George Foreman sadly passed away this past Friday at the age of 76. He was not just a two-time heavyweight world champion, but also an icon of the 20th century. In the boxing world, Foreman was best known for his fight with Muhammad Ali in 1974 in Zaire billed as the iconic “Rumble in the Jungle,” however he was much more than just a boxer.
From the controversy he courted by waving a miniature American flag after winning Olympic gold in 1968, to the dread he inspired as “Big George” — the fearsome punching machine who needed less than six minutes to knock out Joe Frazier in 1973 — to the transformation he underwent when he returned to the sport after a decade hiatus in 1987, Foreman was treasured by the American public.
Teddy Atlas, the legendary trainer and commentator, joined Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show” on Monday to pay tribute to Foreman and reflect on his storied journey in boxing.
“The man was a special, special man,” an emotional Atlas told Uncrowned. “It’s almost short to say that it was boxing’s loss. I hear people saying ‘boxing’s loss’ — it was our loss, and I mean our as people. When you lose somebody special like that, somebody that makes other people better, then we’ve all lost something. We’re all a little bit less today because of the loss of George Foreman. And you don’t usually hear that about too many people, period, in the limelight, but especially about athletes.”
Foreman initially left boxing in 1977 after a loss to Jimmy Young, which had reminded him in many ways of his fight with Ali three years prior. In the changing room after the bout, Foreman underwent a near-death experience — he was suffering from heatstroke and exhaustion and pleaded with God to help him, despite not being an ardent believer at that point in his life.
Foreman said years later that he died in that changing room but God brought him back to life as a new man. Following the experience, Foreman left boxing for a decade to dedicate himself to God and even became a minister.
“You know what? He also put a definition, an explanation of what reincarnation might look like,” Atlas said of Foreman. “Because you know some people believe in reincarnation. They think you freaking die in this place and then you might come back. But he left this place, and he came back.
“He was gone for 10 years and he came back reincarnated — a different person.”
“I remember everyone saying, ‘Oh, he’s showing he’s savvy. Now he’s changed, he’s not this mean guy that walks around with German shepherds and everything. Now he’s recreated himself and making believe he’s a nice guy.’ I remember I said to somebody who said that, I said, ‘No he’s not, he’s finally being allowed to be who he is,'” Atlas continued.
“And they were like, ‘Teddy, what do you mean?’ I said, ‘That’s who George is. He wasn’t allowed to be that in his first life with the people around him. He had to be Darth Vader, he had to be the boogeyman, he had to be that. It worked — it got him the heavyweight title and everything else. But he was finally allowed to be what George really was, and that was George — he loved people.'”
After a decade outside of the sport, Foreman unexpectedly returned to boxing at the age of 38 in 1987. Few believed he could reclaim the heavyweight championship upon his return, but Foreman never lost the faith he had in himself and his abilities.
“[Foreman was a] businessman, champion, personality — all of those things,” Atlas said. “But he was also one other thing: He was a teacher. He taught us really that if you believed in something enough, strong enough, and you were willful enough to follow that belief, to have that dream, nothing was beyond us. Nothing. Not even age.
“He taught us that age can be a number. You hear the cliché, you hear it all the time, but sometimes somebody comes around who’s pretty special, and they put truth to the cliché, to the phrase that you’ve heard for eternity.
“He taught people that you never give up on your dreams. Not because of age, not because of losses, not because of anything. If you have a dream, you pursue it, and you eventually will get to it.
“He was [also] a great salesman,” Atlas continued. “You know why he was a great salesman? We believed him, we trusted him. He was our George, he really was. I’m saying this obviously in a loving way, but he was our grandpa, later on. He was the guy who could sell mufflers, obviously the grills and all that stuff, but we trusted him.”
Atlas was the head trainer of Michael Moorer, the then WBA and IBF heavyweight champion who Foreman defeated in 1994 to become the oldest heavyweight titleholder of all time at the age of 45.
“It was a historic moment. It spoke of his greatness that he was able to do such a feat at 45 years of age and after losing 10 rounds,” Atlas said. “It was in the 10th round, but he had lost every moment of every round and took a lot of punishment, but he did what ‘Big’ George did — he persevered, he found a way.”
In the ultimate full circle moment, when Foreman challenged Moorer to become a two-time heavyweight champion, he wore the same trunks that he wore when he lost the title to Ali 20 years prior.
“It [scared] the crap out of me. It was like seeing Freddy Krueger on Halloween,” Atlas admitted.
“When he came out of the tunnel and he was wearing those trunks — of course I didn’t show it to my fighter, [but] my heart dropped, my gut dropped. [I thought,] ‘We’re in for a night, because he knows exactly what he had to do.’ That’s what I meant about his greatness — he was willing to face [the stain of the Ali loss] that night, he was willing to face the ghost to eliminate the ghost.
“George really wanted the truth, and he put himself to the test. He said, ‘The difference tonight, no matter what happens, just like Zaire, no matter how many rounds I lose — and he lost into the 10th round [against Ali] — no matter how many rounds I lose, it’s my choice, and it will be my choice.’ And he chose to be heavyweight champ of the world.”
