Honestly, I think Larry would still be up for it. Last December at a WBC convention, there were a huge amount of former champs and great fighters. All of them, including superstars like Tyson and Leonard, were signing stuff and getting stuff signed from one another. Holmes partook in the signing and getting stuff signed as well. Apparently, out of everyone there, Foreman was the only one who would not sign, even for fellow hall of famers and former champs. Holmes found this out the hard way by asking George to sign a glove, Foreman refused. Holmes called him a punk and went on to converse with others and have a good time.
If that's true, then Foreman is, indeed, a bit of an arrogant a**hole. A guy like him rolling in the millions and he can't take some of his precious time to sign some memorabilia. That's crazy!
Aside from Larry, I've heard of the same happening to others too. Litterally every person I've spoken to that has met Foreman away from the cameras and press has said that he's a bit of a jackass and is far from the fan friendly, happy, smiling person that is so often shown in the media. I do see fans with pictures with George, though, so maybe he's just an extremely moody person who wakes up on the wrong side of the bed on most days. I don't want to say false info about George, it's just that every fan that had a random (not set up/arranged) encounter with Foreman that I've heard of has been negative. Apparently George is the same to other fighters too, so it's just the way he is, I guess. I like George a lot as a fighter, but it's tough to like him as a person when I hear multiple stories of him being a ******* towards fans and fellow fighters. I've never met George, so I don't judge him too harshly, although it does bother me when I see people go on and on about how nice he is purely based on what he's portrayed himself as through the media. I've heard similar things about Holyfield. Although, he is friends with many fighters. I think Evander is stuck up with regular fans, but is nice with people he perceives as equal. In my experience, people who seem to be constantly smiling and getting along with the media very well tend to be the ones who are stuck up. The ones where you see get testy or are just flatout brutally honest about their opinions have been the ones who are the most down to earth and fan friendly. I don't understand why some people have such a problem with being friendly to a fan, if taking 1 second out of their time makes another person happy for an entire week, why is it such a big deal? This weekend I was at the Adamek-Cunningham II fight, and Michael Buffer and Freddie Roach were great with all fans. Buffer took countless of photos with fans and I saw Roach sign several fight tickets. Then on the flip side I've heard of George brushing off fans at fights. A fighter who was difficult for me to gauge in person was Sugar Ray Leonard. He stared a few fans straight in the face for at least two minutes without signing, but then once his little talk was done he was signing for a very long time. His ego was very easy to see, though. It was easy to see that he knows he's rich and famous and wants as many people as possible to know it too.
Larry Holmes has always been my favorite fighter. He also took care of himself financially. Hes a good guy too as evidenced when He fought Ali, you could tell that it bothered him beating up his former sparring partner/mentor.
Larry Holmes is a ****ing legend. Yet another boxer dispelling the moronic notion that they couldn't enter MMA had MMA been bigger and better financially. Heres Larry holding a wrestling trophy in his youth: http://www.flowrestling.org/coverag...420144-Larry-Holmes-as-a-St-Anthonys-Wrestler
I wouldn't swear to this as it was a long time ago that this story surfaced, but I think it turned out that someone made up the story about Larry brawling with Carmelo Marrero.
Interesting stuff mate. I read about that incident with Foreman refusing to sign stuff with Larry in boxing news, it also said that Holmes opened up a night club where his boxing gym used to be (duno if that's true). Anyway Holmes came across well. Interestingly, you say all of this about Foreman being a dick in real life, now I wouldn't have believed it but everyone I know who's met Glen McRory (a british tv personality similar to Foreman) says that he's a total dick. He's minted but he actually put on an amateur boxing show and didn't even put trophies on for the boxers, to save his own money (I've never been to an amateur boxing show that didn't have trophies). I met Glen and he was ok but didn't have a proper chat with you but Mike Tyson and Tim Witherspoon were both great.
