Ali post Manila to 1978

^ Interesting. If true, that's a shame. But I think there were many other factors involved in preventing the rematch.

 

Dick Saddler is the person Foreman claims drugged him in Zaire.

 

Foreman goes back and forth on the "I was drugged story ".

 

Yes and no.
Foreman says things like ' I made all kinds of excuses for losing that fight'. Then he'll wind up saying something like 'but I was drugged'.

He tries to look like a forgiving person, but he's never really recanted the drugging story.

 

A number one contender shouldn't have to launch a campaign to get a title shot.
Name one person who was more deserving than Foreman for a title shot. I'm waiting....name one.

The only one that comes close was Norton, whom George demolished, and whose big victories at the time weren't as big as Foreman's.

Did Hagler want to face Fulgencio Obelmigias or Hamsho a second time? No...but various organizations said they were number one, so he fought them. Did Vlad want to fight Tony Thompson again? Nope, but he honored his duty....and these guys were essentially fake number ones....Foreman was the real deal, an undisputed number one contender. That alone qualifies him for a shot, and all of your Ali-loving excuses can't disguise this obvious truth.

 

George Foreman was the number-one contender from October 1976 to March 1977. Ali didn't fight anyone in that time frame.

George Foreman fought Pedro Agosto and Jimmy Young to keep busy while the title fight was made. Foreman lost to Jimmy Young and retired.

He didn't have to fight Agosto or Young. He didn't have to retire. Nobody made him fight them. Nobody told a 28-year-old to retire. But George Foreman was a head case at that time.

You make it seem like George cleaned out the division. In his comeback (after being knocked out by Ali), George faced two guys Ali had knocked out the previous year, and a couple of bums. He wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire.

One could argue every top 10 contender who hadn't already been knocked out by Muhammad Ali (like Foreman had been) was more deserving of a title shot than Foreman. (George had already fought Ali and failed.)

Jimmy Young was one of them. Not only did he do better against Ali (and Lyle for that matter - twice) than Foreman did, he beat Foreman.

So I don't know why you're still ranting about this.

You've been going on and on for seven pages in this thread, and Jimmy Young arguably deserved a rematch with Ali more than Foreman did.

 

George Foreman is an altogether different prospect to Tony Thompson.

 

This :deal

Foreman was knocked out, so he had to take his ass to the back of the queue.

 

There's a long, long history of KO victims getting a second chance at their opponent, especially dethroned champions, Ali-Liston, Liston-Patterson and Patterson-Johansson being contemporary examples, so I don't know where this back of the queue line comes from.

From 74-78, Ali only had two fights (Frazier III and Norton III) where he made more or comparable money to what he would have made for Foreman II. He preferred to defend against a bunch of journeymen and Euro level no hopers for chump change, which tells me he wasn't that keen on making the fight. Foreman wanted it and numerous promoters around the world were offering millions to stage it. There was no other reason for the fight not to happen. Only if Ali, or at any rate his team, didn't want it.

 

I think its been explained to you a number of times on this thread. You simply dont want to read it and are looking for alternative theories.

Regardless of the reasons for a rematch, what we can agree on is when they did fight. Ali KHTFO.

Cry about a rematch all you want. As if Foreman was going to do any better atsch

 

I just don't find the explanations very convincing. You've never explained why, for instance, Dunn, Coopman and the rest were in the queue ahead of Foreman, or why getting KO'd means he was never, ever, entitled to a rematch.

 

He had gotten to the place where was deserving of a rematch. His confidence was returning. . . then he was thrashed by Jimmy Young was destroyed and disappeared .

. . . the rest is Hollywood.

Becomes preacher, eats enough fast food to look like man who ate George Foreman. Had more children named George, returned for some small fights, markets grill . . . wins the title using he brain like never before!

Que the music. It's a wrap!

It's a chance for Robert Deniro to do it again.

If anyone out there is a producer who can this thing green lit. Let's get it done.

 

In the 21 months after losing to Hagler, Obelmijias had nine fights before the rematch.

In the 3 years after losing to Hagler, Hamsho had seven fights before the rematch.

In the less than 2 and a half years after losing to Ali, and his retirement, Foreman spent 1 year, and 3 months at home sucking his thumb, and playing ring a roses with donkeys, or whatever else it is that broken depressives do with themselves. If you, and the others trying to slag off Ali can't ( or don't want ) to see the difference between those circumstances, then it really is your own faults.


His subsequent efforts in 76, then cracking up AGAIN for a decade after losing to Young, are irrelevant, other than proving that Ali, and whoever else were right to force the feeble minded fool into PROVING he was worth another shot.

Young, on the other hand PROVED he wasn't.

 

Not to mention Ali's run in the two years after FOTC only to be jumped ahead of by, you guessed it, Foreman.

 

Say George had got his rematch, now just imagine how much doubt Ali would of put in his head leading up to the bout, along with all the demons he was carrying from Zaire.

To be quite honest, i'm not too sure George would have risked being tormented like that again as it may have broken him completely.