, say, a golfer, because returning to golf at forty is much easier. But I’m a boxer, I don’t know how to do anything else.”
New championship belt at 45 years old
For some time, boxing associations did not give Foreman permission to enter the ring. The problem was resolved only after a legal complaint filed by Foreman's manager Bob Arum. As a result, after training for a year and losing a fair amount of weight, the athlete returned to professional boxing. He won 24 fights in a row, all by knockout, and in April 1991 he met the undisputed world champion Evander Holyfield, for whom this was his first title defense. The fight turned out to be equal, but the judges gave the victory by unanimous decision to the current belt holder. After the fight, Foreman told reporters that he had fulfilled half of his dream, showing people that even at 40 years old you can achieve your goals. Although he lost, many praised his resilience and dedication.
Foreman then scored two victories, and in June 1993 he met Tommy Morrison for the vacant WBO title. “Big George” was noticeably inferior to his opponent in speed, and the judges naturally gave the victory to Morrison. However, in November 1994, fate gave Foreman another championship fight. The opponent was WBA and IBF title holder Michael Moorer. The lighter and more agile Moorer won in all respects due to his speed, however, in the middle of the 10th round, Foreman accurately hit the jaw several times, and Moorer collapsed to the canvas. Foreman won by knockout, despite the fact that Moorer had a confident advantage on points.
He was an unusually big fellow. At the same time, he always looked gloomy and was always dissatisfied. In his smooth movements there was no fuss. He spoke little, but when he opened his mouth, it seemed only to silence his interlocutor. At the same time, there was no deliberate aggressiveness or feigned impudence in this. It’s just that both he and those others recognized his superiority, hence unnecessary indications of this were truly unnecessary.
His work was not all sugar, but it still had its advantages. He beat people for money. And I must say, he did it well. At least there were no those who expressed their dissatisfaction to his face. And yet, something in his appearance said that he was not quite who he was, or who he wanted to become.
George was born in the provincial town of Marshall, in the state of Texas, which barely had twenty thousand inhabitants. The family subsequently moved to Houston. Bad grades, terrible behavior, tendency to break the law. A standard set for a black man from a poor large family with an alcoholic stepfather and a mother who disappears from morning to night at work.
After leaving school at the age of sixteen, Foreman was enrolled in the Job Corps program, designed to help Americans from low-income families gain blue-collar skills and get hired into related jobs. Here he firmly decided to take the path of correction - he mastered the profession of a carpenter and at the same time began boxing. The talent was enough to win the prestigious Golden Gloves tournament from the first run, and then the slightly less prestigious Olympics, brutally destroying a Soviet boxer in the final Jonas Cepulis. Then it was the professionals' turn to fall.
George Foreman - Joe Frazier, 01/22/1973
To say that Foreman got close to championship fight easy, that's an understatement. If you haven't seen it, be sure to watch it. Let me say briefly: few of the opponents survived to the third round. He and everyone who came out to fight with him seemed to be from different leagues.
But champion Frazier is a completely different matter; if anyone could give a fight to this Frankenstein, who excited the entire heavyweight division, it was only him. After all, it was “Smoking Joe” who gave the invulnerable Ali a good beating. And in general, Fraser’s opposition at that time looked more solid.
And so the people gathered in anticipation of an irreconcilable massacre, but they had to say goodbye to these expectations at the very beginning. Foreman simply thrashed Frazier like some idiot and sent him to the floor three times in the first three minutes. In the second round, the beating continued, and after a few more somersaults by Joe, the referee stopped the fight.
And it’s not to say that Fraser was so much weaker than Foreman. What happened in Kingston then is still not clear. Perhaps poor physical shape, perhaps underestimating the enemy, perhaps moral exhaustion, and most likely the first, second and third. After all main fight In his life at that time, the strong man from Philadelphia had already won, the strongest, as it seemed to many, had already won. That is why he was no longer so charged for success. He, of course, twisted the famous pendulum, but the other components of the victorious formula were no longer there. There was no pressure, there was no constant control of the ring, there were no blows to the body or going into close range. Maybe so, or maybe everything is much simpler and what happened can be explained by the fact that “Big George” was cut from a different cloth than most boxers, including the legendary ones, who lived before, during and after him.
