I interviewed George Foreman three times. This was the most surprising thing about him

George Foreman, one of the most colourful characters in world sport for the past 50 years, died last week. I interviewed him three times, once in person, and found him a compelling character.

True, all those interviews were conducted well before I was fully cognisant of the horrors of CTE – the madness of a sport where the aim of the game is to inflict a brain injury on your opponent so severe that he sinks into unconsciousness – but therein lay one of the most surprising things about Foreman.

While so many of his generation, led by Muhammad Ali, turned into shambling wrecks almost certainly due to the brain damage they suffered in their boxing careers, Foreman for the most part seemed to escape a similar fate.

Though he has been well off the radar in the last few years, he remained lucid – at least while he continued to appear in public. Whereas Ali was the exemplar, Foreman stood out as the exception to the rule of what happens when you get hit in the head too often.

Their names would forever be linked by the famed “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire, which played out at 4am one hot and humid African morning in November, 1974.

One more time for the road. It featured the masterful but ageing Ali against the young bull Foreman – simply the hardest hitter the world had seen since Babe Ruth. The whole shebang was beamed back to the USA live in prime time.

Foreman managed to avoid the fate of former rival Muhammad Ali, remaining sharp and lucid into old age.Credit: FilmMagic

“You heard about me for years, sucker ... ” Ali says to Foreman, eyeball to eyeball moments before the bell “… all your life you been hearing about Muhammad Ali. Now, chump, you gotta face me!”

Foreman has come to the fight armed with his “Anything Punch” – so-called, he told me, “Because anything I hits, I breaks.”

But from the second round, Ali employs the previously unseen “rope-a-dope” strategy. By covering his head with his arms together and vertical, while leaning way back on the ropes, he is able to not only absorb the blows, but also to regularly peer out from behind his guard to taunt Foreman: “Is that the best you can do, sucker? Is that all you got, chump? You ain’t got no punch. You in big trouble, boy!” The frenzied Foreman empties many of his best shots uselessly into Ali’s elbows and forearms.

George Foreman pounds Muhammad Ali with body shots in the “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974.Credit: AP

Still, at the end of the fourth, Foreman really does rock Ali with a crowbar blow, and for the first time replies to Ali, “How’s that?”

“Didn’t hurt a bit!” replies the shaken Ali, who later pokes his tongue out at Foreman to show he is still in command.

The war continues. Foreman crashing on the door to get into Ali’s skull – Ali pressing his whole body into the service of keeping it shut.

Then, just before the bell to start the eighth round, to Foreman’s exhausted amazement, Ali stands on his stool in the corner and, using his hand as a baton, leads the delirious African crowd in a chant of “Ali, bomaye! Ali, bomaye!” (Ali, kill him dead!).

Foreman looks up, and groans. Where is this man getting the energy from?

Ali drops Foreman at the end of the eighth round to win back the heavyweight championship of the world.Credit: AP

Ding-ding.

At the beginning of the eighth, Ali comes out, and after the first few exhausted punches from Foreman, leans in close and says, “Is that all you got, George? Is THAT all you got? You done now?”

“And what did you reply?” I asked Foreman, entranced, in an interview for Fox Sports in the late 1990s.

“I replied: ‘Yup, Muhammad, that’s pretty much it’.”

And so it is. Ali unleashes. After a flurry of blows to Foreman’s noggin, finally the denouement, as so evocatively described by the great American writer, Norman Mailer, in his book, The Fight. Tell ’em what happened then, Norm...

“Then a big projectile, exactly the size of a fist in a glove, drove into the middle of Foreman’s mind, the best punch of the startled night, the blow Ali had saved for a career ... Foreman went over like a six foot, 60-year-old butler who has just heard tragic news.”

Amid the wild seconds of euphoria after the bout, Ali briefly falls into a dead faint, before awaking to proclaim that he is, in fact, “The Greatest”. Few were arguing.

Most charming was Foreman’s love of Ali after the fight, his recognition that the man from Louisville really was The Greatest.

“Ali whupped me and he whupped me good ...” Foreman told me by telephone from Houston back in 1990, “but I love that man. He is one of my best friends.”

As I say, for all the wonder of the fight, often regarded as the sporting bout of the century, Foreman was used ever afterwards as proof that boxing was not damaging, that you could take the kind of punishment he took, and still be OK. Why wasn’t he punch-drunk?

I have responded many times, but here it is.

The answer is that it is for the same reason your Uncle Bob hasn’t got lung cancer – yet – despite smoking two packets of cigarettes a day for 40 years. There are plenty of people like that. But no one serious denies that tobacco causes cancer. And equally, no one seriously denies that constantly rattling your brain against the side of your skull heightens the likelihood said brain will be badly damaged because of it.

I was entranced by the Rumble in the Jungle and, as you can see, still am, more than 50 years on. As an historical sports story, it is still as good as it gets. I just do not want to see any more attempts at contemporary equivalents.

Vale, still, the two of them.

Where’s your Anzac spirit, Kiwis?

