If George Foreman hadn't paused his career...

Even if he stayed in top form there was enough heavyweight talent in the 80s to hand him a few losses. I think the time away did him some good, and he wasn't criticized as much for hand picking fighters due to his age.

 

Not saying he is, but it sure as hell hasn't been ruled out. I think he's at least grey area for being a dark triad guy and his public image has long seemed contrived to me.

 

I don't think people should judge others personal lifes here. If Foreman was an abuser, he should be punished. We're not here to judge him though.

 

Contrived? For coming out of retirement to win the heavyweight championship of the world? How on God's green earth is that "contrived"?

 

Aliens haven't been ruled out either.

And Bill Gates has a reptile brain because it hasn't been ruled out yet. These are all just baseless allegations against a great Champion.

 

It's a tricky issue because our predictions in this thread depend -- to some extent -- on Foreman's personality. Whether Foreman's personality and goals changed after Young directly bears on how he will act in the late 70s / early 80s. (Since one of the only plausible ways to stop his retirement is to remove the Young postfight vision...and if we don't remove it, we have to explain why Foreman keeps fighting. Does he disregard it? Etc.)

Then again, it's also tied up with the sincerity of his religious convictions. Which adds another layer of trouble.

 

Leaving the alleged sexual assault(s) to one side for a moment, do you have other evidence that Foreman fits the dark triad?

(Or are you solely relying on the conjunction between sexual assaults and a position as a preacher?)

 

We agree that the long winded post praising his character that I originally responded to has no place here, in that case. Glad we're on the same page.

 

For starters, he's been married five times and has five sons and one daughter named after himself. He also spent his teenage years mugging people instead of going to school.

 

The multiple marriages are typical of celebrities and heavyweight champions -- Holyfield has children from six different women, and was married at least 3 times despite being outspokenly religious like Foreman; Tyson's had three wives (although maybe he's a candidate for the same disorder considering the convictions and prior juvenile stuff); Ali had four wives, as did Dempsey.

Still, that's an interesting point, especially when you add the criminal stuff as a young man.

Any other evidence come to mind, while we're on the subject?

 

I don't know that any of them aren't candidates. The period where he allegedly had sex with around 30 women in about five weeks and the closed battery case against a woman also come to mind.

 

Re: Holyfield and the others, I guess you could claim that most or all of the heavyweight champions were sociopaths, but that would expand your burden of proof pretty massively. Your interlocutors could then cite essentially the entire celebrity population over the last half century or more as examples of promiscuous people with plenty of spouses. Now, it's possible that they're all sociopaths too, but it seems more likely that promiscuity and remarriages increase when you get more opportunities.

Not that it's totally irrelevant, but I don't think it's much on its own. More as part of a wider case.

The battery incident is stronger as a standalone, IMO.

 

You labeled that as “Holyfield and others” but we all know he’s less suspect than Tyson and Ali. Still demonstrated fantasy prone behavior with the Benny Hinn crap.

 

It's an interesting question whether Foreman, not only post-Ali but also post-Young, may have gained benefits by a break in his careers continuity which would not have accrued to a typical boxer. Also, perhaps restarting after a considerable break may have (in a beneficial way) made unavoidable the need to reboot and retool, rather that straining out the last dregs of his primetime approach.
Anyways, continuing his career 3/77 to 3/87 would have put a lot of mileage on Foreman, especially since he would have at least started that period fighting challenging opposition. I really would be a (little) surprised if Forman would have been fighting bigger names by the time the '90's rolled around.