George Foreman is regarded as one of the most powerful and intimidating heavyweight’s of all time – but the man himself admits he was scared facing one rival.
Foreman boasts an incredible record of 76 wins from 81 fights with 68 knockouts in a career spanning over four decades.
‘Big George’ famously fought the likes of Ron Lyle, Evander Holyfield, Ken Norton and of course Muhammad Ali.
But it was Smokin’ Joe Frazier that Foreman said was the only man he was scared to enter the ring against.
“I remember Joe Frazier – he was the toughest guy I ever seen. Smokin’ Joe Frazier. My mother watched him fight on television and he hit a guy so hard the guy turned around.
I kept thinking, ‘I want to be champion of the world but I sure hope Joe Frazier die.’
It was time to fight Joe Frazier, and I knew if you hit him he liked it and if you missed him he’d get upset, so I’m thinking ‘what am I gonna do’?
I used to stare guys down. I look them in the eyes to psyche them out and if they dropped their head I knew I had an advantage, but I was hoping Joe Frazier wouldn’t drop his head because my knees were shaking.”
Foreman caused a huge upset when he defeated Frazier in 1972 to win his first heavyweight titles. He knocked his man down six times in the first two rounds before the referee stepped in to stop the contest.
The two would meet again four years later with Foreman once again securing the knockout victory, this time in the sixth round.
