Why did Foreman take the loss to Jimmy Young so hard?

He passed out in the dressing room and saw God is what I remember no?

 

There’s an interesting correlation between Foreman’s layoff and the rise and fall of Larry Holmes.

 

His ego was also shattered, it was cracked after Ali but young Jimmy smashed it.

 

I don't believe in the religious part of the Foreman vs. Young story, nor in some kind of "revelation". IMO Foreman thought after Lyle and Frazier 2 fights that he would beat Young, and if that had come true who knows what would have happened. The title would not be far away, and in that year 1977. And this time it was more likely that he would beat Muhammad Ali.
Let's not forget that Foreman entered that fight after 5 consecutive knockouts, and as the fighter of the year 1976. For him, the defeat was a shock and surprise.

 

Well, he did quit the sport, start his own church with his own money, and become a preacher for 10 years in Texas giving sermons to mainly small groups of people. The guy kinda walked the walk and talked the talk, as they say, for a whole decade. That's quite the "long con" if he was faking it, especially since basically no one was paying attention to him the entire time.

Ah yes, I'm sure Larry's scintillating performance against Horace "Big City" Robinson on the Foreman-Young undercard just sent George running for the door and he refused to re-enter until Holmes was retired for a year.

I think Larry Holmes had as much to do with George Foreman's decade as a preacher as we did, honestly.

 

Yes, this is why George was clamoring for a fight with Larry in the 90s.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/15/sports/plus-boxing-foreman-holmes-fight-rescheduled.html

Foreman and Holmes signed to fight when Foreman was 50 and Larry was 49. But the check bounced TWICE.

I don't see any correlation between a failed fight from 1999 and Foreman retiring 22 years earlier.

Again, I don't think George retired at 28 and spent all his money for the next decade on a small-town church because he was afraid of an unranked 27-year-old heavyweight in 1977.

In fact, when Leon beat Ali and then Ken Norton (who George had already wiped out) was named WBC champion, George was asked about Leon's win and Foreman jokingly said he should come back. So Don King tried to get George (who had been out for only a year) to come out of retirement and fight on an exhibition card that Norton had before his first defense, and George said he wasn't interested in coming back. He was a preacher.

If the thought of demolishing 'Neon' Leon or Ken Norton again to regain the title didn't entice him out of retirement, I don't think Holmes (before he beat anyone) was actually causing him to shake in his boots.

 

He experienced exhaustion, heat stroke and had hallucinations after the fight and interpreted it in religious terms. If he was already psychologically vulnerable that could have made him more likely to believe it perhaps? Also gave him a reason to leave boxing too. If he then went on to do the ministry thing eventually just reinforces it as time goes on probably. I am not religious in the slightest so I don't think it was a message either but that's probably why it panned out that way

 

Haha I just had this vision of Foreman, after a day of preaching at his small church goes back to his meager home looks in the mirror and says to himself "haha, they bought it again George. Just about 6 more years before I return to boxing and then no one can question my god story. The perfect crime"

 

Yeah, there was a Boxing Illustrated feature article on Foreman in 83 sometime, and the writer profiled the steamy, sweaty Texas church in the summer, with the windows open, no air conditioning, the flies everywhere and the few parishioners, and Foreman preaching his heart out, already fat and what remained of his hair falling out.

It wasn't a glamorous existence, to say the least. And, even then, he was still totally invested.

OR, was it possibly the perfect con.

Damn that Larry Holmes. The Holmes-Lucien Rodriquez fight that year must've sent George into a full panic attack.

 

Early 90s, chief. 99 doesn't count.

 

George exits his church after the boxing illustrated interview, cracks a slight smile and says to himself "You did it again you son of a *****, they have no idea"

 

Yeah...Foreman said that in several interviews...

 

BINGO! Sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one. George was always a little different and was possessed with an inordinate amount of hate those days.