George Foreman - Ken Norton, 03/26/1974
The pompous Oscar Bonavena, ennobled by a breathtaking, fashionable (for 1974, of course) hairstyle, bullies Muhammad Ali, who is acting as a commentator, from the height of the ring. Oscar Bonavena is one of the ordinary soldiers of the guard. The persistent bully was in the second rank of that army. In the same ranks with the bulletproof George Chuvalo, the jaw-breaking Jerry Quori and many other desperate guys like Ron Lyle. And this is only the second league heavy division the first half of the 70s, at any other time it would have become the first. But we won’t be talking about them, because the fight itself involves stronger and more successful boxers. In spirit and authority in the boxing world, they are closer to Mohammed than to Oscar.
Norton, who started for his health, had already had his fill of Foreman’s slaps by the end of the first round and entered the second round already disoriented. The plan, which consisted of constantly moving around the ring, working as number two and trying to defeat Foreman, which initially seemed not so bad, was shattered into pieces by the harsh reality of the first three minutes and the unassuming manner of Big George’s fight. A rare defensive maneuver in the form of a chop, more typical of fighters of the early twentieth century, infrequent but weighty jabs and a series of variegated power strikes, the key among which was the double uppercut, turned out to be incompatible with Norton’s desire to stand.
Perfect physical form, empty and expressionless eyes, raised hand and indifference to any opponent. Foreman of the first half of 1974 is an absolutely mythical character that no Hercules can cope with.
And at the end of October 1974, a turning point occurred in the life and career of George Foreman. In the sunny capital of Zaire, Kinshasa, he lost, being the favorite in a fight called “Rumble in the Jungle” to Muhammad Ali. This is a turning point not only in the fate of our hero, but also one of the key events that changed the vector of development of modern culture. Just imagine a world in which Cassius Clay is not “The Greatest”: someone else lights the torch at the Atlanta Olympics, tacky T-shirts with his image are not on sale, photographs of athletes flaunting money are condemned, stupid showdowns at press conferences are kept to a minimum and etc. etc.. But, we live in a world where Ali is still “The Greatest”. So be it, but sometimes you can fantasize about a world in which George Foreman won.
George Foreman - Ron Lyle, 01/24/1976
Well, you know how it is - sometimes you want two healthy men weighing over a hundredweight with exorbitant physical characteristics to simply thrash each other. Sometimes this is what you expect from boxing and nothing more. Simple, without unnecessary movements, without cunning feints and deceptive maneuvers. The strict frontal stance and lethal fire from both hands is an allusion to the battle near the pub.
But what am I talking about? After all, fighters in this fight do not fall into the ring from the weight of the enemy’s embrace, do not twist their legs in a drunken stupor, and do not injure their hands due to improper striking technique and lack of calcium in the body. If you really look at it this way, then the current heavyweight fights are nothing more than one big battle at a pub, for some unknown reason passed off as championship fights with prizes like belts and fees, which should, according to the laws of the highest justice, be replaced with bonuses in the form of several bottles fire water or free time with a microphone in karaoke.
Foreman and Lyle build solid combinations by weight standards, punch into the meeting, open up ghostly defenses with surgical jabs and distracting body blows. Three knockdowns and one knockout, in the end. What is not a blow is a song that passes with a whistle. Sometimes it seems that it happens to you too. Especially when Foreman delivers an artless blow with a big swing, slowly and with strain. Oh, because it can. After all, puncher differs from puncher. Someone like Joe Louis, possessing perfect technique, delivered precise blows to the chin, forcing the opponent to instantly lose support under his feet, someone like Mike Tyson relied on speed and the factor of surprise - most of his blows were initially invisible to opponents, but George relied primarily on abnormal physical abilities. His sweeping strike, despite all its obviousness, did not leave his opponents any chance. Technique, tactics, timing, to hell with it all - George simply had, perhaps, the most swipe in the history of boxing, this was enough for victory.
So until the end and, not having recovered from the defeat from Ali, Foreman mechanically boxed out the rest of the year. The safety margin is enough to win four more fights. And then “...he will sell his houses in Beverly Hills, Houston, a ranch in Livermore; will sell its entire fleet of expensive cars; and most importantly, he would throw out all the televisions from the house - they prevented him from thinking. George Foreman will retire from the ring for ten long years,” become a preacher and devote himself to raising difficult teenagers.
