Yes, but Foreman has transcended the fame of ALL boxers due to those grills...people who barely know about the sport of boxing know George Fore....he's like Betty Crocker inasfar as being a household name.
B, So are the PPV fights in America not really discussed in Europe much? Aside from Mayweather and HAtton (which im sure got a lot of press), they don't really talk about Roy Jones or De La Hoya or even Pacquiao fights?
I got my mate into boxing last year, he goes to training, spars etc. He didn't realise until about last week that George Foreman was a boxer, he just thought he was the manufacturer of the grill in our kitchen. Most well known. Well among sports fans guys like Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, de la Hoya, Mayweather etc would probably reign supreme. Anyone over 40 though seems to know a wealth of boxers. My dad knew who Davey Moore was and he's not what I'd call a boxing fan.
1 , 2 , 3 . Tyson , Ali , Marciano (tie) 4 , 5 . Jack Johnson , Jack Dempsey (tie) Not that the common people really know something about these names or could even recognize their names from seeing their pictures
On a world wide scale, I doubt it. All my friends and I knew who Muhammad Ali was by age 5, including all the girls. On the other hand, most people I know still don't know who Oscar is. I'd say on a global scale it goes something like- 1. Ali 2. Tyson 3. Rocky Even people who hate boxing know who those three are. Foreman is well-known, but not really as a boxer. A lot of my friends were surprised to hear that he'd had a career in boxing when I told them.
I'd say that 1. Ali 2. Tyson Those are by far the most recognizable names in the world. Forget boxing, these guys are Michael Jackson famous. I've lived in a few third world countries and Mike Tyson is more popular than anything. Frazier, Foreman, and especially De la Hoya don't even come close to Tyson or Ali. Mayweather? There are places he could go and not be noticed. At all. Can't say the same about Ali or Mike. Fame just doesn't stop in America where De la Hoya, Rocky, Mayweather are household names. There is a world outside..
Among hardcore fans they are but that´s it. Not so much among casual fans and not at all with the non-boxing public. Casual fans are into the local, meaning in this case German, fighters and not much if anything outside of that. When Roy Jones was active he was about as much known in Germany as Michaelchewski was in the US. Mayweather-Hatton wasn´t really discussed much over here. DLH over here is only known as the guy who robbed the belt of Sturm btw. Fights of those men are lucky to even get mentioned. Oh, and boxing is huge over here, o something like 45-50 million households around 18 million watch the Klitschko fights and even Abraham does over 10 million.
I think in America, Tyson is better known by the general public but worldwide I would say it was Ali.
I think Muhammad Ali is definitely the most well known around the world. He's a celebrity in some countries where they dont even have boxing. Tyson draws a crowd here in London. Tyson is as known, or more so, but not in ALL those countries. Only Americans would say Oscar de La Hoya. He's not even known in the UK. He's a nobody.
Everyone i work with/for, plus my uncles will always say the same thing when i bring up boxing. Theyre the type of guys that still curse Thatcher on a daily basis, that age range. They'll say.. "Yeeeeah, its not the same as when Hearns, Hagler, Leonard and Duran were all fighting each other. They were proper fighters. Theyre nowhere near as good nowadays. That Tyson was a beast like, but he's no Ali." Ive worked with alot of people from this era and i'd say thats theres a great deal of working class men aged 40-60 that know of Hagler, Hearns and Leonard but dont know who Pacquiao or Mayweather are
Most of my friends aren't big boxing fans and we live in Canada, I'd say that the more well knowns are : 1-Ali 2-Tyson 3-De La Hoya 4-George Foreman 5-Evander Holyfield 6-Joe Louis I don't know anybody around me who knows who are Pacquiao and Mayweather.
There was a time when every little kid knew of Muhamad Ali. Im not so sure now:think Dont get me wrong every adult knows who he is but not sure about lil kids. Over here every little kid knows who ODLH is. I ought to do a little survey next time i go around the little monsters in my family. Of course mine knew of Ali and all of them when little but thats cause of me. Even Ike Quartey,Jose Lopez,Daniel Zarragoza were household names lol!