How come people confuse old George Foreman with prime George Foreman?

What.Is.Your.Problem.With.The.Foreman.Grill?.

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Best grill ever. A gift to humankind.

 

Sure I can imagine young Foreman dealing with a complaining customer....

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Norton fan here... but, Kenny boy was out of his depth in this one.
Kenny must have seen his whole life flashing before his eyes during those two rounds....

 

The older version of Foreman- the late 80s to 91, 92 version- had the qualities that the young Foreman lacked to make him a fighter.
As opposed to what he was; a big, strong, willing, hard swinging guy.
And I will bet you that George himself would agree with that assessment.

 

Fair assessment. What Old George lost in speed and stamina, more than won back in boxing IQ.

Young Foreman was too brash and unidimentional. Old Foreman was a wiser, smarter boxer.

Old Foreman would have never fallen by Ali's rope-a-dope.

 

The Foreman vs Lyle staredown at the beginning of their fight is epic! Also , love the grill, I have one

 

The answer to this:

1) Only me, @Richard M Murrieta and @djanders are old enough to remember the younger Foreman. (Seriously, most people living today who know of George Foreman only know of his kindly grill-master making fat jokes persona.)

2) Everyone loves a good redemption story and George has had one of the great last acts in modern American celebrity story arcs — remember, he only came back originally to raise a little money to keep his small church going. Then he became America’s granddad.

(I remember going to the cable company to order the Foreman-Holyfield PPV — back in those days you had to go pick up the equipment and pay the fee. They were handing out buttons when people ordered the fight. I think Evander’s were ‘Go Evander’ or whatever. Foreman’s were ‘You Can Do It George!’ The lady tried to give me a Holyfield — and I was a big Holy fan — because I was younger but I asked her for a George one instead. She said ‘the old people are supposed to be for Foreman and the young people are supposed to be for Holyfield, but everybody wants George.’)

3) He’s more famous as a grill master than he is as a fighter (see point 1) to more living people now. I have one of those grills too, and it’s not because George’s name is on it … it’s a great product. (BTW, he went from pitch man to buying the rights to the grill and then sold those rights for like $100M.)

Ali went from hated by most in his brash youth to elder statesman and ambassador to the world. Tyson went from wanting to drive someone’s nose bone into their brain to funny guy in the Hangover movies. It happens to celebrities all the time as they mature and take on a more genial nature, but the difference is probably more extreme when you talk about boxers because they are known for their savagery in the ring, but a few of us are probably old enough to remember when Rosie Greer terrorized opposing football teams and then became a teddy bear TV celebrity.

People grow and evolve. And thank goodness for that.

 

I remember that snarling, clubbing George Foreman of the 70s…I was only a little kid and he was proper scary to me.
Ironically he did have a lovely head of hair whereas the shaven headed look George sported later would have suited the mean, nasty 1970s George much better!

 

Maybe a lot of the younger fellas on here have only seen the *Grill * version of George. Thinking he was always like that, shaved head, a little over weight, slowly makin his way through his opponents.

I'm a little too young to remember him in his glory years, but I've made up for it, watching his fights and reading all about him.
Amazing guy, to come back in his late 30 s and regain his title.

 

One day, Foreman's life will be made into a movie, sweeping the oscars ... you heard it first here. Big George's story is the ultimate "bad guy born again as a good guy" tale:

A young bully, who lives for violence, reaches the top of the boxing world, but he is unexpectedly beaten by Ali in a most humbling way.
With his self confidence shattered beyond repair and questioning himself, He retires and goes away into a soul search.
Everybody forgets about him, and his career becomes just a footnote in the boxing records.
One day the Bully comes back, a physically but also spiritually changed man, looking for a last chance to glory.
Nobody takes him seriously, but against all odds, he redeems himselfs and become a true champion.
The "bad boy gone good" having proved himself can now ride into the sunset with his trusted grill.

 

I believe it was youth center.

Do you remember how people reacted to various changes in Foreman's public image (the young olympic medalist known for waving the small American flag; the rising destroyer; the champion)?

60's/70's culture influence on boxers' personas and style kinda fascinates me.