by George...
Feb. 10th, 2004 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
strangeanimal... George Foreman has done it again: he's the new spokesman for Casual Male, a big'n'tall clothing chain.
Foreman has to be the best example, all-time, of someone who went from the penthouse (world champ, one of the most feared boxers ever), to the outhouse (suicidal after losing to Ali), and back to the penthouse. The dude has made over $150 MILLION from George Foreman grills alone... he was smart enough to take very little money up front for endorsing them, taking a piece of the revenue instead. (and the grills kick ass, too... we have two.)
people just love the guy, he's got that teddy-bear thing going. which is really a change from his boxing days... if you've ever seen When We Were Kings, you see that Foreman was one tough, surly, son-of-a-bitch when he was champion. people were genuinely scared that he'd kill someone (even Ali) in the ring.
Ali will always be the man, but you've gotta love George Foreman.
... so Lennox Lewis finally retired. probably overdue... he'd beaten all the big names of the era, and there was nobody marketable left to throw at him, aside from a Klitschko rematch. (and Klitschko does not = $$ at the box office.)
I'm curious to see how Lewis will stack up in the heavyweight history books... he avenged his losses (Holyfield, Rahman), he beat Tyson (granted, not exactly prime Tyson), he beat Holyfield, he was undisputed champ for a while until the alphabet-soup commission responsibilities did him in. there's a lot to say that he should be up there with the all-timers, but you can just as easily argue against it... even I don't think he was *that* good.
To me, the top group is guys that defined or dominated their era... Ali, Marciano, Louis, maybe even Tyson. Lewis is at the top of the next group... boxers that just needed that one little nudge into true greatness. Lewis needed more of a killer instinct... you'd watch him box and be furious that he seemed to be holding back. Even against Tyson, he literally held Tyson up the last few rounds when he could have dropped him in two or three. I can see Lewis dominating the Fraziers and Nortons, but definitely not the true champs.
Foreman has to be the best example, all-time, of someone who went from the penthouse (world champ, one of the most feared boxers ever), to the outhouse (suicidal after losing to Ali), and back to the penthouse. The dude has made over $150 MILLION from George Foreman grills alone... he was smart enough to take very little money up front for endorsing them, taking a piece of the revenue instead. (and the grills kick ass, too... we have two.)
people just love the guy, he's got that teddy-bear thing going. which is really a change from his boxing days... if you've ever seen When We Were Kings, you see that Foreman was one tough, surly, son-of-a-bitch when he was champion. people were genuinely scared that he'd kill someone (even Ali) in the ring.
Ali will always be the man, but you've gotta love George Foreman.
... so Lennox Lewis finally retired. probably overdue... he'd beaten all the big names of the era, and there was nobody marketable left to throw at him, aside from a Klitschko rematch. (and Klitschko does not = $$ at the box office.)
I'm curious to see how Lewis will stack up in the heavyweight history books... he avenged his losses (Holyfield, Rahman), he beat Tyson (granted, not exactly prime Tyson), he beat Holyfield, he was undisputed champ for a while until the alphabet-soup commission responsibilities did him in. there's a lot to say that he should be up there with the all-timers, but you can just as easily argue against it... even I don't think he was *that* good.
To me, the top group is guys that defined or dominated their era... Ali, Marciano, Louis, maybe even Tyson. Lewis is at the top of the next group... boxers that just needed that one little nudge into true greatness. Lewis needed more of a killer instinct... you'd watch him box and be furious that he seemed to be holding back. Even against Tyson, he literally held Tyson up the last few rounds when he could have dropped him in two or three. I can see Lewis dominating the Fraziers and Nortons, but definitely not the true champs.
