Much gets made of the fact that Muhammad Ali did n't grant George Foreman a rematch. It's true that Muhammad should have obliged but let's look at this in detail. The way some talk goes round nowadays is like George was waiting for ages. In reality,though,there was only a small window that this rematch could have occured - 1/ George did n't box for fifteen months after Ali picked him apart in Kinshasa. A fighter hungry for a rematch with his conqueror does n't take a year out of the ring. 2/ After Foreman had that shakey comeback victory agaainst Ron Lyle I'm sure his people would n't have wanted to throw him in against Ali without at least a couple more bouts. 3/ Okay,after George beat Joe Frazier next time out,he would have been the next top contender in line but Muhammad had already signed up for his September rubber match with Ken Norton. I do agree that George should have been up for a title fight in early 1977 but it's clear that Ali,after so long being willing to take on everyone in line,knew he was now not the man he was in Zaire or even Manilla so he wanted to get Foreman to remove the threat of Norton first. I'm not saying that this is right but just how it was. My main point here is that there was only a window of a few months oppurtunity for Ali/Foreman II to take place. Contrast the above with Joe Frazier stalling on giving Ali a title rematch after FOTC. In between Frazier winning their first bout and finally fighting a real contender by name of George Foreman in January 1973,Ali had beaten nine men and should have fought for the title ahead of George whilst Joe had two fights which were nothing more than glorified exhibitions. I'm not using this to have a pop at Frazier. Even though Ali was always my favourite,I admired Joe too. This is more an exercise in questioning the double standards of those who criticise Ali for not rematching Foreman but give Joe a pass for not giving Ali a title rematch. After all,Muhammad did far more to warrant a second go against Joe than George did to face Ali again.
Lol cleary you are trying to give Ali excuse. Ali clearly flat out ducked Foreman because he realized he got lucky and knew the if fought Foreman again he would be knocked out. Frazier was never known to duck anybody.
I'm not excusing Ali at all. Read my post through again and you'll see that. I repeat that I created this thread in order to question the double standards of one getting slagged off and the other for getting excused. So far I've been proved right !
to be honest BH's reply sums up the state of several posters on this forum. StevieG constructs a decent OP using evidence and states his reasons and BH's reply is intentionally inflamatory and without merit.
Foreman took time out because his head was messed up after Zaire and probably knew he was incapable of beating Ali ever. contrast this as StevieG rightfully points out, Ali's resume after losing FOTC, he was very active to get back in contention.
Ali beat foreman pretty conclusively, not sure it warranted a rematch. he was too tough to go down to foreman, and too smart to be caught napping. post 1976 would have been meaningless, ali was already in serious decline, probably knew it judgng by his new fangled propensity to fight the Leons of the world, and knew foreman or anyone seriously top notch would have ended his career. His ego overrode his sensibility.
Right he didn't believe he could beat Ali yet he kept calling out Ali and Ali ducked him? Amazing logic you have there? Is that crack head logic? I just want to know so I will never smoke crack. Foreman was messed up because he lost to somebody inferior to him and he couldn't live it down. According to him he knew he was the champ but didn't have his belt. Ali knew Foreman didn't take him lightly and fought stupid that one fight. Ali knew he shouldn't have beat Foreman the first time and knew if they fought again he would lose badly. So he fought guys like Norton and Frazier who he knew he would struggled against or in Norton's case lose too. But neither of them were killers like Foreman in the ring and he knew they could hurt him but not knock him out.
I totally get the point of the OP....By the way right at the end of the post ,you mean Joe not George, right ? Frazier gets excused his lack of activity in 71/2 , i read in his book his manager said he didnt fight again in 71 for tax reasons, if he earned anymore he would be taxed at the highest rate ? And the 2 fights of low opponent standard in 72 were due to issues with high blood pressure and eyesight trouble ? I have no idea if these things are true. Yank Durham wanted Joe to retire after FOTC is something i read in a few places ?
But anyway I guess you people know more about boxing or George Foreman than Gil Clancy who trained him for a while. Clancy flat out stated he wanted Foreman to come to Puerto Rico 10 days before the fight to get used to the humidity. Foreman came the day before the fight. Gil stated that he told Foreman to just go out and get the fight over with and Foreman wouldn't list to him. He brought one of his friends and had them ring side and only listened to that person according to Gil until he told the guy to get out of the corner. He then told Foreman to go out and knock young out which Foreman almost did. Foreman suffered a heat stroke and lost. But if you want to bring that lost for Foreman most people think Ali to Young as well as guy like Doug Jones.
I never, ever got the impression that Ali ducked Foreman. Foreman got picked apart and KOd in Zaire. It was a conclusive ending and Ali was clearly superior. Foreman took a long break after that fight and returned barely winning a slugfest against Lyle. (Whom Ali KOd the earlier year) Beating a shot, fat geriatric Joe Frazier who had almost nothing left should have had no credibility in the eyes of experts, and Ali already had two major fights that year. (Norton and Young) Maybe Foreman could have been next in line for a shot in 77, but his inability to secure the fight due to the Young loss is his fault. It should be mentioned that title shots weren't always handed out on a silver plate in that era, especially if the fighter looking for a rematch took a 15 months break. Ali didn't immediately get his rematch with Frazier and had to fight his way through the rankings before getting into the ring with him again. It's Foremans own fault that he didn't get another shot. He probably deserved it, but never truly established his position as the leading contender.
Agreed, and even though you alluded to it, it is interesting to note that Foreman's comeback fights were against two guys (Lyle and Frazier) that Ali had already recently defeated.
It's astonishing on here considering his resume that someone's calling Ali a ducker. That's what being a nuthugger does to people.
Steve you have the history completely correct. It's revisionist thinking that Ali ducked Foreman. Foreman did himself no good walking away from the sport for 15 months. However it really was more than that the sport also walked away from Foreman. The man everyone thought impervious and unbeatable was neither. After Ali knocked him out the bubble had burst regarding Foreman. He certainly was on his way to rebuild himself but Young completely shattered his persona in 77.