A former long-reigning world heavyweight champion once blasted the credentials of George Foreman.
Foreman’s storied professional career began back in 1969, just a few months after he became an Olympic gold medallist at the 1968 Games in Mexico City.
He would go on to reign as champion on two separate occasions along the way, with the first of these triumphs coming in January 1973 when he emphatically stopped Joe Frazier in the second round of their clash in Jamaica.
Foreman’s second world title reign began 21 years after the first, when he dethroned the previously unbeaten Michael Moorer in November 1994 to capture the unified WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles and become the divisions oldest titleholder in boxing history, a record that remains unbroken to this day.
Despite the outstanding success that ‘Big George’ achieved, one man that isn’t quite as impressed as many of the sport’s fans and analysts is Larry Holmes, who reigned as the world champion for seven years between 1978 and 1985.
In a resurfaced interview, Holmes expressed his disbelief at Foreman being ranked at number 8 the top ten greatest fighters of all time by sportswriter Bert Sugar, claiming the win over Moorer to regain the belt again at age 45 was ‘lucky’.
“You know what I’m so happy to be here to hear this from Bert because I respect all fighters and I think I’m a pretty good analyst myself when it comes down to fighting. How can he have George Foreman rated number eight? George Foreman couldn’t beat Jimmy Young, he couldn’t beat Tommy Morrison and he couldn’t beat Shannon Briggs.
“He knocked Michael Moorer out and, I’m gonna say this, a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then, and that’s what George Foreman found, an acorn because all night long he was eating right hands.
“His face was swelled up taking punches all day long, he was getting beat up now let’s face the facts, he was getting beat up and he didn’t short his punches up like Bert said he did, he was throwing looping long right hands. He got lucky, I wouldn’t rate him number eight.”
A clash between Foreman and Holmes never did end up coming to fruition, much to the disappointment of boxing fans around the world, although it was reported that the legendary American duo were in negotiations to face each other during the mid 1990s.