George Foreman - Evander Holyfield, 19.04.1991
The story, which began as a very adventurous escapade of an eccentric middle-aged boxer, gradually turned into a fairly profitable show in which a funny guy beat up rather mediocre boxers in a peculiar manner. At a leisurely pace, he knocked out not the greatest talents five times a year and, unexpectedly for everyone, entered the ring in a fight for the world title against the peak Evander Holyfield, who had recently moved from a lower category.
Holyfield is certainly good. I’m not even talking about superheavyweights, but you won’t see such a pace in featherweights now either. Footwork, handwork, work in gym– in general, it’s clear that Holyfield is a hard-working guy. He is better in every component. But, this is if we talk about boxing. Because what Foreman shows is much broader than the concept of boxing. George described his abilities after returning simply: “I became much stronger. If I don’t get it with my right, and even if I don’t get it with my left, then I always have a belly and I’ll definitely get it with it.” His actions are completely unconventional. Starting with signature defense and ending with strikes bypassing any blocks at completely strange angles from impossible positions. Holy fires clean streaks throughout the rounds and wins almost every episode, but Foreman's occasional bursts do much more damage. Even when blocking, these blows, despite the age of the attacker, are capable of making the opponent tremble. There is no other way to explain why Evander, despite the fact that he wins the fight outright on points, literally survives the last two rounds and regularly clinches and acts too cautiously.
Yes, Big George may not look as intimidating as before, he’s not as athletic, his appearance is unpresentable - his belly hangs out, his head is smooth as a billiard ball, and he’s pulled his boxer shorts all the way to his navel. The truth can hit anyone and everyone, including one of the best heavyweights of the nineties. It’s not a fact that you will win, but it will definitely make your future retirement less comfortable and healthy.
However, George himself rather highly appreciated Holyfield’s abilities: “Ron Lyle was the strongest person I met. Guys like Shannon Briggs didn't impress me because they were just average guys. They didn't impress me at all, so I just raced them. The fighters I faced in the 70s were more fearless than the ones I faced in the 80s and 90s, with the exception of Evander Holyfield. Evander could compete in any era."
George Foreman - Michael Moorer, 11/05/1994
One more try. And it’s not to say that the opponent is easier, and George hasn’t gotten any younger. He is almost the same as he was three years ago when he tried to win the championship belt in a fight with Holyfield. He is very similar to the bear from children's fairy tales - clumsy and good-natured in appearance, but it is better for the Wolf and the Fox to stay away.
Michael Moorer is still that fox. A cunning, calculating boxer. If Holi prevailed with pressure, pace and constant pressure, then Murer always acted more subtly. Clearly calibrating each attack, slowly terrorizing Foreman, carefully stepping aside so as not to run into a punishing right hand opponent, Murer confidently takes round after round. The truth is doing this less and less confidently every minute. Foreman, like the planet Anareth, looms over the enemy, turning him into nothing. The first eight rounds are still enough for Moorer to look preferable, but already in the ninth round his attention is not enough to notice George’s lazy deuces. In the tenth round, Michael’s reluctance to react to blows leads to one of the most sensational results in the history of martial arts - forty-four-year-old George Foreman sends the undefeated champion into a dull knockout with a precise blow to the jaw and, twenty-one years later, again wins the belt.
What are you saying? Is boxing progressing? Is technology evolving? Are training methods improving? Ha ha ha ha. It's me, George Foreman, Archie Moore and Angelo Dundee from the winner's corner laughing in your face.
P.S.: Yes, he did not become that one twenty years ago. But at that moment, when George knelt in the corner of the ring after the victory, happiness still reached him. On the way to it, he did not cut corners, did not deviate from his ideals, was not seen in stories that discredited his reputation, and remained faithful to his country and boxing. He deserved to become the oldest heavyweight champion at forty-four and enter the pantheon of America's favorites. Curtain.
V.I. Gendlin
Contains a great variety of different champions. It's hard to even imagine how much it was best boxers in each weight category throughout the existence of this sport. Nevertheless, even from such a huge number of people, there will always be that person who is worth paying special attention to. And all because his achievements are truly unique and evoke not just respect from the public, but to some extent special reverence. And Jorod Foreman can rightfully be considered such a person.
