At his peak, ‘Big’ George Foreman was the most formidable heavyweight in existence.
The heavy-hitter from Texas enjoyed a glittering professional career which spanned an incredible thirty years. He rose to fame during the early 1970’s before he captured the world heavyweight championship for the first time with a sensational second round knockout victory over Joe Frazier in 1973.
‘Big’ George suffered defeat for the first time in his career when he was beaten by Muhammad Ali in ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’ just 1-year after he defeated Frazier, falling victim to Ali’s infamous ‘rope-a-dope’ style in one of the most iconic moments in boxing history.
In a shock admission made on a video clip, Foreman sensationally outed the two fighters that he believed had ducked him during his career, claiming they were ‘afraid’ of him.
“I’m not fighting Mike Tyson, I’m not fighting Evander Holyfield, because they are afraid of me, let’s get that straight! They’re not gonna do it, they’re gonna fight each other. They’re small guys, they don’t wanna fight ‘Big’ George. I’ve gotten into the ring with guys and I’ve seen them turn their back and run, I mean literally turn their backs on me and run.”
Despite this revelation, Foreman and Holyfield did end up facing one another, albeit in the later stages of ‘Big’ George’s career with Holyfield defeating him via unanimous decision in 1991 to retain his undisputed heavyweight championship.
A showdown between Foreman and ‘Iron’ Mike never did come to fruition despite them being heavily linked with a fight in the early 1990’s. It has been reported that Tyson actually turned down a bout against Foreman, although it remains to be seen if this was the truth.
