Do you think Foreman was on the juice in the 90s?

He used to hang around Hulk Hogan. Do the math.

 

You've clearly never watched "One Punch Man".

 

As to hair, I thought George looked like he might’ve already been receding in his mid to late 20s.

Anyway, scroll about 1/3 of the way down and you’ll see a pic of George with his Dad who appears to still have a decent head of hair at a later age.

I understand that hair loss is supposed to come down through the mother - I’ve known quite a few guys who were pretty much bald while their much older Dads still had a decent thatch of hair on the heads.

All things considered, I’d say no PEDs for Foreman who was always naturally very heavily muscled with the obvious potential for considerable gains via good ol’ fashioned weight work.

https://www.grandmagazine.com/2018/04/george-foreman-better-now-than-ever/

 

You’re talking to one. I started shaving my head optionally at 24, but by 26, could not grow it back. My 75-year-old father still has his hair.

There is footage of Foreman as a pastor pre-comeback where he is semi-bald already.

 

Definitely not. Foreman was an amazing athlete both as a younger and older fighter. Foreman's experience and the fact that he rededicated himself to boxing is what made Foreman tough in his comeback despite his age. Foreman trained smarter during his comeback and studied his opponents more than he ever did in his youth.

Here is a piece with Archie Moore talking about Foreman's comeback and his own development as a fighter.

Recently between aircraft changes, I met the Ol' Mongoose, Archie Moore. I'd been entertained by Archie, but never had the pleasure of shaking his hand.

Moore was in George Foreman's corner at Atlantic City the night Gerry Cooney made his last stand, I hope. Foreman's is living proof that life begins at 40.

It was at that age, give or take a few years according to his disputed birth date of Dec. 13, 1913, that Ol' Mongoose outfoxed Joey Maxim to win the light heavyweight title - a rung Moore claimed for nine years before going after bigger game.

Fighters say when you're around Archie, he is teaching you all the time. They get the feeling they're eternally young, like a green apple hanging on a tree, not ripe yet.

After Foreman won his Olympic medal in 1968, he went to San Diego to ask Moore to turn him into a professional.

"That's right. Bad timing. I happen to be out of town that day and a man named Dick Saddler got George's ear and signed him to a long contract."

Moore says Foreman is "like a young brother to me."

ARCHIE ASSERTS that he has been at Foreman's side since he launched his comeback in 1987.

"I've seen him go through three different phases in his career. First, he had the exuberance of youth, believing he was Superman. Second, he got valuable knowledge dealing with devastating losses to Jimmy Young and Muhammad Ali. But now, I believe, he is just reaching his fighting prime. True, he was away from boxing and spent time with his church, but this gave George spiritual strength to go with his brute force. I think that showed up against his most recent opponent, Cooney."

TO OLD-TIME boxing followers, Archie Moore might sound like a con artist, but the Ol' Mongoose - whose career spanned four decades (1935-63), 229 fights, 194 victories, 141 by knockout - is not blowing smoke.

"From the time I was snot-nose kid, I was a student of boxing. I read everything I could about the great fighters, and when I became a fighter myself, I borrowed my style only from the best. I chose what I thought I needed and built it into a potent potion of armament."

Archie Moore said he copied the weaving and bobbing style of heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, making him an almost impossible target for a standup fighter. He also tried to perfect the windmill style of three-time champion Henry Armstrong and the flashiness of featherweight king Kid Chocolate.

I asked Moore if he had an all-time boxing idol.

"Joe Gans. He was a truly great lightweight. They called Gans 'The Master.' And he was, too."

And what about Archie's classic 1958 championship brawl in Montreal with Yvonne Durelle, the doughty Canadian commercial fisherman from the Province of New Brunswick?

"Durelle was strong as an ox. He knocked me down three times in the first round. I kept getting up and he kept knocking me down. I barely made it back to my corner in the fifth round. My manager, Doc Kearns, smacks me in the face and says, 'Wave and smile to your wife so she knows you're okay.' I answer, 'I can't see her.' And Kearns shouts, 'She's sitting right behind Durelle's corner.'

"I smiled and waved. Durelle thinks I've gone crazy. He's knocked me down six times and here I am grinning and waving my hand like an idiot. That really psyched him. I knocked him out in the 11th round.

"My wife? She was sitting right behind me, but my head was too fuzzy to remember."

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Here is a fitness Q & A with George Foreman and FloJo. A young powerlifter asks Foreman's opinion about taking performance enhancers.

Q&A Fitness by Florence Griffith Joyner & George Foreman

Q: I'm a powerlifter. At 5 feet 9 inches and 138 pounds, I really have to work at it. Should I give in to the temptation to use performance-enhancing substances to boost my energy, strength and stamina? I don't mean illegal steroids, But what about legal nutrition supplements that stimulate muscles or help you gain weight?

George: Remember this: It's the little foxes that get the sweet grapes. What I mean is that some of my powerlifting pals get ready by doing the small things. For instance, I had one friend who held a record for bench press and didn't take performance enhancers. He'd do so many curls with his fist, then exercises for his shoulder and forearm. And he'd build up the small muscles all around that arm, all naturally. It would take a year to do it. As he did little exercises to increase the strength around these little muscles, his lifting got better.

Powerlifting is a sport. Sports are for physical fitness. Physical fitness is for a long, high-quality life. Don't rely on anything else. I've seen to much of it. In my opinion, if you get in and compete and avoid any enhancement agents or drugs, you'll have a better quality life, and that's what it's all about.
https://imgur.com/l0387oT

 

Early in the 1980's Randy Gordon interviewed him when he had no thought of ever returning to boxing, and he was already bald as a preacher. So no, steroids definitely had no role in his hair going away.

 

His physical strength was always unworldly. But as for juicing, he might have done so after former victim from 1969, Bob Hazleton, built himself up with them dramatically. But George was 219 for his debut against Don Waldheim at age 20 in 1969 and 229 at age 28 for Jimmy Young in 1977, so steroid use seems unlikely. Ali went from 212 for Frazier II in 1974 to 230 for Young in 1976, a considerably greater competitive increase over a far shorter interval of time.