Brief biographical information
His childhood was spent in an extremely disadvantaged area of Houston, where he had to learn his first fighting skills, since it was a matter of basic survival. At a young age, George was in a gang and engaged in theft. This was a completely common occurrence, because he was from a large family and grew up without a father. According to his own recollections, after another theft, when his sister’s words flashed through his head that nothing would come of him in this life, Forman decided to give up life in a gang and start all over from scratch. He went to a specially created for difficult teenagers and received a working specialty and primary education.
The beginning of the boxing journey
It was thanks to a government program called “Work Corps” that George Foreman got into boxing. While in the camp, he begins to visit the boxing gym, where the guy set his first priority to lose weight and simply unwind. Having spent only a few fights, having been boxing for only a year and a half, he goes to the Olympic tournament.
1968 Olympics
It was these international prestigious competitions that revealed a new name to the world - George Foreman. In the final fight, the American met with Lithuanian Jonas Cepulis. The result of the fight was George's victory by technical knockout in the second round. What he lacked in technology, he more than compensated for with crazy pressure and strength, physically and mentally crushing the representative of the Soviet Union.
Professional career
Six months after his triumph at the Olympics, George Foreman, whose weight fell within the heavyweight limit, turns professional.
The fighter's debut occurred on June 23, 1969. Before the end of the calendar year, Foreman manages to fight 12 more fights, winning 11 of them by knockout.
The period 1970-1972 was marked by a series of 25 consecutive victories. 21 wins - clean knockouts. Thus, the fight between Foreman and Joe “Black Marciano” Frazier was simply inevitable. It is noteworthy that Fraser, going into the fight with Foreman, was a 100% favorite, since he was the owner of two of the most prestigious boxing belts and the only person who managed to win at that time
But as His Majesty boxing showed, George Foreman knocked out Frazier within 4 minutes 35 seconds after the start of the fight. At the same time, Joe visited the ring canvas 6 times. As a result, the fighter who defeated Ali was himself defeated.
A year later, Foreman won, who was also able to defeat Ali at one time. In general, by all indicators, the era of Foreman’s reign seemed endless, and the fight with Mohammed was supposed to be a mere formality. But….
Rumble in the jungle
It was with this name that the fight between Foreman and Ali went down in history. On October 30, 1974, this epic battle took place in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Unfortunately for Foreman, he suffered his first defeat as a professional, losing by knockout in the 8th round.
Three years later, Big George leaves the ring after losing to Jimmy Young.
Return to the ring
In 1987, George Foreman, whose biography is filled with the greatest confrontations, returned to boxing again. After 28 fights, in 1994 he entered the fight against the then-current champion Michael Moorer and won! And this at 45 years old! Thanks to this, he became the oldest champion on the planet. True, in 1995 Foreman was stripped of his belts for refusing to carry out mandatory defenses.
November 22, 1997 was Foreman's last day in boxing. He lost Not everyone agreed with that judge's decision, but it happened as it happened.
Life outside the ring
In 1983, George opened a center for helping troubled teenagers in his hometown of Houston. The champion taught them how to deal with their weaknesses, not to show aggression, and so on. He also expanded his family. Today he has 10 children. He became a pastor and helps everyone in need in every possible way.
There is a certain category of people who, even being in a well-deserved pension, still look very dignified, arouse respect and even to some extent fear among others. This is exactly how George Foreman, a legendary boxer in the past and now a pastor of one of the religious movements, appears before the average person. Even at his advanced age (he is already 67 years old), he is still in excellent health. physical fitness and always smiles. In this article we will take a detailed look at the life path of this outstanding athlete and his main achievements.
Birth and childhood
The future champion was born in the American state of Texas, the city of Marshall, on January 10, 1949. Children's and teenage years George Foreman spent time on the streets of the Houston ghetto, where young people learned to rob, kill and rape. At the same time, many teenagers became drug addicts or alcoholics. There is a version that the outstanding boxer, after retiring from the sport, at some point returned the purse to one of his victims, but the American himself denies all this and does not justify himself at all. “I was a bandit, and there is no forgiveness for my past crimes!”
George Foreman, biography early years whose life is quite typical for a resident of Houston, he fought on the streets as part of a gang. His father left the family, and his mother raised several children alone. George was also kicked out of school because he didn't attend classes at all. In general, by the age of 16, the young man had become an inveterate gopnik without the slightest bright prospects for his future.
