George Foreman once revealed the four heavyweights that he believed were even greater than former rival Muhammad Ali.
‘Big George’ and Ali locked horns in one of the most memorable heavyweight encounters of all time back in October of 1974, perhaps more commonly known to fans and analysts around the world as ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’.
Foreman had gone into the iconic showdown with Ali as a heavy favourite with the bookmakers, which was based around the thunderous punching power of the two-time world heavyweight champion who had stopped 37 of the 40 opponents he had faced up until that point.
Despite this, Ali was able to weather the early storm from Foreman to eventually stop his fellow countryman in spectacular fashion during the eighth round of their clash in Kinshasa, Zaire to capture the undisputed heavyweight championship for the second time.
In a feature with The Sun, Foreman listed his ten greatest heavyweights of all time, naming four fighters ahead of his former rival who he places at number five in the list.
“Joe Louis is greatest of all time heavyweight as far as a boxer is concerned. My number two heavyweight to leave boxing undefeated Rocky Marciano. Number three is John L Sullivan. Four is Jack Johnson. Number five Muhammad Ali.”
Louis, known as ‘The Brown Bomber’, had the bulk of his success throughout the 1940s where he made no less than 25 consecutive defences of his world heavyweight titles, a record that remains unbroken to this very day.
Marciano’s reign as world heavyweight champion came a little while after Louis’, making six successful defences of his crown before he retired with an unbeaten record of 49-0 to his name at 32-years-old in 1956.
Sullivan is known to have been boxing’s very first gloved world heavyweight champion, a reign which spanned between 1882 and 1892 where he suffered just one defeat in the 51st and final bout of his career.
Johnson is commended for the influence that he had on the sport during the early 1900s, where he became the first black world heavyweight champion of all time, despite the racial prejudice that he had to deal with during his career.
