Hall of Fame boxer George Foreman has long been one of the most outspoken proponents of Muhammad Ali, and he’s been just as revering of the late great’s legacy since his passing on Saturday [June 4], sharing his sentiments with followers on social media and making rounds on the news circuit to speak of what a blessing he was. One of his stops was on BBC’s Today show, where he for the most part championed his former foe as something more than a boxer, sharing the appreciation he gained for Muhammad the man-and-movement following their epic battle before Africans in Zaire in 1974.
“Little did I know that I’d be facing something even greater than a boxer,” Foreman told host Nick Robinson. “He could hear this ‘Ali, Ali…’ all the time. He knew if he would have fall as my other opponents had fell, that a lot of people would fall with him. He stood the test. He took everything I had and gave back worse”
“The Rumble in the Jungle” as the fight came to be known, would go down as one of professional sports’ most storied tales. Ali, who had already been well established as the best fighter of his time, had to some extent lost the faith he once enjoyed among American fight fans, as a younger, stronger class of fighters began to rise in the sport. Foreman was the cream of the crop, having defeated fellow up-and-comers Ken Norton and Joe Frazier by knockout to become the world heavyweight champion. Odds-makers had Ali, who was only a couple of years into his return from a three year exile and attempting to rebound from defeat to Frazier, as a heavy underdog to ‘Big George’. But in vintage Ali fashion he would upset his detractors, trolling Foreman with an inventive bluff that would come to be coined “rope-a-dope”, in which he leaned back protecting his head while George expended energy with a battering assault to the body as the rounds moved on. In the eight, just when the world audience thought Ali would break they learned the joke was on them, but not in as hard a fashion as Foreman did, having the tables turned as Ali came out of the woodwork with a sudden surge of blows that sent him to the canvas.
“I loved the man. I wanted to beat him and knock him out, but I loved the man,” George said, dispelling any notion that Ali’s notorious taunts might have made an enemy out of him, and reverting focus to the legend’s character. “Muhammad Ali was what I call beautiful. If you were from Switzerland he would be beautiful to you. If you were from Japan or China, he would be beautiful. That was a gift he had … he had something to say to make you feel good about yourself.”
“To rank him as Black or White would be really a crime. The man was too big for that,” Foreman said.
Source: youtube.com
