Was there ever plans for an Ali-Foreman rematch?

I never really researched it too hard, but I don't think Ali wanted it. He said later it was the hardest he'd ever been hit. Foreman broke every blood vessel in his arms.

I can't see him wanting the fight because you can't expect Foreman to fall fore the rope-a-dope twice (cough* really loose ropes).

What would have happened? I don't know. Foreman's head was kind of ****ed up. If he could've gotten it together mentally and learned from the last fight, I don't see Ali beating him, but that's a big 'what if?'

 

This is a duplicate post from a month or so ago...



He 'avoided' a Foreman rematch, no doubts. He initially accepted it, early 1976, it was pencilled in for later that year. Then Ali announced his retirement...then he informed the WBC he would box again. After Foreman gatecrashed an Ali conference he said he would fight him, this was November 1976 (as below)...then he retired again. Fight off. The WBC insisted that the Foreman match must take place by April 1977 and be signed for by January.

In early '77 Ali said he need 'two warm up fights' before taking on George again, to which Foreman replied: "Why not fight now. Sign today, I am the mandatory after all". In the meantime, Ali didn't sign up for the rematch; its cutting off point was supposedly January 1977, the WBC still didn't strip him when he elected to take on the might of Evangelista instead.

Soon after Ken Norton wrote an open letter to Boxing Illustrated basically saying how disgusted his was with the authorities letting Ali take the **** out of them and that he'd only made one mandatory defence of his regained crown- John Conteh and Carlos Monzon were immediately stripped of theirs when the former broke his hand and the latter signed to fight the undisputed welter champ, Ali didn't have such reason ohter than he was Ali and that's that. An impatient Foreman foolishly signed to fight Young, found God, ate a lot, shaved head, had 20 more kids called George, became businessman, came back, etc etc.

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...only he didn't when it came to signing. :good

 

Ali really was bigger than by you know who by then...

He could pick and choose who he wanted to fight, and no one would really minded. If a piece of alphabet crap stripped him, it would not of mattered. Foreman needed Ali; Ali decided to fight the likes of Dunn and Evangelista. Ali was fighting on his well earned reputation post Thrilla, there was little to gain in a Foreman rematch and a lot to lose in a crushing defeat; so why bother?

 

Of course, 'why bother', other that fight your mandatory, which is meant to be in the rules. Hey, as long as the fans are happy (best not mention the scores of empty seats at the Dunn, Norton and Bugner fights then). Ali totally fudged his way to retirement after the Norton contest, which (luckily for him) culminated in the phoney Spinks fights.

 

Ali was a shell of a fighter post FrazierIII; so bad infact I would of been pick'em against him by 82.

I suspect Ali and his camp knew he was 'gone' but also knew they could still make good money fighting anyone. Sure people lost a lot of interest, but Ali was still getting top dollar, I guess the promoters lost out (shame).

A George Foreman beating Muhammad Ali in 1977 would of led to Foreman being grossley overrated, personally I am glad the rematch never happened, and we can look back and marvel at the splendor of one of boxing greatest events, The Rumble in the Jungle, without the nasty after taste of what might of been a horrible rematch for boxings (mainstream) Messiah; Ali.

 

TBooze TKO 9

 

LOL; Brilliant My dinner with Conteh; but I would of had enough class to carry him the distance: TBooze WU10

 

You mean, you'd deliberately hurt a sick man. :-(

 

Of course, like I said I have class; low class

 

Ha ha, I'll make sure Richard Steele's reffing then, he'll stop it sooner. Best '0' in the business an' all.

 

Most important '0'

 

This all maybe true, but Ali was pretty much shot after the third Frazier fight. He was physically gone and past it by the time he fought Foreman. In his second career as a whole he wasn't the same physically.

I have a sneeking feeling Ali may have beaten Foreman a second time based on the styles and mental domination.

Some people say it would have been different if it was in a cooler environment because Foreman got exhausted too quickly. But Ali would have been able to stick and move more and throw more leather in a cooler enviroment himself. Ali always had the ability to fight a full 15 and paced himself where as Foreman never had much experience outside of the earlier rounds. Foreman also would always have problems disecting Alis defense