Why was George Foreman disliked by fans in his Prime?

This has been done to death...Just google it for thousands of answers.

 

Because George Foreman was a Smug, Scowling fighter after he obliterated Joe Frazier in 1973. He was imitating his boyhood hero Charles Sonny Liston, he was overconfident, walking around with his vicious Canines. Nothing like you see on the current Medicare commercials with his bald head, he rarely smiled.

 

Do you think that the much loved Ali’s concurrent second career, endeavouring to regain the title, perhaps also contributed to putting George in a dim light as far as the public was concerned?

Certainly, whatever magnitude of villain Foreman was to the public, Ali certainly stoked the fires - as he so often did - and just as he did with Liston back in the 60s. Suffice to say, he rallied his kinfolk to chant “Ali, kill him!” - Foreman would’ve felt quite lonely and exceptionally vilified in that ring, early morning in Zaire.

Imagine having a guy like Ali on your case - in full character assassination mode? No thanks.

It’s also interesting that while Foreman put on the brooding, thug persona there are still some interviews at the time in which George couldn’t help but come across as a likeable guy IMO.

 

How do you know this? Were you around then cos there were no social media around then so no polls and forums that proves that no one liked him back then. A knockout artist knocking out heavyweights left right and centre? How could someone like that not be popular with boxing fans? I think it all has to do with the myth of Ali. Everyone now assumes he was the most popular guy on earth back then and everyone loved him meaning anyone who was a rival of his automatically was the villain and must have been hated and unpopular but was that really the truth?

 

Foreman presented himself as an arrogant bully from his 1st professional fight onward. Interestingly, he was well liked after his Amateur Career, but before his pro career. Among people I knew, his image started nosediving right after the post fight interview following his 1st professional fight. In his 2nd career he was well liked by most.

 

This is correct: Like DJ, I was around during that time and can attest.

It was set up on a tee for George to be Mr. Popular. He was the one waving the American flag in the ring at an Olympics where others were raising their single fist in protest of how black people in the U.S. were being treated, which won George a lot of goodwill with the majority white masses (and probably didn’t endear him to others).

Plus he had the reformed-guy-gone-good who turned his life around in the Jobs Corps. It was a made-for-TV, feel-good story.

But George was an ornery and surly cuss of a human being. He had a chip on his shoulder and didn’t mind letting everyone know. He was short and dismissive in public and did not court adulation. He literally wanted to kill a man in the ring ‘because it would make me more famous.’

The elder statesman/grandpa act came after George completely turned his life around after his first career.

In truth, both are probably a bit of an act. He wasn’t as mean as maybe he came off early in his career (where he wanted to create an aura of intimidation like Sonny Liston or later Mike Tyson) or probably quite as sweet as he seems now or during his comeback.

He’s also almost certainly the boxer who has made the most real money (not purses, which are split with managers and promoters often gut a cut plus trainer and tax man and training expenses) in his life. He got paid as a pitch man for the Foreman Grill, bought it and then sold it for $137M. And that doesn’t include what he made as a boxer. I’d be pretty happy if I had a nest egg like that, haha.

 

Not trying to instigate but didn’t Don King cover up a **** George commit close to fight time? I remember another commentator brining it up when Foreman defended Tyson’s **** case.

 

It's the old story as told by Wilt Chamberlain: nobody loves Goliath. That's how Big George was viewed back in the day. Eventually he learned to smile for the camera and became accessible to many fans. Today he is beloved and rightfully so!