{"id":335647,"date":"2025-12-10T00:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T00:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/335647\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T00:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T00:15:07","slug":"george-foreman-said-sparring-with-one-heavyweight-was-the-most-dangerous-thing-he-ever-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/335647\/","title":{"rendered":"George Foreman said sparring with one heavyweight was ‘the most dangerous thing he ever did’"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Foreman<\/a>\u2019s strength, size, power and sheer ability to intimidate with a stare created a combination few opponents could withstand.<\/p>\n

This, after all, is the man who sent \u201cSmokin\u2019\u201d Joe Frazier crashing to the canvas repeatedly during the \u201cSunshine Showdown\u201d in Jamaica more than 50 years ago \u2014 a brutal bludgeoning that crowned Foreman<\/a> the heavyweight champion of the world.<\/p>\n

Foreman\u2019s career famously unfolded in two acts across the 1970s, \u201980s and \u201990s. His biggest night also produced his greatest disaster when Muhammad Ali played possum during the \u201cRumble in the Jungle\u201d in 1974.<\/p>\n

Two decades later, however, Foreman delivered one of boxing\u2019s true Hollywood moments, flattening Michael Moorer with a single right hand to become the oldest man to win a heavyweight world title.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his career in The Ring\u2019s \u201cBest I\u2019ve Faced\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSparring 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody 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\u2019t get mine straight and every day he had me working on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were times when he could have knocked my head off but he didn\u2019t 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 \u2018Bad George\u2019 came from, hanging around with Sonny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali, unsurprisingly, featured heavily across the categories<\/a> Foreman discussed. \u201cThe Greatest\u201d possessed many exceptional qualities \u2014 among them a razor-sharp jab, as Foreman recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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\u2019d heard my defence would let me down. If he\u2019d boxed like he did with Muhammad I wouldn\u2019t have gotten him so easily. Kenny had the wrong tactics that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreman\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Foreman\u2019s strength, size, power and sheer ability to intimidate with a stare created a combination few opponents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-335647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}