Foreman dead at 76, according to Instagram post

Young Foreman would have smashed those guys.

 

Rest in Peace, Big George Foreman. Could never forget your punching power, becoming at one point the oldest heavyweight champion, and resume. And last but not least. Your grills. RIP

 

Right on.

Lost somewhere in this Classic forum there is a post from some old timer who said he attended Foreman's training camp in the 70s.

IIRC he said that when Foreman was working the bag everybody around would stay still and silent watching in awe. Only sound around was the ominous thudding from Foreman's punches.

 

OJ Simpson comes to mind. I remember watching one of his documentaries awhile ago, I think ESPN Sportscentury, and they talked about how gracious he often was with fans and how people felt fooled by him.

I forgot the exact details on when he met Tommy Morrison. I know it wasn’t terrible or anything.

It was fun being a kid and my dad working for the CSAC. Sometimes I would sit ringside for small fight cards in the Bay Area, and you really get to see up close how hard the sport is and how painful it must be.

 

Could you imagine Herbie`s chin with Foreman`s punches?! Frazier would have brutalized Herbie.

 

It wouldn’t have been pretty.

It’s been chewed over before but nonetheless interesting to wonder how people might rate/perceive Foreman IF he never made the comeback.

One thing I think the comeback allowed for was better and more analytical address of Foreman’s first career.

If not for the comeback and that redress, I think George’s might’ve been woefully underrated.

I personally don’t subscribe to Old George being better than Young George.

Young George was a beast, a phenom and he did display skills that he often isn’t given credit for imo.

As was the case with Liston, Foreman was sort of relegated somewhat to being a footnote in Ali’s career.

But then Big George made his improbable comeback……amazing.

 

His power translates well enough on film, it would’ve been awesome to hear/see that in the flesh.

I read that while in Zaire, Ali’s team steered him away from watching George work out on the heavy bag. Understandable.

As an upcoming opponent of Foreman, it was definitely something you didn’t want or need to see before climbing into the ring against him.

 

RIP George. One of the very best and,in my opinion,the second best heavyweight of the 1970s.

Pardon me for coming in late on this one but I've only just got back on here after two weeks.

 

Well Forman was bending the body bags in half, and he is going to do that to you???

 

As Norman Mailer said “You’ve never witnessed a more prodigious sight than Foreman hitting the heavy bag….”

Well, Ali held supreme confidence but, just imo, he really needed that outstanding first round to truly cement his belief he could get over George.

It really was an ATG opening round - similar to how Ali established himself in the first round against another monster, Liston, some 10 years prior.

Even before the first round was out, Foreman caught up with Ali somewhat with some very hard punches - but Ali also knew he was going to have cop some to see himself through.

I believed George when he said he was literally trying to kill Ali - it damn sure looked like it.

His knees shaking when he met Frazier? Not so much.

 

Foreman landed some great body shots on Ali in that fight. I mean yeah Ali did a good job in keeping the head protection. But Foreman was going crazy on the body when Ali was on the ropes. Most other fighters would have gone down from that, but not Ali.

 

Yes, Ali had ATG resistance to body shots.

The only body shot I’ve seen that really doubled Ali up was a body punch from Norton in their rubber match.

I read that when Foreman was concentrating on just one side of Ali’s body, Ali would say to George that he had nothing in whichever hand he was using.

Ali said that would then cause George to switch to the other hand and belabour Ali’s other flank.

Ali could take it but he said George switching hands allowed him to get a breather from the one side being wailed on exclusively.

Ali was literally taking the same shots that Foreman dented the heavy bag with. Yikes!