The turning point
However, fate prepared for the guy a fate different from the life of his brothers in the area. One day everything changed after George Foreman tried to escape from the police and hid under someone else's house. In order not to give himself away by the smell, he smeared himself with mud and fell silent, trying to wait out the raid. And while under the building, the words of his older sister began to swirl in the guy’s head: “You can do whatever you want! You still have no future!” Having got out from under the house, the young man washed himself and decided to radically change his life. As a result, he joined the ranks of the Work Corps, a government program aimed at combating poverty and unemployment.
First steps in boxing
The Work Corps turned out to be Foreman's saving grace. It was there that he received his primary education and basic work skills. In addition, it was there that he learned what boxing was. Already in the first sparring, he - a street fighter with extensive experience - was very badly beaten. The opponent managed to inflict on him large number blows without the slightest damage to himself, and George himself never hit the enemy.
So our hero realized that he doesn’t know anything about boxing, but street fights They gave him nothing in terms of boxing, and he had to start training from scratch.
amateur top
George Foreman did not compete in the amateur ring for very long and already in 1968 at the Olympics in Mexico City he was able to win a gold medal. In the final fight he was opposed by the outstanding Soviet athlete Jonas Cepulis. During their fight, the American badly smashed his opponent's face, which also turned out to be a manifestation of his long life on the street. Some time later, Foreman admitted that he rose to the square of the ring with a burning desire to kill all his opponents. As he then believed, by killing one of his opponents, his career would begin a new, brighter round.
Going Pro
In the summer of 1969, our hero switched to professional boxing. George Foreman, in his first fight as a pro, brutally knocked out his compatriot Don Waldheim in the third round. After this fight, there followed a series of more than thirty successful fights for Foreman and access to the championship fight, which is worth talking about separately.
Winning the world title
On January 22, 1973, a duel between two hitherto undefeated heavyweights, Foreman and Frazier, took place in Jamaica. From the first seconds of the fight it became clear that the current champion would not last long.
And so it happened. In less than two rounds, Joe was knocked down six times, which eventually naturally led to the fight being stopped and Foreman winning by technical knockout. The Ring magazine, respected in sports circles, named this fight the fight of the year. After winning the championship belt, George successfully defended the title in a fight with Jose Roman and Ken Norton. And then the no less legendary Mohammed Ali appeared on Foreman’s path...
Loss of the title of champion
George Foreman's successful fights were interrupted when he met Ali in the ring. Their fight took place in the fall of 1974 in Zaire. The promoter of the fight, Don King, agreed with the ruler of the country to hold this fight in Africa and allocate a lot of money for it at that time - $12 million. By the way, each of the fighters then received 5 million.
Both Foreman and Ali arrived on the continent in advance and spent the entire summer there, systematically undergoing acclimatization. George Foreman's training took place in a hotel in the capital, and Mohammed's - in an environment closer to ordinary people who literally idolized him. A day before the scheduled fight, both fighters attended a party hosted by President Mobutu.
Since the location of the championship fight was very high in temperature and humidity, both boxers quickly began to lose their physical condition. Already from the second round, Ali begins to hang on the ropes and launch effective counterattacks, trying to carry out a successful cross to Foreman's head.
During the first half of the fight, Ali missed quite a few heavy blows, after which, according to him, he began to have severe hallucinations. After the completion of the fifth round, George asked the referee to tighten the ropes, but his request was ignored. In the seventh three-minute round, Ali began to increase his advantage, and in the eighth round he managed to knock out the young champion. Thus, Foreman lost the title and for a long time justified this with all sorts of unfavorable moments for him: the ring ropes were too weak, the referee’s very fast countdown, the poisoned water that his coach gave him.
After that, George fought with Ron Lyle, and the fight could have ended unsuccessfully for Foreman again, but he still managed to knock out his opponent.
In the summer of 1976, “Big George” again met with Joe Frazier and again beat him by knockout, the only difference being that this time the fight lasted until the fifth round.
In the spring of 1977, Foreman suffered another defeat in his career. This time he could not defeat Jimmy Young. The fight lasted all 12 rounds, in the last of which the boxer was knocked down. This defeat was the impetus for the end of our hero’s career.
