Why was George Foreman disliked by fans in his Prime?

Different era. Look at Tyson. When he stopped being the polite sportsman Cus made him into, and became the thug who said crazy ****, he was only even more popular.

A young George in the 80's would have been a fan favorite with his active, offensive style and huge KOs, and people would have idolized and whole brooding Sonny Liston act.

 

You can't really compare to Foreman to Tyson so much because Tyson had more natural charisma than Foreman. They sold Tyson as the rags to riches story early. Plus he was considered a smaller heavyweight despite being so explosive. So you had the slight touch of the underdog flavor. It wasn't until after Tyson getting into trouble, that he became vilified.

With George, it seemed like the old idea, you can't root for Goliath. You factor in being an Ali adversary, well you're as good as done as far as being heavily liked. Old man Gergore on the other hand looked like a teddy bear and he became the underdog being an old man trying to recapture glory. Think he was also a born again Christian and a pastor. So it's all about how you sell a guy based on what you have to work with.

 

You have a good point about the time period. Tyson blew up in mid and late 80's. Hip-hop was beginning to gain traction. Tyson was basically the first fighter to come out to a rap song. So he was embraced by the black community instantly.

 

Well as a teenager at time of Foremans first reign as a world champion, with a simpler more raw view of what i wanted from the king of the heavyweights, Mr George Foreman fitted the bill just fine, a apparently surly intimidating beast who pulverised all before him, destroying Norton and even caused Frazier to levitate with a punch.

So i sure did not dislike him, he was less talk and more explosive devastating action, just as i liked it.

 

Well, that's why the only bigger personality in boxing than Tyson was Ali himself. That said, you'd think exciting fighting would be enough. I mean, worked for Holyfield. He had a big fanbase and generated huge PPV buys, with not much personality to speak of.

It's odd for me to think that a young George wasn't more popular than he was. He's exciting as hell to watch. He's a real fast starter, super aggressive, starts swinging for the fences immediately.

 

You'd be right if you're strictly talking about boxing. But to maximize your popularity, you have to attract casuals fans or everyday people in general. Casuals are typically drawn to personalities. Tyson and Ali were almost like movie characters. They stood out. They were more than fighters, they were pop icons. As recognizable and likeable as Holyfield is, he's still nowhere near Tyson's popularity with casuals. Foreman in his second run however entered that range. Selling those grills helped alot with that as well.

 

You know as entertaining and as charismatic as Tyson was, Forman vs. Lyle alone was better than any Tyson fight and you didn't have to shell out 50 bucks to see it.

 

Keeping on the heavy bag theme, Norman Mailer tells a great anecdote about this fight and the heavy bag, accordingly both fighters trained at the same Gym, Foreman had the morning shift, and Ali the afternoon, Mailer is on record as saying no one but no one, hit the heavy bag like Foreman, and he had seen them all Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, so the story goes like this, Mailer would accompany the Ali entourage into the gym, minutes after Foreman had left, Mailer wrote " you couldn't help but notice that the heavy bag was almost cut in half due to the weight of Georges punches, and George had a custom made bag that was even heavier than the normal, god knows what Ali was thinking as he passed that bag, but it scared the hell out of everyone else " wow !!! stay safe guys.

 

ETM, Foreman was immensely popular for the flag waving thing, only pissing off the Black Power advocate and leftist radicals, but screw them anyway. The reason GF was unpopular was because he was big, imposing looking, and surly as hell, amazingly enough, he wasn't a good talker, was VERY sparing and economical with his words, intimidating, like he was to that poor British reporter whom he scared the **** out of whn he feigned anger with that reporter. It's truly amazing how Foreman has reinvented himself, from that Frankenstein's monster guy in 1973 to that warm, lovable, articulate tv commercial personality that he is today.

 

Oh but beware Silver, for the ever vigilant Historical Revisionist Committee in this forum is working overtime to run down, discredit and low rate Foreman-Lyle...using their favorite phrase (by far here)..namely "overrated"...

 

Great story….I also heard/read that Ali’s team made sure Ali didn’t see Foreman actually punching the heavy bag in real time…but as you described, the heavy bag, caved in on both sides by Foreman’s right and left hooks was still there to be seen.

Ali had some serious stones and incredible self belief. Foreman was an absolute killer.

 

Well, he sure hid it pretty dammed good, because I was around back then at the time, and Foreman had a real personna going on...and seemed to me like a real brute.

 

Think this is it.

 

My wife had no idea who Foreman actually was, as she only really every followed middle and down. Just thought he was some grill salesman. I made her watch Frazier-Foreman I. She got it then.

 

Overrated? It's probably the best HW slugfest ever. Two dangerous, equally matched, murderous punchers going life and death.