I wasnt old enough to have an opinion here so im not sure did people feel as strongly about george foreman fightng in his old age as everyone does today wabout Evander Holyfeild were they urging him to retire even though he was doing much better then holyfield is now
Foreman fought because he had to. He was broke. Just like Evander. Had little to do with love and passion for the sport.
Whether he had to or not, he was a force. Speed was his only enemy, but you had Moorer who stupidly stood in front of Big George for an exchange of punches and you now know the rest. As they say, they rest is history.
Interesting, ive read interviews where he said he did it because he still had the passion and hunger in him, he missed it and wanted one last world champ belt?:huh
In reality he started fighting again because the community he lived in outside of Houston needed a building for their boys and girls club that was involved with his church where he was a pastor. It just got bigger from there. There were a lot of sportscaster's and boxing commentators saying that his comeback was a joke and that he should be banned because of his age and that he was going to get hurt. This kind of talk continued from the "professionals" until he fought Holyfield. The fans loved him fighting though from the beginning. He was a phenomenon as far as the fans were concerned. Once he had his fight with Holyfied and even though he lost, he was highly competitive and at one point had Holyfield almost out of there, then most of the commentators ate a little crow, or even ignored their previous statements and got on the Foreman bandwagon.
If he didn't win the title, lots of people would be sayin what a disgrace. And to be fair, he suffered some setbacks getting to that point, and people were writing him off. Holyfield has definitely had some setbacks, and if he had won against Valuev (on scorecards at least), people would be sayin "great heart, great effort, etc."
Thought it was a novelty, then thought it was legit, then after the beating from Stewart and loss to Morrison it was all over. The upset against Moorer thrilled me, I watched it live. It was only afterwards slightly tarnished for me by the way George then broke up the belts even further and refused to fight any of the top guys. Schulz was artificially pushed to a #1 spot and he still beat George, just didn't get the decision. Holmes vs Foreman in '99 I would've quite liked to see, all the same.
A force? What force? The only thing George back then could do was walk forward absorb punishment and throw those massively wide hooks. He looked terrible. I remember his fight against Schulz. His face was a mess. I just wanted it to stop. He was an old man in a young mans game taking a beating.
My point is that he obviously shouldn't have stopped because he accomplished his goal of winning the title.
I thought it was respectable for a man his age. Realistically he was slower and had to fight with a lot of patience to wait for the openings. He wasnt going to beat a slick fast fighter or an elite level fighter. He was carefully matched against guys who would match up well with his style, and sometimes guys like Tommy Morrison and Axel Shultz, who were supposed to stand in front of him, decided to turn into boxers and gave him hell. It took a lot of mental toughness to hang in there with Moorer for as long as he did getting his faced pummeled, trying to set Moorer up and wait for that opening. Foreman was tough as nails and more mentally tough in his comeback because he had a better understanding of the mental side of boxing.
he almost caught up to a prime holyfield on several occasions and flattened michael moorer. other than that, he beat some good guys. he actually was a great fighter in the 90's if you put it into perspective. some will say ehh, tyson was gone, the moorer win was a lucky scenario, he was on the losing end of tommy morrison's greatest career win, blah blah blah. Big George did the impossible simply put and he should be respected for that, not even considering his previous career