Watching AJ's meltdown in the Usyk fight got me thinking about George foreman

Even the old Foreman was surly?

 

They hint on that in the Sportscentury episode on George Foreman (at the 5 minute mark)

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Despite the smiling teddy bear image, he’s not someone you want to **** off.

Larry Merchant has said he’s a different person away from the cameras.

I think he’s a different and better person than he was in his youth, but not completely different, and still has that side of him.

 

I think thank yo for posting a question that is more than just who beats who, rare here ... that said, AJ really shocked me with the whole , revealing temper tantrum he suffered post Usyk rematch .. if you watch it in it's entirety you see a pretty messed up young guy .. Foreman was always a very bright guy but man was it hidden behind a lot of anger and violence .. he was a nasty bully .. I remember reading Jack Tatum's autobiography and somehow at some point he came across the young George Foreman growing up and he said in his whole life including the NFL after he never saw anyone so terrorizing in the punishment he put out ..

 

George created an image, but like anyone who is successful he has his detractors, so what? Heś mellowed with age but he still is the same guy and we can deny his success. MIke Tyson has mellowed too, most people do as they age at least a bit.

 

During HBO's World Championship Boxing heyday, Lampley and Merchant were big drinkers.

George Foreman didn't drink.

So Lampley and Merchant often shared rides back to the hotel they were staying at and they'd drink on the way. And they'd drink back at the hotel. Some boxing writers, like Wally Matthews and others covering the fights, often rode along and drank with them late into the night.

I think Lampley's marriage ended during that period.

Foreman took a separate car. He didn't hang with them outside of fight nights in the arena.

So he may have come off as surly being the one sober guy surrounded by a bunch of drunks

He worked a job with them. That's all.

I'm sure they all got on George's nerves.

 

That's how I see it. All human, all have our good and bad points.

 

All the commentators are blow hards- Foreman had every right to dislike the guys wasting air on worthless comments about his profession like they know anything.

 

George Foreman is just an honest dope by his own admission. He’s done a lot as a man and seems like a deeply thoughtful and kind guy- What’s not to like? his good deeds are written about everywhere.

I truly like Foreman he did a lot to be better then he was andmade others lives better- why should we care if he’s not a total push over? You can’t be nice all the time it’s draining.

We can’t ask anything of him it’s not our right and yet he has delivered plenty. George Foreman deserves be admired as an example of the benefits of positive thinking. He could write a best selling self help book like hot cakes.

 

AJ's only meltdown was the speech he gave after the second fight with Usyk ("I don't know what happened, but it wasn't nice"). AJ is a good champion, who will be remembered. The only thing is that he is not the best of the best.

 

I'd honestly say Foreman was more manufactured in his first career. He acted all tough and scary but he was actually a nice guy. Wepner thought the same.

"He was a lot 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."

 

I agree Swag. I think there was manufacture in part in the first career also - and George’s looking up to and modelling himself on Liston played no mean part. But Sonny was a way more legit mean guy.

In the 70s, George could be very much the angry young man (which is a phase that many pass through) in his own right but there are also a ton of clips showing George to be very light hearted, genuinely friendly and quite funny.

As HW Champion, his goofing with Ali in the ring prior to the Shavers vs Quarry fight, Dec 73, is classic.

I think maybe there’s more manufacture in his second career though - he’s too damn nice, lol.

So nice that you feel he’s not being straight about a number of things - but there’s no malicious intent or ill motive, in fact, he’s just trying to be nice about all things and all people - keeping it very positive, an admirable disposition.

I mean, I could be wrong and the George we have now is the Real McCoy but my guess is that the real Foreman, while a nice guy, perhaps isn’t as impossibly nice as he presents but still a really good and nice person all the same - and still well removed from the more mean, manufactured and projected persona of the 70s.

I remember in one of his comeback fights (can’t recall the opponent) but George displayed signs of the old anger- really going off, directed at the ref - but it was for the ref not stepping in to stop the fight and save the opponent from further harm - I always felt that was a great juxtaposition of the old George and the new, even more positively intended George.