Life outside the ring
In 1977, Foreman George, whose knockouts were so loved by the public, left professional sports. In his own words, he no longer wanted to engage in boxing, which did not bring anything good to people. Former boxer radically changed my life. He became a preacher, opened a center for youth and began teaching troubled teenagers the ability to extinguish anger and aggression, urging them to renounce violence. The athlete also used his own money to build a church in his native Houston and traveled a lot around the country.
And again into battle!
In March 1987, viewers again saw what George Foreman's punch was worth. His return to the ring was successful: he managed to knock out Steve Zosuka. After this fight, a series of successful fights followed, which quite logically brought him back to the top, giving him the right to meet the champion.
In the spring of 1991, at the age of 42, Foreman entered the ring against Evander Holyfield to challenge the title absolute champion peace. Almost no one gave George any chance to win. The fight itself turned out to be quite spectacular. Foreman went forward and punched, and Holyfield successfully counterattacked and eventually won on points. Many experts and boxing fans were surprised that George managed to go the entire distance.
Last chance
In 1994, Foreman had another opportunity to win the title: he met with WBA and IBF world champion Michael Moorer. Champion at the expense high speed movements and strikes won the fight before the start last round, and Foreman managed to win only the fourth. However, in the tenth, George managed to hit his opponent’s jaw with a “deuce”, and Moorer was knocked out. This victory allowed George to become the oldest boxer to win the championship belt.
Somewhat later, George Foreman - a boxer with an outstanding track record- was stripped of his title due to his refusal to meet mandatory challenger Tony Tucker.
After this, in the spring of 1995, the American met in the ring with the German representative Axel Schulz. In that fight, the insignificant WBU title was played out. The fight ended with a judge's decision in favor of Foreman, which many considered very controversial. The IBF obliged the American to provide revenge to the German, but he refused and was stripped of his belt.
Mine last Stand George played on 22 November 1997 against compatriot Shannon Briggs. Once again, the judge's decision caused fierce debate, with the only difference being that this time the victory was taken away from Foreman. After this fight, George finally retired from the sport and again devoted himself to religion and helping poor teenagers. In 1999, he tried to return to the ring again by signing a contract to fight Larry Holmes, but in the end the fight never took place.
Marital status
George is married and has ten children: five daughters and five sons. This deserves no less respect. According to rumors, it was the wife of the legendary champion who opposed his return to the ring in 2004 to fight Trevor Brebik.
Among professional boxers there are not so many athletes who would have such a long list of victories as George Edward Foreman, or Big George. But also sports career Not many can boast of a duration of almost three decades in the professional ring. He first fought as a professional on June 22, 1969, and had his last, 81st fight on November 22, 1997. During this time, he had only five defeats, and George Foreman won 68 of his 76 victories by early knockout.
Biography of George Foreman at the beginning of the journey, it resembles the biographies of other professional boxers. Born in 1949 in Texas, Marshall. He started boxing as a child. He performed in the amateur ring. The pinnacle was the victory at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, when George Foreman defeated Soviet heavyweight Jonas Cepulis by knockout. After that, he finished competing as an amateur boxer, and in June 1969 he made his debut in the professional ring.
George Foreman Knockouts, which brought him success in fights in the amateur ring, helped prove his superiority over others among professionals. They followed one after another, and almost every year they became victims of Big George. famous boxers, who until that moment were considered incapable of receiving such a serious defeat from a newcomer in the professional ring. In 1969, he knocked out Chuck Wepner, a year later - George Shuvalo, at the very beginning of 1973 - the invincible Joe Frazier, and at the end of the same year - Jose Ramon in the first round.
IN 1974 The famous battle “Rumble in the Jungle” took place - a duel for the world title between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Foreman had youth and pressure on his side. He studied Ali’s tactics well, and from the first round he tried to pin him down, press him to the ropes and powerful blows do not allow movement on the body. But Ali survived, and in the 8th round he knocked out Foreman. This was Foreman's first defeat as a professional.
In 1977, George Foreman left the ring after losing to Jimmy Young, only to return ten years later. The turning point in the biography of George Foreman was 1987, when he decided to start performing again. And again victories follow one after another. In 1994, Foreman Vs. Michael Moorer regained the champion title that Ali had taken from him.
With his fight with Michael Moorer, Foreman became the oldest boxer to win the world heavyweight title. This victory set another record for Forman - he became the only one to date two-time lineal champion in the heavyweight division.
