George Foreman struck fear into the hearts of many opponents, but he wasn’t immune to it himself.
The big man from Marshall, Texas had an 84% knockout ratio across a career that touched four decades. Foreman remains the oldest heavyweight champion in history and boasts wins over the likes of Michael Moorer, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Joe Frazier, and Ken Norton.
Only five men can say they beat Foreman, including Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield – but he doesn’t regard either as his most menacing moment inside the ropes.
In a feature reviewing his career with The Ring Magazine, ‘Big’ George discussed the stellar and punishing jab of one Sonny Liston, calling sparring sessions with ‘The Big Bear’ more dangerous than any of his pro fights.
“Sparring with Liston is the most dangerous thing that I ever did in my entire life. As I said earlier, no matter what I tried against him, it was me who had to revert back to boxing. Nobody made me box like Sonny Liston did and that happened every time we worked together.
He taught me many things, including the importance of the jab. I just couldn’t get mine straight and every day he had me working on it.
There were times when he could have knocked my head off but he didn’t because we were pretty good friends. I saw the way he stared at people and I took on some of that behaviour to intimidate opponents. That was where some of that “Bad George” came from, hanging around with Sonny.”
Liston’s jab was a weapon like few others, and in his prime he was largely regarded as unbeatable by boxing fans despite a defeat when he was starting out. That came crashing down when, off the back of three first round knockout wins, he was bested by young Cassius Clay, later to be known as Muhammad Ali. Ali won the controversial rematch to keep the belts.
Firmly out of the title picture, Liston would fight on 16 more occasions, losing just once more in his penultimate fight against Leotis Martin, before he died in 1971.
