The world of boxing this week mourns the passing of two of its most well-known figures, one inside,
one outside the ropes.
GEORGE FOREMAN, by anyone’s standards, is one of the sport’s ‘greats’.
He first came to international prominence for those of us outside the USA when he won the Olympic
Gold Medal in the Heavyweight division in Mexico in 1968. We older types may remember that he
proudly waved the American flag on the podium, contrary to the actions of some of his USA
teammates, who bowed their heads and with a gloved hands, gave the ‘Black Power’ salute, a sign of
the times in that turbulent decade.
As a pro, and despite his 100% winning record, he was the underdog against World Champion, Joe
Frazier in his World Title challenge but shocked everybody with his completely dominant win,
flooring the Champion multiple times including once, actually off his feet.
In this first stage of his career he unfairly perhaps, will also be remembered for his loss to
Muhammed Ali in the epic ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in 1974.
However, he will very much be fondly remembered for his comeback after a lengthy period of
retirement when he won the World Title again at the advanced age of 45, making him the oldest
Heavyweight Champ in history.
Further, he re-invented himself from the scowling menace of his early career to the smiling, benign
figure who apparently made a $200,000,000 US fortune as the TV face of the best-selling ‘George
Foreman’s Lean, Mean Grilling Machine’.
A family man, a religious man and a patriotic man – more than just a boxing great, a great human
being.
COLIN HART, ‘Harty’ of ‘The Sun’, was one of Fleet Street’s finest who went on to become a
perceptive and insightful TV boxing pundit.
The Sun was and still is Britain’s most popular newspaper with at one time, a readership running into
the tens of millions, making it (and him) hugely influential.
Colin was a great writer and in the days before the advent of internet journalism, very often was a
spokesman for the press pack that in those days covered all the major fights in the UK and
internationally. His reputation extended beyond the UK and he was known and respected
throughout the boxing world. He was also a leading figure in the prestigious but now sadly-defunct
Boxing Writer’s Club of Great Britain.
In a hard-bitten profession he was also a very human man and I fondly remember his support for me
in my early days at a particularly low point in my career with the British Boxing Board of Control and
for that I have always been grateful.
He was a guest on my table at a Dinner in London celebrating the 70 th Anniversary of the
Commonwealth Boxing Council only last September, as always great company, and although I had
been made aware of the severity of his illness recently, his death has still come as a shock.
All in all, a very sad week for Boxing.
SIMON BLOCK
Director, Commonwealth Boxing Council
