George Foreman was a lot of things to a lot of people at different moments in his life.
He went from being a thug in the streets of Fifth Ward to Olympic boxing champion, to Heavyweight Champion of the World to a caring and giving figure who still had a mean streak, to the victim of “the Greatest of All-Time,” to becoming a street preacher. Miraculously, Foreman did a reset at 39 years old, but this time as a jovial and likable figure who was even more giving and defied the odds and logic by again becoming the Heavyweight Champion of the World at 45.
Houston sports radio legend Ralph Cooper had a front-row seat for much of Foreman’s evolution to becoming one of the heavyweight greats.
“What I learned about George is he was a very giving person,” said Cooper, who Foreman hired as his public relations guy back in the 1970s. “He wasn’t perfect now. He made mistakes. But he was a very giving person not only to family and friends but to others that he didn’t even know. And he did that consistently over the years.”
Foreman–all 6-foot-4 and 300-plus pounds of him—was indeed larger than life. He was that to those closest to him and those who knew him probably better as the ultimate pitchman or the smiling baldhead guy whose name is attached to your favorite kitchen appliance. The iconic Foreman died on March 21. He was 76.
“We will miss George, but I will celebrate his life and his spirit lives on,” legendary boxing promoter Don King said to the Defender. “He has gone to the house in heaven now and has left the motor house here on earth. I told George to keep a light in the window because I will be there. Hang in there Big Buddy.”
Two Georges
Foreman will forever be remembered for his big personality and friendly spirit. But he will also be remembered as a menacing figure, who struck fear in his opponents before he entered the ring.
One of the hardest punchers the fight game has ever seen, Foreman had many fights and knocked out many opponents (68). But four moments in the ring will forever define his career.
We will never forget him waving the miniature American flag in the ring after winning the Mexico Olympics in 1968, or brutal pummeling of Joe Frazier in two rounds to win the Heavyweight Championship in 1973, the spectacle known as the “Rumble in the Jungle” when an undefeated 25-year-old Foreman was stunned by an older Muhammad Ali with an eighth-round knockout and then finally the punch that floored Michael Moorer and made Foreman a champion again at 45.
Cooper was there with Foreman in Zaire for the fight against Ali. What was supposed to be a short trip to Africa for the bout turned into an eight or nine-week stay after the fight was delayed because Foreman suffered an injury while sparring.
It was an iconic moment in boxing because of the two fighters involved, the fact that King, a boisterous Black man, was promoting the fight and he had gotten Zaire dictator Mobutu Sese Keko to put up the money for a fight that grossed an estimated $100 million in worldwide revenue.
“We will miss George, but I will celebrate his life and his spirit lives on. He has gone to the house in heaven now and has left the motor house here on earth. I told George to keep a light in the window because I will be there. Hang in there Big Buddy.”
Don King, Boxing promoter
“What he and Ali did and Don King did in Africa, most people will never understand it because they were not there,” Cooper said. “But it was a spiritual enlightening that I owe him forever because he gave me a job and he allowed me to experience that whole thing and I got paid and I became a prince while was there.”
A lost George
But for Foreman, it was a difficult awakening because suddenly, the undefeated 25-year-old was no longer the toughest and most feared man in boxing. Ali had taken that from him.
“That messed with him. He believed the press clippings,” Cooper recalled. “He had never been knocked down and never had been counted out. George being champion in his mid-20s and all of sudden you had that snatched away from you. So he took it hard.
“It bothered him when he lost his championship. He became, in my opinion, more moody and at times mean. That didn’t change until Puerto Rico.”
Spiritual awakening
It was in Puerto Rico that Foreman experienced his spiritual awakening, and the First Act of his boxing career ended. After winning five straight fights after losing to Ali, Foreman was stunned by a loss to journeyman Jimmy Young in 1977.
Foreman returned home before long and became a street preacher and pastor to a small congregation.
Foreman was a forgotten man in the ring for the next decade until he devised a plan to stage a boxing comeback in the name of the Lord and the plan to raise money for his church. This Foreman, however, was different. No longer the chiseled 220-pounder, he was bald and pudgy around the midsection.
“I knew he wasn’t in good shape because we are close to the family and my wife had talked to Joan on numerous occasions and George Jr. was sort of keeping me posted. We had hopes of his recovery but we knew he was in bad physical shape.”
– Bob Arum, Boxing Promoter
Foreman contacted well-respected Bob Arum to be his promoter and Arum declined. He didn’t really know Foreman during his first stint as a fighter, but what he did know he wasn’t impressed.
After initially rejecting Foreman, Arum agreed to meet with the aging boxer in Las Vegas and was blown away by what he saw and heard.
“My first impression was, `This is the greatest con man I’ve met,’ because he was a completely different person,” Arum said to the Defender. “Soft-spoken, sensible, really nice.”
Champion – again
Arum agreed to work with Foreman, setting him up with a few easy fights before putting him in the ring with heavyweight champions Evander Holyfield and then Michael Moorer. Foreman was older and definitely lacked the reflexes of his younger self, but he still could take a punch and deliver one, too.
Foreman and Holyfield went the distance, landing hard blows on each other, but the younger Holyfield won that decision. But in the bout with Moorer, one of the best knockout artists in the fight game, Foreman landed the blow he needed, sending Moorer to the canvas and making him a 45-year-old Heavyweight Champion.
“He got a little too close and got clipped and George became the Heavyweight Champion,” Cooper said. “And that changed everything.”
The legacy Foreman leaves behind
Foreman had a few more fights before giving up his gloves to work as a boxing analyst. He is the ultimate pitchman and the most loveable man in sports.
“I loved George Foreman. George Foreman was a great guy. He demonstrated what the poor and downtrodden, underprivileged and denied could do if they had the confidence in themselves,” King said. “He set that example for his generation and the generation that followed. He was a fabulous guy and I celebrate his life because he became the champion of the world and he did it in a manner with his self-confidence and physical prowess. He was Iron man, is what they called him.
“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, but George was a good example.”
Arum says he will miss Foreman, who later became a close friend.
“This is my small way to see that George is remembered for the person that he became and was because he was truly a remarkable, remarkable person and his whole story is almost of Biblical proportions,” Arum said.
Cooper, who saw Foreman from all angles, believes he leaves a legacy by turning a bad situation into a good one and seizing his opportunity.
“Because he had changed religiously and he was older, he had more respect for what he had accomplished and who he had become again,” Cooper said. “He became more of a philanthropist and he became more of a person who cared more about other people. He was signing autographs, kissing babies and taking pictures and all that kind of stuff. He rarely did that when he was younger, but the second time around all of that changed.”
