Sports
George Foreman said sparring with one heavyweight was ‘the most dangerous thing he ever did’
George Foreman’s strength, size, power and sheer ability to intimidate with a stare created a combination few opponents could withstand.
This, after all, is the man who sent “Smokin’” Joe Frazier crashing to the canvas repeatedly during the “Sunshine Showdown” in Jamaica more than 50 years ago — a brutal bludgeoning that crowned Foreman the heavyweight champion of the world.
Foreman’s career famously unfolded in two acts across the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. His biggest night also produced his greatest disaster when Muhammad Ali played possum during the “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974.
Two decades later, however, Foreman delivered one of boxing’s true Hollywood moments, flattening Michael Moorer with a single right hand to become the oldest man to win a heavyweight world title.
Reflecting on his career in The Ring’s “Best I’ve Faced” series, Foreman made a striking admission when naming the fighter with the best jab. His answer was split between two men: Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali.
“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.”
Ali, unsurprisingly, featured heavily across the categories Foreman discussed. “The Greatest” possessed many exceptional qualities — among them a razor-sharp jab, as Foreman recalled.
“He would just spin that jab into my face. Boy he had an educated left hand. [Ken] Norton had a good jab but he made the mistake of trading power punches because he’d heard my defence would let me down. If he’d boxed like he did with Muhammad I wouldn’t have gotten him so easily. Kenny had the wrong tactics that night.”
Foreman’s demolition of Frazier in Jamaica was followed by similar destruction in the lead-up to the Ali fight, including a two-round blowout of Ken Norton in Caracas, Venezuela, where Norton hit the deck three times.
