The late-great George Foreman once ranked Muhammad Ali as the fifth best heavyweight in boxing history.
‘Big George’ shared the ring with Ali on just one occasion during his professional career, but their iconic showdown has lived long in the memory of boxing fans around the world.
Known more commonly as ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’, Foreman and Ali faced off for the world heavyweight championship in Kinshasa back in October of 1974.
Whilst Foreman had been a heavy favourite going into the bout, Ali put on one of the best displays of his entire career as he stopped Foreman in the eighth round to capture the heavyweight championship for the second time.
Despite their bitter rivalry, Foreman and ‘The Greatest’ later became friends and would stay close to each other up until Ali’s tragic death in June of 2016.
In an interview with The Sun, Foreman ranked Ali as the fifth greatest heavyweight ever in his opinion, giving the top spot to none other than ‘The Brown Bomber’ Joe Louis.
“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 Sulivan. Four is Jack Johnson. Number five Muhammad Ali.”
Louis established himself as one of the most influential fighters of his era which he coupled with becoming the longest reigning world champion of all time. ‘The Brown Bomber’ made no less than 25 successful defences of his world heavyweight championship over a 12-year period, a record for all weight divisions that remains unbroken to this very day.