Back in the day, pretty much everything stopped for Anzac Day, bar services and marches in the morning, and two-up and drinking in the afternoon. These days, sport has become a part of it, which is why Rugby Australia approached their Kiwi counterparts to have an annual Bledisloe Cup match on 25 April, slotted into the middle of the Super Rugby season. After initial enthusiasm, as Iain Payten revealed this week, the Kiwis have pulled back and said, with that strange vowel usage that marks their wonderfully flattened language: “No.”

This, my Kiwi friends, is a mistake. Have another look at it. Such a match would give early Super Rugby added oomph, as each match would serve as a selection trial, and it would all build to a great annual occasion – perfect for a day when Kiwis and Australians fighting side by side is so strongly commemorated. I repeat, the NZRU should look at this again.

What They Said

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli on the Olympic rowing to be held on the Fitzroy River, which is known to host saltwater crocodiles: “If it’s good enough for central Queensland kids, I reckon it’s good enough for Pierre from Paris.” EXACTLY! If we can dodge their turds on the Seine, they can bloody well dodge our crocs on the Fitzroy!

Brisbane Olympic chief Andrew Liveris on it: “There are sharks in the ocean and we still do surfing ... this is can do, not can’t do, please flip the mindset here. There’s sharks in the ocean right? And we still do sailing and surfing, like in Tahiti.”

Then Queensland opposition leader Crisafulli in last year’s state election campaign, on how he would organise the Olympics if he became Premier Crisafulli: “I do not believe the city needs a new stadium, I don’t.”

Queensland premier Crisafulli on Monday: ”In the end, the choice was clear: The games must be held at a new stadium at Victoria Park.”

Socceroos coach Tony Popovic on their World Cup qualification hopes: “It’s in our hands but we have to get the job done.”

Legendary NFL football player and now Colorado coach, Deion Sanders: ”I try my best to keep it on the high road, but I don’t know the address.”

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch, after Joe Ingles started his first NBA game in around three years so that the Australian’s son Jacob, who has autism, could see it: “It’s emotional. Sometimes, you have to do the human thing. And you always talk about all these minutes matter. Those minutes matter for another reason.”

Ingles: “People just need to understand this is a real thing. It doesn’t go away with money. It doesn’t go away with situations we’re in. All we can do is talk about it. And then obviously for us, give Jacob the best chance to fit in in this crazy world that we’re in.”

Mike Tyson on George Foreman: “Condolences to George Foreman’s family. His contribution to boxing and beyond will never be forgotten.”

Cristiano Ronaldo says he has “no problem” with Denmark striker Rasmus Hojlund copying his “siu” celebration after scoring the winner against Portugal: “For me, it’s an honour. But I hope that tomorrow you can see my celebration, not [that] I still see his celebration.”

George Foreman on nostalgia: ”I was out of boxing for 10 years, and the only picture that I saved was Muhammad Ali knocking me down. There I was going down from that punch, I kept that and looked at it all the time, mainly because I realised what a big moment it was for sports and for boxing, and it kept me humbled. I never forgot that, and it’s made me a far better person than if it had been me knocking him down.”

Australian Oscar Piastri on winning the Chinese Grand Prix: “It’s been an incredible weekend from start to finish, the car has been pretty mega the whole time. I think today was a bit of a surprise with how the tyres behaved but I’m super proud and what I feel like I deserve from last week. I’m extremely happy and the team did a mega job, a one-two obviously, I’m very happy.“ China has a Formula One Grand Prix? Why wasn’t I told?

NBA star Jimmy Butler on coming up against his old team: “Yeah, I was traded from there, yada, yada, yada. Yeah, it didn’t end the way that people wanted to, yada yada yada.” Listen, Jimmy. Some of us make a living out of writing yada, yada, yada. Do you bloody well mind if we get on with it?

Tiger Woods going on to social media to ask for privacy as he’s dating Vanessa Trump: “Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side! We look forward to our journey through life together. At this time we would appreciate privacy for all those close to our hearts.”

New IOC president Kirsty Coventry: “I have been dealing with, let’s say, difficult men in high positions since I was 20 years old.”

Team of the Week

Josh Giddey. Pulled off the longest three-pointer in Chicago Bulls history, with nothing left on the clock, to beat the LA Lakers.

The Socceroos. Defeated China to put them in a good position to qualify for the World Cup.

Daly Cherry-Evans. Needed a story of this magnitude to push Reggie the Rabbit out of the headlines.

Illawarra Hawks. Won the NBL title for the second time.

Nicola Olyslagers. The Australian leaper claimed a second-straight women’s high jump gold medal world indoor championships in Nanjing, edging out fellow Australian Eleanor Patterson

Waratahs. Beat the Brumbies, proving that NO-ONE beats the Waratahs fourteen times in a row.

Koalas. Yet more are now under threat because of the Queensland Government’s commitment to build a white-water rafting centre at Redlands.

RIP. George Foreman. 1949-2025. One of boxing’s great characters, passed away last weekend, aged 78.