{"id":738041,"date":"2026-08-14T18:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/738041\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T18:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:54:08","slug":"ex-heavyweight-champion-who-vowed-to-beat-george-foremans-title-record-has-comeback-cancelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/738041\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex heavyweight champion who vowed to beat George Foreman&#8217;s title record has comeback cancelled"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/george-foreman\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George Foreman<\/a> became the oldest heavyweight champion in history and, at least for the time being, his phenomenal achievement is unlikely to be trumped.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Big George\u2019 was aged 45 when he dethroned Michael Moorer for the IBF and WBA belts in 1994, scoring a 10th-round finish after losing a unanimous decision to Tommy Morrison in his previous world title challenge.<\/p>\n<p>This came over seven years after the American ended a decade of inactivity, which followed <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2024\/10\/30\/sport\/rumble-in-the-jungle-50-years-on-spt-intl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">his iconic encounters with the likes of Muhammad Ali<\/a> and Joe Frazier.<\/p>\n<p>Back then, in the early 1970s, Foreman was considered a more formidable operator but nonetheless achieved his goal of becoming a two-time heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n<p>Another man to score the double, albeit without crafting the same Hall of Fame career, is Hasim Rahman, who pulled off an almighty upset when he dethroned Lennox Lewis with a fifth-round stoppage in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The Rock\u2019 then lost his belts via a fourth-round finish in their immediate rematch, only to reclaim his WBC title and defend it with a 2006 draw against James Toney.<\/p>\n<p>As for his ambition to become the oldest heavyweight champion since Foreman, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2087257752271782221\" rel=\"nofollow\">boxing journalist Dan Rafael has reported<\/a> that Rahman, 53, must first pump the brakes on his comeback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsolutely ZERO surprise but, per source, former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman\u2019s return from retirement for a 6-rounder on August 18 in Rochester, New York, has been cancelled, as has the entire card.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">News: Absolutely ZERO surprise but, per source, former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman&#8217;s return from retirement for a 6-rounder on Aug. 18 in Rochester, N.Y., has been canceled as has the entire card. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/boxing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#boxing<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DanRafael1\/status\/2087257752271782221?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite being inactive for over 12 years, Rahman was set to face 42-year-old heavyweight Robert Simms and had <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/man-who-beat-lewis-vows-to-get-belt-back\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">vowed to eventually break Foreman\u2019s record<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champion in history and, at least for the time being, his phenomenal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-738041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}