Extremely rare George Foreman interview before his first fight with Joe Frazier

Once or twice a year.

 

You’re doing infinitely better than me once or twice over then.

 

.

 

He missed a tonne of punches vs Frazier.

 

Im specifically refuting the idea Foreman resembled Louis as a boxer-puncher. Louis would never sail punches overhead or miss completely like Foreman did.

 

Wepner shares the same opinion. He says as much in an interview (which was also extremely interesting in it's own right) regarding a Foreman-Liston bout.

Chuck Wepner- "I fought Liston in his last fight, and Foreman when he was on his way up, so I speak from experience when I say they were two of the hardest punchers ever. it would be hard to match two harder-hitting heavyweights. Even though I though Liston was at the end, I thought he was still a very good boxer. He took a good punch, and he had a lot of savvy. In his prime, he could do it all.
When he was younger, Foreman's most impressive quality was his awesome brute strength. He liked to push people around, but he could be wild with his punches, and that cost him against Muhammad Ali. He was alot like Liston then. Both liked to intimidate their opponents, but you couldn't intimidate either one of them. With George, though, it was an act; he's always been a good guy.
It would be an action packed fight. Both had good, hard jabs, and didn't hesitate to open up and throw bombs. But Liston was a much better boxer. I don't believe anyone could have beaten Liston in his prime, including Ali. I see Liston stopping Foreman in six or seven rounds."

 

Thanks Swag. Great and pertinent quote - especially since it supports my guess.

Without the wonder of YT, many of us might not have ever seen the many IVs with the “other” , more true version, of Young Foreman.

I guess Ali did his fair share also to paint George as a villain.

Imagine thousands of screaming fans chanting for your opponent to kill you? - and I’m not sure that some of them, if not many, didn’t mean it literally.

They were even invoking Black Magic to see George off - including calling on the good old succubus.

Ali’s kinfolk in Africa weren’t taking any prisoners. Lol.

Not pleasant.