Why didn't Ali rematch Foreman?

foreman may not have wanted a rematch. after the ali fight foreman put together some wins and then lost to jimmy young..probably exhausted and started chatting about god in his dressing room....(foreman's, not god's) .and retired from boxing.

ali had some good money fights after the foreman fight.. and then of course the thrilla in manilla.

fgreman didn't look good in those "fights" where he took on five guys in one afternoon. i don't think there was much of a demand for a rematch with ali.

 

Foreman always wanted it but was never a mandatory. He lost out when Young beat him which let an Ali vs Young showdown. Ali didn't want to fight Foreman, but also had no real reason or requirement to do so. Ali never wanted to face too many punchers toward the end of his career. He ended up having to fight Shavers.

 

Ali once said that if Foreman had remained active through 1975,instead of having a year's lay off,he would have fought him instead of Frazier around the time of the Manila fight. After the third Norton fight,Ali wanted Foreman and Norton to have a rematch and he would have fought the winner. Post Manila Muhammad was too weary to take on all comers. Which was understanderble.

 

Wrong question. Six months after Foreman bounced Frazier in Jamaica, Smoke was back in with Bugner. Ali returned to action with Ellis four lousy months after Joe knocked him on his can in the FOTC. Less than three months after Foreman trashed Norton in Caracas, Kenny stepped right back in the ring with Kirkman, and avenged a defeat to another opponent who had previously knocked him out little more than a year later (Garcia). Where the hell was George for nearly 15 months after Kinshasa? If George wanted a rematch, then he needed to get back on the horse immediately, and make the case that he was the top contender.

Ali was a phenomenal active champion, who defended his newly regained title no less than four times before George even entered the ring to founder around with Lyle. Nobody had been so prolific at defending a heavyweight title claim since Muhammad himself was stripped of it in 1967. Not many wanted to see a recrowned Foreman defend it once a year against the likes of Roman again, when Ali was putting it up four times each in 1975 and 1976, even while in his middle 30s. (Foreman was blowing out opposition in five rounds or less while in his mid 20s. What was his excuse for competing less frequently than an older champion who was routinely going into the championship rounds?)

 

Actually, Young fought Ali before he fought George.

Ali-Foreman II was talked about for a while, but, of course, it never happened.

 

Personally, I see a stronger case for why Ali never rematched Young or Norton, given their close finishes/victories.

Ali had knocked out Foreman. There was nothing left there for him to prove. There was no sort of fluke or controversy that really tainted the victory, as there had been when Ali first fought Liston, for instance. Besides Liston-Patterson II, I can't really think of any immediate rematch being granted to someone who was the victim of an untainted knockout in a championship fight.

And even when Foreman came back a year later, he did nothing to prove that he was any better than he had been in Zaire. It took him five rounds to take out a one-eyed, post Manila Frazier and he went life and death with Lyle, a man that the supposedly featherfisted Ali had been able to TKO. Then of course there's the Young loss.

Frankly, it would have been interesting to how Ali would fight a beast like Foreman without being able to pull the rope-a-dope, but at the same time I feel that Foreman was never that same beast in the ring, at least during his 70s comeback.

There was no need for Ali-Foreman II.

 

Good post :good I thoroughly agree with this.

 

A lot of people said that Ali was scared of a rematch with George. No dice. As has been said on this thread. Ali completely annihalated Foreman. Frazier and Norton had been far tougher opponents,and Ali had no hesitation in accepting rubber matches. It was just as I said in my earlier post on this,Muhammad felt battleworn after Manila.

 

As Duodenum already touched upon, Foreman taking 16 months off didn't help his case for a rematch, and nor did getting nearly beaten by Ron Lyle. Had he gotten back in the ring maybe 5 or 6 months after the loss in Africa and fought men like Quarry Shavers, Bugner, and a few others, it would have been very hard to deny him a rematch, but he just didn't follow up the way he needed to.. In addition, he was beaten more than convincingly.. Rematches are more likely to occur if a bout resulted in a close or contested outcome.. There was no such case in this instance.

 

Ali wasn't happy about fighting Foreman again, i think My Dinner with Conteh proved that several times.

However, given the ease with which he disposed Foreman at his peak, i don't think it really matters THAT much. If it was a close fight with a controversial outcome, then it would be a different story.

 

Honestly, Ali was scared to fight Foreman again. He knew most likely that he wouldn't win so he continuously ducked Foreman. The "Rumble In The Jungle" was Ali's biggest legacy fight and if they fought again and George beat him the legacy is damaged.

It's similar to Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling. Do people talk about Schmeling anymore? No. Why? Because Louis killed him in their rematch which took Schmeling's claim to fame so to speak and further cements Louis as a legend. The first Louis vs Schmeling fight was no debate either; Schmeling beat the brakes off of Louis and clearly took him out. But because Louis got the rematch from Schmeling and whooped him it changed history. If Schmeling would not have given Louis a rematch, then Louis isn't as high of a legend is he is considered today.

Not comparing Ali to Buster Douglas in no way shape or form but this is another example. Who is Buster Douglas without his knockout of Tyson? No disrespect, but even with the Tyson knockout he's barely a somebody. If Tyson would of fought Douglas again and knocked him out, then Buster goes to being a nobody again. But Douglas chose not to fight Tyson again to keep his legacy. What makes it so obvious is Don King and Donald Trump sued Buster because Buster had an agreement with them to fight Tyson again. Not only did Buster not honor the agreement but he sued Don King to get out of his contract so he would not have to fight Tyson again. After Douglas was knocked out by Holyfield Ferdie Pacheco said it best. He said "this fight shows nothing of Douglas except that he got a hold of a bad Tyson in Tokyo."


You have to give Ali credit the "rope a dope" was a brilliant strategy, but that's a one shot deal? Ali knew good and well Foreman wasn't going to fall for that again. Now if Foreman made Ali come to the middle of the ring ring and fight we have a different story. Foreman would of dropped him most likely. When Ali tried the "rope a dope" on Frazier, Frazier didn't fall for it and made sure to punish Ali when he could. One part in Ali/Frazier I where Frazier literally pulled Ali off the ropes to make him fight. But George didn't think about these things.

It's no coincidence that Foreman lost to Ali but never got a title shot from Ali again. Ali ducked Foreman, plain and simple.

 

Yeah and then you woke up.....................why thew F would you duck someone you ko'ed while being the decisive underdog ? Not to mention that Foreman was COMPLETLEY outclassed during the fight, it was not even close..............

Anyway, Boxing is 80% mental and 20% physical and after his loss to Ali Foreman was never the same again, you can say that Ali took his mojo and if there would have been a rematch Foreman would have folded a lot sooner for the above reasons, he could not get his Ali demon out of his head. Fact. Even in his book from the nineties he was crying and could not accept the defeat, a clear sign of lack of confidence.

BTW, he did get some confidence back in his comeback but fighting handpicked tomatoe cans with the exception of the light hitting and small Holy he was never really tested by a top contender or champ.

 

Ducked. It's already been proven many times over on these pages by someone who used to post regularly in Classic.

 

Of course, one-sided heavyweight fights never have rematches- that's why there was no Patterson-Johannsson II and why Spinks never granted Ali a 2nd fight. :hey