Today’s heavyweight boxing times are a lot different to the Muhammad Ali days in some ways and the many rivalries.
Don’t get us wrong, Usyk, Joshua, Fury are got competitors in today’s times. But Ali, Foreman, Norton, Frazier, Liston and more were in a league of their own.
George Foreman famously was a mean, narely fighter before finding God later in life.
Speaking on a podcast Foreman revealed he really wanted to kill Ali at the time:
“I hit him (Ali) so hard one time right about the neck and I heard him say, aghhh (gesturing as if he had a broken neck), and I’ve never forgotten that. He (Ali) was trying to win a boxing match. I was trying to kill that guy. And I wanted a second chance to get him. And that broke my heart years later once I found religion. I fell in love with him later on. We became phone talkers. What’s that advent where you can look at each other, you get the I Phone and can talk to one another, (facetime) – yeah.”
Later on that malice went away as per the above but wow, it gives you an idea into the mentality of Foreman in his younger days. Not to be messed with certainly.
Thinking Ali had a broken neck and then wanting to finish the job in a second fight, indeed a dark side of his earlier life and boxing career.
Foreman in today’s times is a more relaxed character.
In the ring however, back in the day, a true agent of lethality.
As for Ali, Ali’s name lives on today in the form of his grandson.
Nico Ali Walsh.
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