adminLOS ANGELES. — George Foreman has paid tribute to old rival Muhammad Ali, saying he “is bigger than boxing” and the toughest man he ever fought.
The three-time world heavyweight champion, who suffered with Parkinson’s disease for 32 years, died aged 74 in Phoenix, Arizona after being admitted to hospital on Monday night with a respiratory condition.
Ali and Foreman met in one of the sport’s most iconic bouts — the Rumble in the Jungle on October 30, 1974 in Zaire, where 32-year-old Ali reclaimed the world heavyweight title after seven years of waiting.
Foreman had dismantled both Joe Frazier and Ken Norton before his meeting with Ali and was heavy favourite going into the fight, unleashing an onslaught in the early rounds as the challenger retreated to the ropes.
However, Ali sensed his opponent had punched himself out and delivered a stunning knockout in the eighth round to regain the crown he had not held since being banned from boxing in 1967 for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.
The two became friends in the aftermath of the bout and Foreman said his old rival was in a class of his own. And Foreman no longer wonders why a devastating defeat at the hands of Ali in the fabled Rumble in the Jungle of 1974 proved the catalyst for an enduring friendship.
“Everybody falls in love with him, you can’t help it,” Foreman told CNN a day after the three-time heavyweight world champion Ali died in Arizona after battling Parkinson’s disease for decades.
Foreman and Ali are forever linked by that clash in Kinshasa, where Ali knocked out the previously unbeaten Foreman in the eighth round to regain the crown he hadn’t held since being banned from boxing in 1967 for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. Amid the tributes pouring in for Ali’s principled stand, Foreman noted that 40 years ago, Ali’s stance had made him a pariah.
“Everybody turned on him,” Foreman said. “I was doing an interview in Miami, Florida. He came into the gym and they turned the cameras off.”
The Supreme Court’s reversal of Ali’s draft evasion conviction gave him a second chance “and he was the greatest show in the world,” Foreman said.
And Foreman was a key player in the drama.
“I got hit and knocked out, so I can hardly remember anything,” Foreman said, although he did recall that he went into the bout blithely confident of victory.
“I had beaten Joe Frazier pretty easily, Ken Norton, all the people who had beaten Muhammad Ali, so I thought this would be the easiest $5 million I was going to pick up,” Foreman said.
After pummelling Ali for three rounds, Foreman said, he was sure he was on his way to a knockout.
“I hit him hard in the third round and he looked at me as if to say ‘I’m not going to take this!’” Foreman said.
Once Ali got through the round, Foreman added “I knew I was in trouble then and the water had just gotten deep.”
By the sixth round, Foreman said, Ali was taunting him. “He started whispering ‘Is that all you got, George?’ and believe me, it was scary because that was all I had.
“He hit me with a quick one-two, knocked me down to the canvas and my whole life changed. I was devastated,” Foreman said. “Little did I know I would make the best friend I ever had in my life.”
“No better word to describe Muhammad Ali — the greatest,” Foreman told Fox News.
“You got into the ring with him and you expected to beat up a guy, beat up a fighter of which I’d beaten everybody, but this time I had gotten into the ring with this phenomenon and there was no way he was going to lose.
“And that’s the way he felt about life, no way he was going to lose. He was the greatest. I had never been into the ring with anyone tougher in my life.
“To say he was the best fighter would be a put-down to Muhammad Ali — he is bigger than boxing. For us to talk about him as a boxer is a put-down. The man was something special.
“In Africa, Japan, Europe, everywhere, the name was ‘Ali! Ali!’ and I got so tired of that but they loved him. The whole world loved this man but it wasn’t about boxing, they didn’t care if he won or lost, they loved him.” — SkySports.
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